History
Why America reinvents itself every 80 years — and is doing so again
Three separate theories help explain why America enters a period of great progress every 80 years — and why another is coming soon.
What a historian in 2100 might say about Trump’s America
President Donald Trump might clear the way for the building of 21st-century systems and open up the political space for a new way forward.
America is going through its every-80-year reinvention
Futurist Peter Leyden finds parallels between America in 2025 and at three pivotal points in its history, each 80 years before the last.
Progress happens because solutions create new problems to solve
Solutionism means fully accepting what’s in front of us and enthusiastically stepping up to meet the challenge.
Blind optimism is not a cure for blind pessimism
We need to fully acknowledge problems, while vigorously pursuing solutions. Call it “solutionism.”
How humanity transformed its fate
From surviving on wild plants and game to controlling our world with technology, humanity's journey of progress is a story of expanding human agency.
Life was dirty, difficult, and dangerous for almost everyone who ever existed
9 minutes of cruel history may cure the anti-progress delusion.
A new vision for the advancement of humanity
The world needs a moral defense of progress based in humanism and agency.
Pager panic: When beepers were infiltrating schools
Cities and schools once actually arrested students for carrying this dangerous technology.
Even as the fusion era dawns, we’re still in the Steam Age
Why do we use steam rather than other gases? Steam has lasted this long because we have an abundance of water, covering 71% of Earth's surface.