The Way the Future Was
summary
Four short histories run through specific claims and failures: optimistic 20th‑century futures like fully automated luxury space communism fail by distribution not production; agent simulations show unfettered markets drift to oligarchy unless policy intervenes (agent‑based model); increased efficiency obeys Jevons — GenAI users work 2–4 extra hours/week; infrastructure wins: thousands of satellites, thousands of confirmed exoplanets, and a Tokamak hitting ~1000 seconds of fusion output — metaverse prototypes flop while video calling arrives via messenger ecosystems.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Intro
- 2:39The way the future was
- 14:22The way the future is
- 31:17The way the future comes to be
- 41:17The way the future could be
- 56:01Outro
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