The Guardian has released a podcast episode adapted from historian Jill Lepore’s recent book, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, that revisits the origins of the digital age and the contest between democratic ideals and technological change. Read by actor Laurel Lefkow, the episode explores how the march of computing and networks was greeted by visions of an egalitarian utopia — and how some contemporaries foresaw a very different outcome.
Lepore’s account, presented in the programme, highlights a strand of early scepticism about the social and political consequences of emerging technologies. Those critics warned that technical systems could be harnessed to concentrate power, erode privacy, and reshape public information environments in ways harmful to liberal institutions. The episode tracks how those cautions competed with stronger currents of optimism about progress, efficiency and economic opportunity.
The podcast probes why those early warnings failed to change the course of the digital revolution. It suggests a mixture of factors — the allure of technological promise, commercial incentives that rewarded rapid expansion, and intellectual currents that treated innovation as inherently beneficial — combined to marginalise dissenting voices. The result, Lepore argues, was a political landscape transformed by tools and architectures whose broader social effects were insufficiently scrutinised.
Adapted from The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, published by Allen Lane on 25 August, the feature is part of the Guardian’s longread podcast series and can be heard with an accompanying text version. The episode invites listeners to reassess the early debates about technology and to consider what lessons might still be relevant as societies confront the next waves of digital change.
The programme does not offer simple prescriptions, but it underscores an enduring question at the intersection of technology and governance: how to balance innovation with the protection of democratic norms. As the digital era continues to evolve, Lepore’s narrative calls for renewed attention to the voices that urged caution when the machines were young.