Stagnation has two competing explanations: a bottom-up cultural transformation of humanity into a more docile species, or a top-down account in which the machinery of government was reconfigured to enforce stagnation—evidenced by nuclear power, which was supposed to be the power of the 21st century but was off-ramped worldwide.
causalpending
Speaker
Peter ThielEvidence Quote
“it can be at least partially top down that there is this machinery of government that got changed into this stagnation thing... nuclear power was supposed to be the power of the 21st century. And it somehow has gotten off, ramped all over the world”
Source
A.I., Mars and Immortality: Are We Dreaming Big Enough? | Interesting Times with Ross Douthat— Interesting Times with Ross DouthatCreated: 6/18/2026, 2:32:27 PM
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