The Information State: How is the State Surveilling and Manipulating us These Days?

About this episode

Eli Karetny interviews Jacob Siegel about the convergence of military information operations, surveillance, and Silicon Valley's influence on the modern information state.

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI Acting Director Eli Karetny interviews Jacob Siegel, writer, Army veteran, and author of The Information State. Siegel traces how military information operations, post‑9/11 surveillance programs, and Silicon Valley’s rise converged to create a new public‑private regime of control over information, attention, and consent. He discusses the intellectual roots of technocratic governance from Francis Bacon and Leibniz through progressivism, World War I propaganda, and cybernetics, and explains how the “information state” differs from classical authoritarianism. Finally, Siegel reflects on Trumpism, the tech counter‑elite around figures like Elon Musk, and how AI may usher in a more “Pharaonic” and quasi‑spiritual form of politics beyond traditional expert‑driven technocracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

People in this episode

Host: Eli Karetny

Guest: Jacob Siegel

Topics covered

• surveillance
• information control
• technocratic governance
• public-private regime
• AI politics
• cybernetics

Keywords

• surveillance
• information state
• technocracy
• public-private control
• AI
• Trumpism
• cybernetics

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Information State

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