The Conservative Futurist
We need a plan to acheive our dreams.
I recently read The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised by James Pethokoukis. It was so good that I finished it in a day. It’s a captivating blend of history, economics, and sci-fi entertainment written with optimism. In the book, Pethokoukis explains how innovation is driven by what he calls “up wing” thinking, which has propelled society forward and raised our people's living standards. And it’s “down wing” thinking that, on the other hand stifles innovation by limiting opportunity. Up wing thinkers are those who believe in a solutions-oriented future, built with new ideas to expand economic and technological growth to solve humanity's greatest problems. Down wing thinkers are those who accept or set limits—avoiding risks and content with the present. In short, up wing is opportunity and growth. Down wing is limits and stagnation.
The book lays out a plan to create the futuristic world we were promised. I’ve spent a lot of time watching and reading sci-fi stories, and this book inspired me to apply what I know to create the world we were promised. I think I might be a conservative futurist. I’m certainly a sci-fi nerd. And I’m definitely an up winger. So here is what I think we should do to achieve the sci-fi future we were promised.
How do you solve a big problem? Make it smaller.
1. Uncap the House.
If you know me at all, this won't surprise you. Uncapping the house is my thing, but I also believe it should be everyone's thing. For context about capping the house, check out this article by Geoffery Skelley. In the book, Pethokoukis discusses how a bureaucratic government has over-regulated opportunity and stifled innovation. There is no more down wing place than Congress—content with the status quo and limiting opportunity for anyone outside its sphere. So how do we fix that? Expand the House of Representatives, and create more opportunities.
People sometimes say to me, “Wait. You want to make the government bigger?” No. I actually want to make it smaller. Congress is how people restrain the government. But since the beginning of our founding, the executive's power has expanded with war and national emergencies. Meanwhile down wingers in Congress have limited the people's power, and the population has grown, creating more work for Congress. As a result, Congress has struggled to keep up. They’ve ceded the people's power to the executive, and the result is a bigger, more bureaucratic government. Everything is somebody else's fault, and only the King, I mean, the President, can fix it. But only if you send their Oligarchs, I mean, congressional representatives, to Congress with a majority. Expanding the House to 870 by 2030 would expand the capacity of Congress so they can reign in the ballooning federal sphere, making it smaller, all while making it harder for a ruling majority to control the government.
Having more people in Congress means more oversight over the federal government. Expanding human capital creates the opportunity for people to carefully roll back the over-regulation that has stifled innovation.
2. Layer the Economy
After the House is uncapped and we elect our best and brightest, they can remove limitations and create new opportunities for innovation in the economy. If we want new ideas to build our futuristic world, then we need to create opportunities for those ideas to grow.
The combination of a new energy source, a rise in technology, and a new system of finance led to the innovation and growth of the Industrial Revolution. The government and large corporations partnered together to carry the financial risk, and it was the people who were rewarded with higher standards of living.
One of the flaws of the early American economy was the limits of currency and the difficulty of transferring currency from one place to another. The bigger the project, the more capital was needed to fund it. The bigger the project, the bigger the reward. The expansion of the economy amplifies the necessity to transfer and verify currency from point A to point B.
The National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 established a system of national banks that concentrated the economy. The concentrated economy was able to finance big projects like the railroads and oil drilling, expanding energy and transportation, which expanded opportunities for new business.
Smaller businesses and larger corporations fed off each other. It was mutually beneficial, but the top portion of the economy grew faster than the bottom, and labor suffered. As a result, the government stepped in with The Federal Reserve Act of 1913, establishing the Federal Reserve System to stabilize the banking industry and manage the nation’s money supply. This provided a financial framework to prevent bank panics and manage economic stability.
The government “fixed” the problem… for a period. Stability in the economy helps investment, but stability, according to Pethokoukis, can be destabilizing. When the government supported successful advances in technology like energy and transportation, the people won, but when they missed, the people paid the cost of opportunity.
The key to the economy is value. According to Pethokoukis, a traditional economy’s three “key elements” are “labor, capital, and ideas.” Each one has value and needs to be handled as such. Our current economy does not value ideas, and it lacks capital and labor. Where the problems of our past required a concentration of financial power, our current problems require a decentralization of financial power.
If we want to solve our economic troubles and have the financial investment power to make our sci-fi future dreams come true, then we need to value ideas and increase capital and labor. We need to invest in new forms of digital currency with blockchain technology, like Bitcoin, and we need to start at the State Level. Competing digital currency creates value and opportunity. The blockchain helps ensure funds are transferred from point A to point B quickly and safely. Layering a smaller financial structure underneath the current large financial structure will expand opportunities in the marketplace.
Imagine the new economy like a bunch of small economies working inside a bigger one. They will feed off each other. The goal would be to create a Wall Street on Main Street in every state. Wall Street would still be the place for federal corporations to trade, but Main Street would be a place for people to invest in their local economy. Having federal and state corporations gives more flexibility in the rules for the different sizes of businesses. Currently, Smaller businesses struggle with capital. As a result, we have seen online crowdfunding sites pop up. The community Wall Street enterprise would be in that mold but localized. There is plenty of capital in the market that gets wasted on gambling because people are bored, love competition, and lack the opportunity to invest. The entrepreneurial spirit lives in every American—it is time to unleash its potential.
The problem of the past was that we were too small to grow, but now we are too big to adapt. Layering the economy and investing in communities will create more opportunities in the marketplace for ideas and expand capital and choice for investment, raising the value of our economy so people can thrive.
3. Invest in Elemental Energy!
As opportunity is expanded in the government and economy, we need to focus on investing in new energy sources to power our sci-fi future.
The Three Mile Island accident in 1979, the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, have shaped public perception of nuclear energy as one that is unsafe. As a result, we have over-regulated the market, making it more difficult to expand and grow nuclear technology.
However, according to the officially recognized international death statistics, the cumulative fatalities from the three major nuclear incidents—Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima—total 32 individuals. In contrast, The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported about 23,000 industrial deaths in 1913 among a workforce of 38 million—equivalate to a rate of 61 deaths per 100,000 workers. The new energy and transportation industry was raw and sometimes brutal during this time period. While many people died as a result of the progress of our new industrial world, it produced a safer, more comfortable way of life.
In 2022, there was a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion technologies when the Lawrence National Laboratory fired 192 giant lasers at a fuel pellet, resulting in a “net energy gain.” We are still a long way from the renewable energy source we need to power our future, but it shows what we can do with up wing thinking, opportunity, investment, and focus.
We shouldn’t let down wing perception slow down solving problems and expanding opportunities for growth. If we focus on creating safer, cleaner, and renewable sources of energy like nuclear, nuclear fusion, or cold fusion, it will lower the cost of energy. Energy will become more available, raising the standards of living for every American.
4. Invest in Transportation
Space and supersonic forms of travel have suffered from the same down wing perception as our energy problem. The crash of Air France Flight 4590 shaped the perception of supersonic travel as the Challenger explosion shaped the perception of space travel. However, if we compare them to new transportation methods of the past, like Steamboats and Railroads, we realize that the gain far outweighs the risk. It’s possible that if the current video media existed during the creation of steamboats and railroads, the down wing attitudes would have limited growth and advancement in those technologies, and we may still be traveling by horse and buggy.
Luckily, past leaders had an up wing attitude when it came to transportation, understanding that more and better transportation created more opportunities for people. Traveling to space opens up the possibility of finding and mining new elements that will help humans on Earth, or possibly finding a new planet to become a multi-planetary species. Super Sonic travel has the potential to bring us closer together. Imagine living in a world where a person could fly anywhere in the world in just a few hours. This would create new opportunities across the world to work and build businesses.
We have the technology. We just haven’t practiced enough to be good at it. A little focus and investment could change the way we move through the universe.
5. The Wild West of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence scares a lot of people. The potential for a sentient robotic form of life that lacks compassion and has the power to wipe out or enslave humanity is scary, I have to admit. However, it also has the potential to move society forward in ways never thought possible. Outsourcing the more mundane aspects of life frees humans up to solve the more complex problems we face. And AI also gives us the tools to get it done.
Traveling through space to mine an asteroid for rare earth metals sounds dangerous. Some people would not mind taking the risk for the gain. But what if we could send an AI robot instead? This lowers the risk and might even bring some down wingers on the side of progress.
To successfully invest in AI technology, we need to understand it and write basic rules to maintain control over the future power. In the 19th century, barbed wire played a crucial role in the settlement and development of the American West. Before the invention of barbed wire, it was challenging to contain cattle and mark property boundaries effectively in the vast expanses of the frontier. What we want to do is create a barbed wire fence to protect our developers from creating a power that becomes uncontrollable.
Creating a fence may sound like a down wing thought process, but it’s a realistic up wing thought process. If you're a parent, think of it this way. When your child reaches a certain age, they want more freedom. If you live in an area that doesn’t have a fenced-in backyard, the child may have to wait until mom and dad are ready to supervise playtime. However, having a fenced yard creates a safe space for the child to play, expanding the opportunity for the child to grow.
Humans have been building tools for ages, and AI has the potential to be the greatest tool humans have ever built. But every tool can be a weapon. Building a fence in the Wild West of AI allows for creativity and advancement in new technologies. This will help us contain and mark the artificial technologies, limiting their power and controlling the potential risk, all while creating more opportunities for growth in our society.
6. Prioritize Family and Population
People are the power behind societal advancement. Our lives are what we wish to make better with progress. As our lives improve, we may forget the importance of our population. A robust population is where the ideas that drive progress come from.
The key to a thriving population is a thriving family life. We need to invest in families. It’s where people learn how to build relationships, communicate, and solve problems with others. These skills are paramount in solving the challenges humanity faces.
I’ll be honest: I don’t have any ideas to make this happen, but I thought it was worth mentioning. It’s possible it may take care of itself if we create a world with more focus and opportunity. People want family, they just can’t afford it.
7. Communication in the Tech Age
Communication is vital to progress. Through communication comes understanding and the embracing of new ideas. The enhancement of communication is typically a good thing for society. But the spread of information on entertainment media and social media has the potential to derail our future. Both social media and entertainment media have the same goal. Numbers. It’s about likes and dollars. To maximize both, they serve the masses. But what happens when the masses want down wing thinking because it’s popular?
A social media app like X (formally Twitter) connects users to a global network of other users and allows them to communicate instantaneously. This democratizes the individuals' voice. But what if we don’t want our voices democratized? What if we want our voices republicanized?
What do I mean by that? Think of it this way: democratizing voices allows the individual to speak inside the same group as everyone. The top 1% and the bottom 99%. Democracy is about one large group. Republicanism is about a multiplicity of small groups. To republicanize your voice would be to speak inside a small group. Maybe you're not in the same group as all of the 1%, but some would be there, and the chances they may hear you would be higher inside a smaller group.
How would this work? Imagine logging into X, but instead of taking you to your feed, it takes you to a menu of feeds. You can select your state, your country, or the world. Each one is its own sphere. If you want to talk to a large group, you still can, but if you want to talk to a smaller group, now you can do that too. Individuals with ideas might have more success speaking to a smaller group first. The idea may take hold in a smaller group and then share with other small groups, eventually making it to the larger groups. More groups create more opportunities. Essentially, to republicanize your voice is to organize the opportunity–– understanding the best ideas flow from freedom, opportunity, and a little bit of order.
Social media changed the way information is communicated around the world. But I think it needs a little structure to maximize its utility.
Entertainment Media focuses on down wing thinking because slow progress isn’t as captivating as immediate destruction. Whether it’s our news media or Hollywood, when we turn on a screen, we are told stories of death, destruction, corruption, and doom. This shapes people's perception of the world. But it’s not the whole story. So, how do we get our Media to share the up wing mentality? Yep, that’s right, make it smaller.
We need an investment in local news media and entertainment. After creating a Wall Street on Main Street, we need to create a Hollywood or Broadway on First Street. Americans have the technology, education, and talent to sustain entertainment inside their own communities. What they need is the opportunity. The expanded opportunity for entertainers will allow up wing thinkers a place in the fold again.
Local news has dwindled as the 24-hour news cycle has grown. It just doesn’t sell. In Andrew Yang’s book Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy, Yang discusses creating a J-Corp classification that “conveys nonprofit status to any organization whose primary purpose is original local journalism.” I think this is a great idea–– it would add another sphere to the corporate structure and another layer to our communication.
In the book, Andrew says, “A few billion dollars is a pittance compared with the need for a functioning democracy at the local level.” I would like to point out that a functioning democracy at the local level cannot exist without a republican structure to organize. We do this in our government by dividing power into smaller groups and then layering it. The purpose is to share the responsibility of governing among the people of the Union. And make sure all the factions are represented with a balanced ratio to power. Because of the capping of the house, our ratio is off, which has allowed the wrong influence to shape our present. The same can be said with the shift from local news to national news. It’s shifted the ratio between profit and people. We can shift it back with a little organization.
Well, that’s my off-the-cuff plan to create our futuristic society. Uncapping the house creates opportunity for power. Layering the economy creates opportunities for investment in new ideas. Elemental energy will power our future. Investing in our transportation will allow us to explore and bring us closer together. Understanding AI will give us the tools to build our future. Prioritizing our families and population ensures we do not lose the focus of progress. Building a more organized communication structure will allow information to flow freely and responsibly. If we want to build our Sci-Fi Future today, we need to focus on making our problems smaller and creating more opportunities.
I hope you enjoyed my take on how we create our sci-fi future. If you haven’t read the book The Conservative Futurist, I highly recommend it. Join the up wing side of life and help build the future we were promised.