The Long Read: Why Warnings About the Digital Age Were Ignored

In an adapted excerpt from Jill Lepore's book 'The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State' (Allen Lane, 25 August), the author traces the history of warnings about the dangers of technology and the rise of what she calls the 'artificial state'—the replacement of liberal democracy with rule by machines. Between the 1950s and 1980s, as computers became smaller and more powerful, thinkers like Yoneji Masuda predicted either a 'computopia' or an 'automated state'. In 1958, Edward L. Greenfield and Ithiel de Sola Pool proposed the 'People Machine', leading to the founding of the Simulmatics Corporation, which simulated elections for the Democratic National Committee and John F. Kennedy's campaign. Despite early success, Simulmatics went bankrupt in 1970 due to insufficient data. The article highlights other key figures: JCR Licklider, who envisioned the internet and warned of 'clandestine artificial intelligence programs'; Joseph Weizenbaum, creator of the chatbot Eliza, who criticized AI's role in automating state functions; and Lewis Mumford, who lamented 'cybernetic intelligence'. The piece also covers the rise of techno-libertarianism in the 1990s, influenced by Ayn Rand, and the 1996 Telecommunications Act that deregulated the internet. It concludes that liberal democracy failed to heed these warnings, allowing corporate power to shape the digital age.