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30 Days, 9 Cities, 1 Question: Where Did American Prosperity Go?

What traveling across America revealed about trust and work in the age of AI

kyla scanlon

Nov 13

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Peter Thiel recently did an interview with the Free Press about his 2020 email to Mark Zuckerberg. The title of the piece is “Capitali... See more

In today’s piece, I write about the 3 Americas: one built on AI speculation, one held together by healthcare, and one running on memes, riffing a bit on Joe Weisenthal’s recent piece on the 'futuristic jobs report'. We’re spending trillions trying to make AI work, even as we fall behind China in basic research, energy, and manufacturing. Healthcare... See more

So... the digital world has nearly eliminated friction (ChatGPT writes essays, Meta's AI plays your friend). The physical world drowns in it (Newark airport, infrastructure crumbles). And for those who can afford it, friction becomes an optional aesthetic choice (West Village living, curated experiences). This is an... See more