James Pethokoukis is a policy analyst, official CNBC contributor, and Dewitt Wallace Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also the creator and writer of the Faster, Please! newsletter, which is dedicated to “discovering, creating, and inventing a better world through technological innovation, economic growth, and pro-progress culture.”
James joins the show to discuss his new book, The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised.
Important Links:
- Faster, Please! - https://fasterplease.substack.com/
- The Conservative Futurist - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Conservative-Futurist-Create-Sci-Fi-Promised/dp/1546005544
- WTF Happened In 1971? - https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
- Tinkered Thinking — White Mirror - https://www.infiniteloopspodcast.com/tinkered-thinking-white-mirror-ep132/)
- The Great Reshuffle](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHoZjyz2rEpl2qvR6Yw2CFn-RFTBXLW9J
- Bono On Nuclear Energy - https://x.com/energybants/status/1708735002736021564?s=20
- Our World in Data - https://ourworldindata.org/
Show Notes:
0:00:00 Intro
0:01:03 Main podcast
0:01:50 What Happened to America?
0:08:21 Up Wing vs. Down Wing Thinking
0:16:26 AI as a General Purpose Technology; Regulatory Capture
0:23:51 Technological Proficiency & Problem Solving
0:29:20 How to Reframe Tomorrow
0:37:50 “Be Like the Blade of Grass”
0:45:18 Green Shoots of Optimism
0:57:47 AI as a Lifelong Learning Instructor
1:02:28 We Are the Economy
1:07:28 Three Policies That Could Change the Future
1:12:45 James as Emperor of the World
Books Mentioned:
- The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised; by James Pethokoukis
- The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
- The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot Of) Success in America; by John Gartner
- The Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu
- The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision Of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
