The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie The Rise of the Information State
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Apr 8, 2026 
Jacob Siegel, journalist and author of The Information State, maps how digital infrastructure, platform moderation, and public-private alliances shifted power in the digital age. He traces the post-9/11 rise of technocratic information governance. Conversations cover Russiagate, hybrid warfare repurposed domestically, platform disruption like X, the collapse of traditional media, and how AI and independent media reshape authority.
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Obama As Technocratic Bridge To Silicon Valley
- Obama's presidency matched a technological hinge: expanded private surveillance, smartphone ubiquity, and Silicon Valley fusion with technocrats.
- Siegel argues Obama deliberately allied the Democratic expert class with tech to administer society digitally.
Whole Of Society Bypasses Public Legitimacy
- The 'whole-of-society' model coordinates gatekeeper stakeholders to bypass public opinion and impose modernization.
- Siegel traces the term from development aid to counterinsurgency and then to domestic U.S. policy implementation.
On The Ground With Palantir And Drones
- Siegel describes commanding drones and Palantir-fed sensors in Afghanistan and feeling near-omniscient from data flows.
- He contrasts that informational power with the failure to create legitimate Afghan institutions despite the surveillance assets.
