There’s not a single discussion going on in American politics at the federal level that is not some version of the US circling the drain (I’m American). The bright spots (state/local level) are very limited (psychedelic therapies research comes to mind).<p>Abroad there are some bright spots, though Americans will sparsely here of them:<p>1 Taiwan’s civic tech - using software to aid in crowdsourcing democratic options and discussion<p>2 Amsterdam’s circular economy project - investing in comprehensive analysis and rule-making focusing on reducing waste of all kinds - construction, pollution, consumables etc<p>I’ve looked at these last two personally, here’s a short list of similar projects (from chatgpt) if you’re interested<p>Barcelona Superblocks<p>New Zealand Wellbeing budget<p>Estonia’s e-governance<p>South Korea Smart City initiatives<p>Finland’s basic income experiment<p>Portugal’s participatory budgeting<p>Also El Salvador’s interests in Crypto is … interesting though too early to tell if this will be of real benefit to citizens at scale.<p>Historically all great “empires” have all fallen, and the US is right on pace for academics who study these things - our descent has begun. However there is one thing that’s different now. The speed of tech development will begin to outpace all other human forces that shape our civilization.<p>Taiwan is the leader in using tech for enhancing democratic participation. Can’t stress enough how valuable that might be if used correctly.<p>And of course, AI should accelerate the bioengineering, geoengineering, and perhaps some type of financial/economic engineering that could pull us from the brink.<p>I’m hoping that an AI future may make us happier and more sovereign, but the momentum towards a corporate techno feudalistic dark age, where government, citizens, and institutions are all bought and paid for by private mega corps, is growing.