Global economist Peter Middlebrook has advised governments in many nations on modernization and economic policy, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Rwanda, Afghanistan, India, and the UK as well as the United Nations, the EU and the World Bank. He joins the Futurists to share his perspective about the current and future trajectory of capitalist economies and geopolitics. Topics include: the fate of 250 million displaced people; how governments drive up the cost of housing and other assets when they inflate away debt; what happens when Western nations attempt to combine capitalist economies with socialist policies; why Asia represents the greatest growth opportunity of the future; why the United States seeks to consolidate South America; why the BRIC nations are de-dollarizing trade; why the future economy is both hyperlocal and hyper global; the illusion of the free market and the growing significance of industrial policy; why multimillionaires are fleeing from the UK; why Western nations need strategic plans.

The Futurists starts 2026 with a stimulating conversation with serial entrepreneur Matt Miesnieks, a true pioneer of AR/XR and spatial computing. In his new startup venture, Primate AI, Matt is focused on a novel approach to artificial intelligence. He intends to construct spatial and dimensional concepts that replicate the way humans develop a mental model of the real world. Topics in this episode: how the limitations of LLMs create opportunities for new approaches, such as Yann LeCun’s JEPA (Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture); the distinction between trying to understand the real world and trying to generate new worlds; why it is so hard to get a robot to cross a busy street safely; why 3D world models are needed; what happens when the real world is machine-readable.

Technology innovator Akshay Chopra joins the Futurists to discuss his new book: “After Us: A Tale of Life Beyond Superintelligent AI.” In this work of speculative fiction, Chopra posits scenarios of a world dominated by a benevolent superintelligence. Topics include: the challenge of envisioning a positive outcome in a world organized by AI; the perils of AI-induced delusions; AI as an evolution of mankind, not a substitute for humanity; the Dataism philosophy and the Panspermia hypothesis; the appeal and relevance of magical realism; how AI denialism is a form of grief processing as we mourn the loss of our status as a species; the struggle to think exponentially instead of linearly; the threats that Akshay thinks we should be concerned about.

http://mybook.to/afterus/opt/1