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The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State

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The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State

By: Jill Lepore
Narrated by: Jill Lepore
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It presented itself as a form of futurism. But the future envisioned by the architects of the Artificial State looked, chillingly, like the very worst of the past…

We live in the age of data. Over the past century, rapidly evolving technologies have transformed every aspect of our society, in troubling and seemingly unstoppable ways. Political campaigns have been reduced to attention-mining algorithms, multinational corporations control public discourse, and the era of the liberal nation-state seems to be coming to an end, replaced by the rule of artificial intelligence. Today, power is maintained through mystification: machines, we are told, know what humans cannot. Yet nothing about any of this was, or is, inevitable.

In this astounding account of how technology has corroded democracy around the world, prizewinning historian Jill Lepore traces the rise and fall of what she calls the ‘Artificial State’. Examining everything from robot rights and Elon Musk’s origins to what data centres cost wildlife, Lepore offers a history – and a perspective – wholly missing from the debate.

History, Lepore demonstrates, is driven not by machines but by individuals, societies, cultures and ideas. The architects of the Artificial State had no theory of governance, nor did they have any interest in the rule of law, or any capacity for restraint. They drew their ideas not from science, but from science fiction. Yet everything destructive that they have done can be undone. By illuminating the origins of the Artificial State, Lepore reveals how we can escape it – helping us to imagine, and fight for, a different future.

© Jill Lepore 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Computer Science History & Culture Machine Theory & Artificial Intelligence Politics & Government Technology & Society Technology Robotics Law Socialism Capitalism
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Critic reviews

An amazing book – entertaining, revelatory, utterly original, exquisitely researched. Lepore uses her fierce intelligence to show us who and what we are, and this feels like a true act of love (George Saunders)
Lepore is our best scholar of the culture of governance, and our most vital historian. Here she repudiates the prospect of AI as a replacement for democracy. This is the issue of our times, and Lepore is the voice of sanity (Jaron Lanier)
Superb. The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State is the best account I’ve ever seen of how the owners and controllers of data technology have changed and are changing us in ways we are only just beginning to grasp. Lepore seems to have left nothing out, and the result is a history that is richly informed, a view of human progress that is wise and balanced, and a timely and terrifying warning (Philip Pullman)
Lepore’s concept of the Artificial State is capacious ... Intriguing, jewel-like stories are Lepore’s hallmark, and The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State sparkles with them
Urgent and wide-ranging… an entertaining exploration tracing Silicon Valley’s self-image to the science fiction on which its architects grew up
Engaging... a book that casts its intellectual remit so wide... Lepore... wants us to insist that machines should never have the final say
The book’s extraordinary historical range... is its real distinction... Lepore shows convincingly how literature is a better guide to politics and power than the technocrats’ mathematical models... At a time when the humanistic study of languages, literature and history is under intense pressure, Lepore’s howl of refusal to accept the fate that engineers have ordained for her intellectual craft still has a stirring dignity about it
Inspired and inspiring … Deeply intelligent, insightful and humane
A book of our times…A clear-eyed reckoning
All stars
Most relevant
Nicely written and charmingly read audiobook covering an important topic. But it rarely goes into depth, doesn’t really get into the potentially fascinating weeds and too often gets lost in its beautiful and sometimes florid prose when harder, sharper analysis or conclusions would be merited.

It’s really an extended essay (or perhaps even two very different essays that make up the two parts of the book) from a very set (and somewhat valid) point of view that arrives with a set of preconceptions and ideas and then never really examines or develops them. And the long chapter on animals, indeed the whole of the moderately whimsical second part of the book is a long and mystifying tangent. Which again is composed of beautifully written musings (if slightly heavy on the quoting from and paraphrasing of lots (and lots) of classic 1950s future fiction) but also feels slightly disconnected from the points the first half of the book seemed to be trying to make and then just abandons as it concludes and the second part begins.

Overall, and despite its flaws an enjoyable listen/read. But as very well written piece of broadly topical entertainment rather than something that will educate or stretch a reasonably informed reader. To be fair, it’s skips around briskly and raises loads of interesting ideas and then abandons them mostly unconcluded just as fast. Which I don’t think is what was intended. But who knows. Perhaps AI might help.

Interesting idea but the book doesn’t know whether it’s poetic musings or evidenced argument

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