Nearly 25% Through the 21st Century
And what a time we've had!
First, thank you my 101 subscribers! I am so grateful for your support, time, and dedication. And while you may have been expecting (or fearing) another Dear Mr. Paulson story, I discovered that we on on the brink of making history. We must prepare.
I was reading The New York Times, and there it was.
We are nearly 25% through the 21st century.
My first thought was: Wait, what?
Then: That can’t be right.
Then: No one told me.
Alexa! Just ink? For shame.
We’re not quite there. We have until December 31, 2025.
I’m quite excited. Who doesn’t love a countdown?
Remember Y2K? That was a cliffhanger.
Would the clock tick over into 2021?
Tick. Cue champagne.
And we moved on—rapidly.
AT WARP SPEED
The pace of change has been so rapid that someone from 2000 would barely recognize daily life in 2025.
Dial‑up (thankfully) gave way to high‑speed internet and constant, unrelenting connectivity.
Remember blockbuster? There’s a rumor it’s having a renaissance—but we stream now.
Smartphones track, record, and analyze nearly every aspect of our lives. Somehow we like that.
We became very social. Online.
Artificial intelligence moved from a theoretical concept to something like unsettlingly close to Hal.
But wait! There’s more. A brief, entirely incomplete recap of how this first quarter went down:
Dot‑com crash
9/11
2008 financial crisis
Brexit
Politics—I’ll leave it at that
Climate collapse
More wars
Trade Wars
COVID‑19
More wars
Trade wars
I had started to think we were a bit meh about this quarter century.
But no. We’re dazed. Fried.
And yes, of course, every era has had its problems.
But not this many, this fast, and on every front.
Still, we adapted.
Embraced radical change because we had no other choice.
And before the play is called on this quarter, I really need Sam Altman to say:
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it through.”
But the Century Is Still Young!
Only 25.
Awkward. Not fully realized.
Full of bad decisions.
Heavily influenced by TikTok.
There’s still time to grow up — 75 years of it.
(Though I wouldn’t, you know, linger. Team AI moves fast.)
But it can’t deliver a Hail Mary. I asked. (Enemies closer.)
Here’s what ChatGPT said:
The short answer is no—not in the way humans can.
It went on to say why. At some length.
It can generate outcomes, optimize strategies, even simulate inspiration.
But it doesn’t risk anything.
It doesn’t flinch, gamble, or care.
There’s no personal cost. No leap of faith.
No “this better work or we’re toast.”
A Hail Mary isn’t just a play.
It’s a surrender to chaos with just enough belief that something might break your way.
And that’s a very human move.
I then asked, no guts, no glory?
It said: Exactly. AI has no guts, and therefore—no glory.
So What Is Next?
Oh no, I lost my Magic 8 ball.
So I checked in with NASA. Nostradamus. Claude. The usual suspects.
And discovered something nearly shocking.
According to the never-wrong New York Post, Chat was asked to channel Nostradamus and make future predictions.
Poor Nostradamus.
His entire strategy. Dark. Deliberately vague. Endlessly adaptable.
Blown to bits.
I guess he didn’t see that coming.
All the more reason to celebrate this coming quarter-end.
I see The Waldforf Astoria has been nicely glossed up.
DM me my invitation.
We’ve gone thru a full century in 25 years. I feel old.