History
Problem-solving is fundamental to human nature
Believing in the next solution is not blind optimism or even wishful thinking — it is a recognition that humans are problem-solving animals.
A call to innovators in Silicon Valley and beyond to help chart the new way forward
Peter Leyden sums up the key themes and big ideas of his new series at a Freethink Conversation in San Francisco.
It’s far too early to call “peak ideas”
Economic growth is driven by ideas, not resources — and as history shows, the well of innovation is unlikely to ever run dry.
The war on artificial ice
Decades before states started banning lab-grown meat, manufactured ice was the "unnatural" alternative under attack.
Predictions of resource scarcity have a fundamental flaw
From where we stand, the true limits to growth are currently unknowable and need not affect any decisions we make today.
Why Substack will be the intellectual engine of the 21st century
The 21st-century version of the Royal Society could be the Substack network that we are just starting to build out today.
How AI could usher in The New Enlightenment
AI could trigger a civilization-scale change for humanity the same way the steam engine helped usher in The Enlightenment 250 years ago.
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.