[zenapollo]

There’s not a single discussion going on in American politics at the federal level that is not some version of the US circling the drain (I’m American). The bright spots (state/local level) are very limited (psychedelic therapies research comes to mind).

Abroad there are some bright spots, though Americans will sparsely here of them:

1 Taiwan’s civic tech - using software to aid in crowdsourcing democratic options and discussion

2 Amsterdam’s circular economy project - investing in comprehensive analysis and rule-making focusing on reducing waste of all kinds - construction, pollution, consumables etc

I’ve looked at these last two personally, here’s a short list of similar projects (from chatgpt) if you’re interested

Barcelona Superblocks

New Zealand Wellbeing budget

Estonia’s e-governance

South Korea Smart City initiatives

Finland’s basic income experiment

Portugal’s participatory budgeting

Also El Salvador’s interests in Crypto is … interesting though too early to tell if this will be of real benefit to citizens at scale.

Historically all great “empires” have all fallen, and the US is right on pace for academics who study these things - our descent has begun. However there is one thing that’s different now. The speed of tech development will begin to outpace all other human forces that shape our civilization.

Taiwan is the leader in using tech for enhancing democratic participation. Can’t stress enough how valuable that might be if used correctly.

And of course, AI should accelerate the bioengineering, geoengineering, and perhaps some type of financial/economic engineering that could pull us from the brink.

I’m hoping that an AI future may make us happier and more sovereign, but the momentum towards a corporate techno feudalistic dark age, where government, citizens, and institutions are all bought and paid for by private mega corps, is growing.