On the latest episode of TechCrunchs Equity podcast, Harvard historian Jill Lepore warned that Silicon Valleys interpretation of science fiction is dangerously flawed, enabling a shift toward authoritarian governance she describes as government by machines.
Lepore, a staff writer at The New Yorker and professor of American history, explained that tech leaders often treat dystopian sci-fi not as cautionary tales but as instructional guides for building future societies. She cited Elon Musk’s admiration for works like Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series as emblematic of this misreading, where complex social dynamics are reduced to technocratic solutions.
They’re not reading these stories as warnings about the concentration of power, Lepore said. They’re reading them as blueprints for how to engineer society from the top down.
This mindset, she argues, underpins the push for AI-driven governance models that sidestep democratic deliberation in favor of algorithmic efficiency. Lepore warned that such approaches ignore the messy, pluralistic nature of democracy, replacing civic debate with technocratic certainty.
She pointed to the rise of AI in public services, predictive policing, and automated welfare systems as real-world manifestations of this ideology, where decisions are made opaque to citizens and unaccountable to elected officials.
Historical parallels reveal recurring dangers of technocratic utopianism
Lepore drew connections between today’s Silicon Valley ideals and past movements like eugenics and mid-century modernization theory, where experts believed science could perfect society. She noted that each era’s technocrats dismissed public input as irrational, only to cause widespread harm when their models failed to account for human complexity.
The historian emphasized that science fiction’s greatest value lies in its ability to imagine alternatives—not predict futures—but that current tech culture inverts this purpose, using fiction to justify existing power structures rather than challenge them.
Looking ahead, Lepore urged technologists to engage more deeply with democratic theory, history, and the humanities. She advocated for interdisciplinary teams in tech development that include ethicists, historians, and community representatives to counterbalance purely engineering-driven visions.
Without such course correction, she warned, the appeal of 'government by machines' will grow, eroding public trust and hollowing out democratic institutions from within—even as leaders claim to be building a better future through innovation.
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