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The Conspiracy Trap

Conspiracies are per­fect for sim­ple think­ing. Because con­spir­a­cy is by def­i­n­i­tion some­thing that explains every­thing. A real­ly great con­spir­a­cy explains some­thing that has already hap­pened and some­thing that’s going to happen.

The Conversation #19 — Joseph Tainter

I see a set of con­straints fac­ing us in the future, and they’re all going to be very expen­sive. First is fund­ing retire­ments for the Baby Boom gen­er­a­tion. Second is con­tin­u­ing increas­es in the costs of health­care. The third is replac­ing decay­ing infra­struc­ture. The fourth is adapt­ing to cli­mate change and repair­ing envi­ron­men­tal dam­age. The fifth is devel­op­ing new sources of ener­gy. The sixth is what I see as in all like­li­hood con­tin­u­ing high mil­i­tary costs. The sev­enth is the costs of innovation.