The Orbital Authority
In that respect the Cold War teaches the same lesson as World War II and, for that matter, most wars in recent history. Don't let a ruling class of warriors and politicians squash the entrepreneurs. The same recipe that makes individuals rich makes countries powerful. Let the nerds keep their lunch money, and you rule the world.
Paul Graham • How to Make Wealth
This is a world where billionaires and latter-day prophets can build and run microstates; where non-state actors from corporations to communes to algorithms begin to overshadow the state from above but also from below. Think again of the stirrup and the profound downstream effects of a single, simple invention. And then think of the scale of invent
... See moreMustafa Suleyman • The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
England’s maritime superiority had relied, since the Tudors, on rivalries within continents to prevent projections of power beyond their shores. But now, Mackinder was arguing, consolidations of continents were taking place that, if used to build fleets, could empower an “empire of the world.” Probably Russia would run it. Or maybe Germany allied w
... See moreJohn Lewis Gaddis • On Grand Strategy
The erosion of Pax Americana is, in essence, what happens when a global hegemon becomes unmoored from material reality. When digital simulations, rather than human experience, drive national decisions, international leadership becomes impossible. The same AI-powered bots flooding your Twitter feed are, at scale, unraveling the fabric of global orde... See more
Kyla Scanlon • The Parallel Economy
The American-led Order (big O) did more than change the rules of the game; it institutionalized order (little o), which in turn allowed industrialization and urbanization to spread everywhere. That shifted the global demographic from one of lots of children to lots of young and mature workers, generating a sustained consumption and investment boom
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