In an appearance on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Harvard historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Jill Lepore discussed her upcoming book, "The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State," warning that private tech corporations are usurping functions of democratic government.

Lepore clarified that her critique is not aimed at technology itself, but at how private corporations have gradually taken over state functions without public consent. She argued that Silicon Valley leaders, including Elon Musk and Sam Altman, often misread cautionary science fiction as templates for the future.

Key historical and modern examples discussed include:

• Apple’s 1984 Macintosh Ad: Positioned personal computers as tools against totalitarianism, which Lepore characterized as clever marketing rather than a tool for civil capacity.
• Twitter’s Civic Distortion: By 2012, fewer than 10% of users produced over 90% of political tweets, creating a distorted political town hall.
• Data Center Resistance: Public pushback is evident in locations like Salt Lake, where over 70% of residents opposed a data center that political representatives supported.
• Disruptive Innovation: Lepore reiterated her critique of Clayton Christensen’s theory, noting that technological advancement should not be confused with historical or moral progress.

Lepore concluded by emphasizing the importance of dialogue between historians and technologists to build appropriate guardrails for emerging technologies.