Democracy v the machine: the birth of the digital age and the warnings that were ignored – podcast

Many hoped that the march of technology would usher in an egalitarian utopia – but some foresaw the threat it would pose to liberal society. Why did nobody listen?

By Jill Lepore. Read by Laurel Lefkow

A woman uses the new IBM 650 Magnetic Drum Data Processing Machine in a New York office in 1954. Photograph: Underwood Archives, Inc/Alamy
Photograph: Underwood Archives, Inc/Alamy