Tag Archives: vision

Is The US Still A Liberal Democracy?

In the years since 9/11, the US has built a mosaic of national security powers that undermine its claim to be the “land of the free.” According to this useful summary by Jonathan Turley, these include: Assassination of its own … Continue reading

Posted in Coffee House, Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , , | 23 Comments

New Year Special: 2012 Predictions

It’s been a great year! To recap, in rough chronological order, 2011 saw: The most popular post (with 562 comments and counting; granted, most of them consisting of Indians and Pakistanis flaming each other); Visualizing the Kremlin Clans (joint project … Continue reading

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3000 AD: The Rise Of Polar Civilizations

The river of time flows on, and empires crumble, leaving behind only legend that becomes myth, while new polities arise to take their place. This process of decay and creation is going to receive a boost from “peak energy” and, … Continue reading

Posted in Arctic Visions, Science Fantasy, Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , | 25 Comments

Future Superpowers – The World To 2100

Most current projections of future trends in national power fail to appreciate the importance of three crucial factors: (1) the declining EROEI of energy resources (including, but not limited to, “peak oil”); (2) the importance of human capital to economic … Continue reading

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Decade Forecast, Part 1 – The Downsizing Of Pax Americana

This is the first post in a series of three, in which I will analyze the major trends that will define the next ten years and their likely impacts on global regions. To put these forecasts into context, I must … Continue reading

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Walled Off By Complexity: Did China Stagnate Because Of Its Writing System?

One of the biggest questions in global history is why it was Western Europe that industrialized first, and ended up colonizing most of the rest of the world. As late as 1450, the possibility of such an outcome would have been … Continue reading

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The Radical Ideologies Of The 21st Century

EDIT: This article has been translated into Russian at Inosmi.Ru (Радикальные идеологии 21-го века). Though I’ve written a lot on technological, energy, and geopolitical futures, this has largely been to the neglect of ideology. Part of the reason is that … Continue reading

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Creeping Caesarism: The Enemy Belligerent Act of 2010

Authoritarianism doesn’t always come with bells, whistles and goose-steps. More typically, it develops in a series of interlocking steps – a state of emergency (“war on terror”) here, a couple of indefinite detentions and Presidential hit orders there, their eventual … Continue reading

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New Year Special, Part 2: 2011 Predictions

Carrying on from yesterday’s 2010 in Review, I’ll now lay out my predictions for this year and see how well last year’s stacked up to reality. (1) Last year, I wrote: “World economy continues an anemic recovery, though there are … Continue reading

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New Year Special, Part 1: 2010 in Review

Happy new year to all Sublime Oblivion readers! This blog wouldn’t be what it is without you. In fact, I’d have probably abandoned it after a month or two after a couple of posts as I did with my first … Continue reading

Posted in Arctic Visions, Coffee House, Da Russophile, Sublime Oblivion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 27 Comments