🌎⏩ How fast can the global economy grow?

Very fast, perhaps. Very, very fast.

Quote of the Issue

“The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future.” - Frank Herbert, Dune

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The Conservative Futurist: How To Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised

“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.”

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The Essay

🌎⏩ Just how fast can the global economy grow?

The (so far) science fiction idea of the Singularity basically involves computational power and artificial intelligence reaching some critical threshold. Then, with a continuous and rapidly increasing flow of technological improvements spreading throughout the economy, economic growth would surge dramatically — so much so, perhaps, that it is as hard for us to imagine such a world as it would be for the denizens of a two-dimensional world to imagine a cube or sphere. There be dragons!

OK, let’s dial things down a bit. What about economic growth for which there is some historical precedent?