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Essays on how to understand and create the future. By becoming a premium supporter you support the creation and spreading of fact-based optimistic news. Together, we share ideas with a global network of optimistic and entrepreneurial people.
🍽️ The naive optimist who turned out to be right – lunch with Ramez Naam
Two failed hugs framed an interesting conversation with the polymath and renewable energy expert Ramez Naam.
📚 The best books I read in 2025
A timely history book, one about what everyone knows that everyone knows, one about Lego, one about multiple Jesuses, one about the most famous Mafia movie and one about abundance.
🤦 The Nobel laureate’s banal critique of humanity
The Nobel laureate László Krasznahorkai claims humanity peaked at the Moon landing and that technology since has made us worse. But his bleak view is neither new nor convincing — it mostly reveals how we humans always complain about the time we live in.
🕵️ Stupid overconfidence in "The Traitors" raises a crucial question about our democracy
Why do so many people follow the stupidly overconfident types in The Traitors? And what can we learn from it to defend our democracy?
🥃 The glass is neither half full nor half empty
Fact-based optimists don't care whether the glass is half full or half empty. They see the world in a different way.
⏰ Now it’s happening – but no one notices
Last week, two things happened that mostly showed up as brief news items. Having followed both of these developments for years, I’m fascinated by how little attention they get. Each of them will, on its own, have a massive impact on our world.
🧠 Conversation-based dementia therapy – a problem only generative AI can solve
Three years ago, not even one of the largest companies in the world could solve this problem. Now a small startup can. The reason is generative AI.
📗 Book excerpt: A steam engine for the brain
An excerpt from The Fifth Acceleration: Why AI Is Not the End – but the Beginning of What We Can Become by Mathias Sundin.
📗 Book excerpt: The beginning of what we can become
But technology itself will not create progress. It depends on where and how technology is used and must go hand in hand with social progress. That's where you come in.