Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking

Will “this trend of relative slowdown, of big ideas stumbling rather than soaring... continue and intensify over the next century,” wonders Bhaskar (Curation), cofounder of Canelo Digital Publishing, in this uneven survey. Humankind “simply knows more now than at any other time,” he writes before outlining the Great Stagnation Debate, which argues that, for decades, society has been stuck and complacent, neither inventing flying cars nor curing cancer and amounting to a “broken promise.” Previously, innovations came rapidly—modern human lives would have been unimaginable to people who lived 200 years ago, largely in the dark and within a few miles of where they were born. The previous century brought such game-changers as vaccinations, flight, and the UN General Assembly’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But what’s to show for this century, Bhaskar laments, is largely digital technology thought up in a “safe, predictable fashion.” As he considers what will become of the future, his execution is meandering and alarmist, and his fervent call that “the human frontier is our responsibility... we have to get this right” falls flat. While the author’s passion is undeniable, his plaint doesn’t satisfy. (Oct.)