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The Super-Scary Theory of the 21st Century - by Noah Smith

noahpinion.substack.com · 2,056 words · saved by 1 readers

The haunting specter of techno-authoritarianism

I was going to write another economics post, but a friend requested that I share my Super Scary Theory of the 21st Century. So here it is. It’s important to note that I DON’T BELIEVE THIS THEORY IS TRUE. But I don’t fully disbelieve it either. It’s one of those scary big ideas that has a few pieces of anecdotal evidence to support it, but which would represent a huge change in the way the world works, so is probably unlikely. The purpose of this post is not to say “this is the way the world will work,” but rather “here is one scary possibility for how the world might work, and I’m a little…

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