Benlandautaylor

No civilization lasts forever. But while every civilization falls apart eventually, there is no law of the universe to tell us when. Each stage of a civilization's lifecycle can be longer or shorter, sometimes by centuries. More importantly for us today,

In 2012 I moved back home to Boston and got involved with the local Less Wrong group. The people were cool but the organization was moribund, with the organizers puttering along only out of a begrudging sense of duty. I started throwing some group events

I've talked to many people who imagine that their political reforms will fix all our problems, and then once they've done so, the people will be grateful and appreciate their new, functional society and all the great things you've given them, so things wi

Students of history often take a very long view of the world. I knew this when I started my research. What surprised me is how this perspective helps think clearer about the future. Most people intellectually agree that at some point our civilization will

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Every group of people-every civilization, every nation, every corporation, every community theater troupe-is either growing stronger and more functional and better at its job, or else decaying and becoming weaker and more confused. Time marches on. Stagna

Every institution is meant to produce something. This might be something concrete, like cars or pants, or it might be intangible, like law or knowledge. An institution that succeeds at this task then accumulates wealth. The company tasked with producing c

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Several times in my life I've tried to break in with a new social group. I ran into a cool community I wanted to join, or I moved to a new city and wanted to make friends there, or I just wanted to broaden my horizons.Pretty quickly I learned that the bes