Coming up next: America’s Renaissance

A political independent's perspective on why Trump’s victory may mark the beginning of a Golden window of opportunity to build the future of our dreams.

"Golden Age"
"Revival"
"Renaissance"
"Roaring 20s"

These are words I rarely saw used until recently.

But now after Trump’s victory early this morning, I suspect we’ll see words like this used all the time.

Since I launched this blog two years ago, I've been saying that America 2.0 is possible—that a Golden Age, an American Renaissance, is within our grasp.

It seems more and more people are beginning to believe it too.

Such a revival would be widely welcomed after the period of major turmoil we've experienced over the past two decades—a period predicted by William Strauss and Neil Howe through their Four Turnings Theory almost 30 years ago.

Here's a very brief overview of each turning:

• First Turning (High): A period of strong institutions, collective progress, and societal optimism.

• Second Turning (Awakening): A time of spiritual renewal, challenging established norms, and emphasizing individualism.

• Third Turning (Unraveling): An era marked by growing individualism, weakening institutions, and societal fragmentation.

• Fourth Turning (Crisis): A time of major upheaval and transformation, leading to the establishment of a new social order.

We have been in a Fourth Turning since the mid-2000s, which has been marked by global financial instability, deepening social and political polarization, and a global pandemic.

While I don't know when this period of turmoil will end, I believe we are nearing a brilliant First Turning for America—a new era of democratizing human flourishing and making our nation a blueprint for the world once again.

Why do I believe we are approaching a new, better chapter in American history?

First, let's state the obvious:

• Trump is an extremely polarizing figure.

• It’s completely reasonable to be upset about his election victory.

• We deserve better candidate

But here’s the major silver lining for me, even though I find a lot about Trump disagreeable.

With the appointment of fearless bureaucracy-busters like RFK, Elon, Vivek, and Ron Paul, I believe foundational technologies will finally be unshackled from the regulatory obstacles that have held back our technological, construction, and industrial sectors for the past 25 years.

I am optimistic that these leadership changes will free us from the Gary Genslers of the world and get the country back on the path of innovating in a way that can, at great scale, help Americans flourish like never before.

America 2.0 is coming.

In America 2.0, we…

• Supercharge our teachers with AI assistants that can help any child learn how they learn best.

• Unshackle and automate medical research to discover treatments and cures faster.

• Desalinate ocean water in a way that minimizes harm to natural ecosystems.

• Seed the clouds to bring rain to arid lands.

• Unleash financial innovation by embracing Bitcoin and decentralized finance.

• Train open-source AI to democratize intelligence.

• Build communication platforms to protect free speech.

• Run small-scale election experiments leveraging cryptography to improve how voting is done.

• Invest in next gen nuclear plants to cheapen the cost of everything.

• Automate home construction to make shelter accessible to all.

• Build next gen factories domestically to strengthen local communities.

• Fabricate our own chips so we’re never held hostage to rivals.

• Clean up our water supply for everyone’s wellbeing.

• Embrace robots to democratize healthy agriculture.

• Create competition for Big Media with AI tools for film and game creation.

• Commoditize satellite internet to bring the cost of connectivity to near-zero.

• Build privacy-preserving assistants to help everyone manage modern life’s growing complexity.

• Create border security technology that keeps out dangerous criminals.

• Build tools to automate administrative work to enhance government efficiency.

• Build communication tech that truly preserves privacy.

• Engineer self-driving cars to lower the cost of getting around.

• Keep building toward space, reaching for the stars.

While there are downsides to any new Presidential administration, if you share my belief that accelerating foundational technologies is key to America's and humanity's flourishing, there's something major to celebrate in the election results.

We are approaching what could be the best era in the past 80 years to build and innovate.

So, what can you do? Get hands-on with local tech meetups, get back into up-skilling yourself for the future economy, support teams creating AI/crypto/etc for the public interest, and/or simply subscribe to this Substack and others’ to keep yourself informed on these issues as you figure out how you want to contribute.

Let's make the most of these next 8 to 12 years. If the actions of a few people over the past year have taught me anything, a single individual can do a lot to help make the America 2.0 dream a reality.

The Golden Age is here if we choose to create it.