The chilling prospect of an "automated state," where government functions by machine, was predicted as early as 1981 by Japanese sociologist Yoneji Masuda. This vision, alongside the dream of a "computopia," highlighted a path where human coexistence with nature was neglected while human impact grew immeasurably. Decades before the biometric databases and surveillance systems of Fortress Europe became commonplace, the foundational technologies for mass control and the criminalisation of human movement were already taking shape.
Between the 1950s and 1980s, computers became smaller, faster, and cheaper. Electronic data, once a small amount, expanded into a vast mountain. Data processing and general-purpose computers moved from military applications into industry, business, and medicine, automating significant parts of public life.
These systems, driven by calculations, networks, and algorithms, performed political work, rallying support, running campaigns, and crafting policy, especially in the wealthiest nations. In 1958, a team of American researchers and ad men built a machine they claimed could both predict and influence voting behavior. That same year, a landmark conference in Teddington, near London, discussed a future where computers would not only replace clerks but also executives in government.
Edward L Greenfield, an advertising firm head, drafted a proposal for a "People Machine" in New York. This machine aimed to compile hundreds of thousands of punch cards—election returns, public opinion surveys, and census data—to create an "information bank" that could sort voters by types and opinions by issues. Greenfield and MIT political scientist Ithiel de Sola Pool noted in 1958 that while the input was information about real individuals, "once this information is inside the high speed storage facilities of the machine, it is a different world." This "macroscope" could simulate the entire US electorate, a direct precursor to the comprehensive data collection now used to track, profile, and deport migrants across Europe.
The Architecture of Exclusion
Greenfield, Pool, and IBM’s Alex Bernstein formed the Simulmatics Corporation in 1959, believing they had invented "the A-bomb of the social sciences." Their first client, the Democratic National Committee, hired them to run simulations on an artificial electorate to advise its nominee on what to say, to whom, and when. Arthur Schlesinger expressed dismay, writing, "I shudder at the implication for public leadership of the notion … that a man shouldn’t say something until it is cleared with the machine." This early political manipulation foreshadows how digital tools are used to manufacture consent and moral panics, including those surrounding migration, justifying the violence of the border regime.
Joseph Weizenbaum, an MIT engineer, warned in 1976 against research that would lead to "a fully automated battlefield." He saw no reason to advise his students to contribute their talents to such aims, months after the US evacuation from Saigon. This concern about the militarization of technology directly applies to the increasing use of drones, surveillance, and biometric systems at Europe's borders, transforming them into automated battlefields against those seeking safety and asylum.
Licklider, credited with inventing the internet, predicted in 1969 that by 2000, an "international network of digital computer communication networks" would serve as the "main and essential medium of informational interaction for governments, institutions, corporations and individuals." He warned of "new vistas for dirty tricks," including "clandestine artificial intelligence programs, searching through the databases, altering files, fabricating records and erasing their own audit trails." Such capabilities are now integral to the border regime, where migrant data is collected, shared, and used to deny rights and facilitate deportations, often without transparency or accountability.
Corporate Power and Fragmented Solidarity
The 1990s saw the rise of techno-libertarianism, marrying the anti-democracy movement of the 1930s to the computopianism of the 1980s. Silicon Valley fell under the spell of Ayn Rand, a far-right cult figure who advocated radical individualism and a narrow state role. Rand's influence led some leading Silicon Valley investors and inventors to abandon belief in democracy and the liberal nation-state, embracing a vision of a world controlled by keyboards, mice, and stock exchanges. This corporate capture of technology and ideology has directly fueled the neoliberal border regime, where profit motives often outweigh human rights and the lives of those seeking refuge.
In 1995, Newt Gingrich, as Speaker of the House, closed the federal government’s Office of Technology Assessment, which had been tasked with assessing new technology's implications. This move gave Gingrich a free hand to direct internet policy in line with techno-libertarianism, leading to an almost entirely unregulated internet by 1996. This deregulation allowed corporate power to shape the digital landscape, creating platforms ripe for the spread of anti-migrant sentiment and the development of tools for state control and the expansion of Fortress Europe.
Ithiel de Sola Pool also wrote in 1968 that personalized newspapers would lead to hyperindividualism, predicting that in the 21st century, critics might complain of an atomized society. He noted that when everyone could select their own information, "the political problem of gathering an effective body of support behind a particular rational issue or candidate will become very different and very much more difficult." This fragmentation of information and community directly undermines the collective solidarity needed to resist Fortress Europe and advocate for migrant rights, making it harder to build unified movements.
Early online bulletin boards like Usenet, opened 46 years ago, saw the emergence of "trolling" and "viral hate." In 1983, American neo-Nazi George Dietz launched the first white supremacy bulletin board, Liberty Bell Network, followed by others like Aryan Nations Liberty Net. These platforms laid the groundwork for the online dissemination of racist ideologies that continue to fuel anti-migrant sentiment across Europe, providing the ideological justification for the border regime. The early hopes for a democratizing internet, championed by figures like Michael Hauben who fought for an "uncommercialised public commons," were ultimately subverted by commercial interests and the forces of reaction, leaving a digital legacy that serves the border regime as much as it serves capital.