
The Conservative Futurist
How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised
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Narrated by:
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Séan Marrinan
About this listen
Discover the surprising case for how conservatism can help us achieve the epic sci-fi future we were promised.
America was once the world’s dream factory. We turned imagination into reality, from curing polio to landing on the Moon to creating the internet. And we were confident that more wonders lay just over the horizon: clean and infinite energy, a cure for cancer, computers and robots as humanity’s great helpers, and space colonies. (Also, of course, flying cars.) Science fiction, from The Jetsons to Star Trek, would become fact.
But as we moved into the late 20th century, we grew cautious, even cynical, about what the future held and our ability to shape it. Too many of us saw only the threats from rapid change. The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Great Downshift in technological progress and economic growth, followed by decades of economic stagnation, downsized dreams, and a popular culture fixated on catastrophe: AI that will take all our jobs if it doesn’t kill us first, nuclear war, climate chaos, plague and the zombie apocalypse. We are now at risk of another half-century of making the same mistakes and pushing a pro-progress future into the realm of impossibility.
But American Enterprise Institute (AEI) economic policy expert and long-time CNBC contributor James Pethokoukis argues that there’s still hope. We can absolutely turn things around—if we the people choose to dream and act. How dare we delay or fail to deliver for ourselves and our children.
With groundbreaking ideas and sharp analysis, Pethokoukis provides a detailed roadmap to a fantastic future filled with incredible progress and prosperity that is both optimistic and realistic. Through an exploration of culture, economics, and history, The Conservative Futurist tells the fascinating story of what went wrong in the past and what we need to do today to finally get it right. Using the latest economic research and policy analysis, as well as insights from top economists, historians, and technologists, Pethokoukis reveals that the failed futuristic visions of the past were totally possible. And they still are. If America is to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, take full advantage of emerging tech from generative AI to CRISPR to reusable rockets, and launch itself into a shining tomorrow, it must again become a fully risk-taking, future-oriented society. It’s time for America to embrace the future confidently, act boldly, and take that giant leap forward.
©2023 James Pethokoukis (P)2023 Center StreetListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Nothing is more confusing than the role of tech and innovation in our world. For years I have sought a guidebook to sort the good from the bad, and see how ingenuity can help take us to a better future. The Conservative Futurist is that book. This is a must read for all of us."—Arthur C. Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
"It is a splendid paradox: American conservatism aims to conserve an open society that enables perpetual social dynamism. James Pethokoukis has peered over the horizon and discerned a future that works, a future of constant churning that displaces stale hierarchies and dissolves pessimism about society's prospects."—George F. Will, Columnist, The Washington Post; commentator NBC News and MSNBC, author of The Conservative Sensibility
Optimism begets advancement
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The bracing optimism we need
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The Conservative Futurist
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Great argument for a more optimistic future
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well-researched and interesting point of view
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E/Acc certified banger.
much needed reframing of political discourse
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Great ideas but not a great writer
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Don't let the title fool you
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