Socrates Says

A Paper by Jason Crawford We have already come quite far in our mastery of materials and manufacturing. Our materials have gotten stronger: the tensile strength of stone, or of wood perpendicular to the grain, is on the order of 10 MPa (megapascals, a unit of pressure or stress); classical metals such as bronze and […]

A Paper by Jason Crawford The bold, ambitious future is going to require a tremendous amount of energy. Most people have been taught to believe that energy usage is at best a necessary evil—or perhaps that it’s not even all that necessary. Journalist Cleo Abrams reports that when she first heard a compelling case for […]

Preparing for Humanoid Colleagues CIOs can collaborate with CHROs to reimagine work and help redefine jobs for people and devices A Paper by Tammy Whitehouse, senior writer. Executive Perspectives in The Wall Street Journal, Deloitte Services LP Published on  Jul 25, 2025. Amid significant advances in the development of AI-enabled robotic devices, organizations may face […]

A Paper by Jason Crawford Starting with the first passenger railroads around 1830 through the deployment of passenger jets in the 1960s, powered vehicles have dramatically shrunk travel times, at all scales, from the neighborhood to the world. Yet we are still limited by distance. It matters enormously what city you live in, because it’s […]

A Paper by Jason Crawford I’ve already described why AI has the potential to create a new economic era. Let’s consider what this might look like. In the bold, ambitious future, AI workers may have enough different skillsets to enable entire virtual businesses. Today, if you have an idea for a software application, you might […]

A Paper by Jason Crawford In the bold, ambitious future, we might cure all disease. We are already making progress against cancer and heart disease, by far the largest causes of death in wealthy countries.⁵ Future progress against cancer might come from early detection via blood or imaging, mRNA cancer “vaccines,” improved CAR-T cell therapy, […]