Where we are headed doesn’t depend on the conductivity of silicon or the depth of Arctic sea ice. It depends on us, and what we do tomorrow and the next day. What’s singular about this moment is the scope of possibility. America is more populous, powerful, and connected than ever. The range of potential consequences of our actions is as open-ended today as it has been since at least 1980, or possibly 1945.

The changes wrought by social media feel momentous, but we’re only a little more than a decade into living online. The accelerating pace of change may work for us as well as against us. In the late 1990s, Microsoft was a colossus, the AT&T of its era. And it was notorious for using its power to suppress competition and restrict any innovation it couldn’t control. A tech magazine ran a cover featuring Bill Gates as a member of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Borg—“Resistance is futile  . . . you will be assimilated”—and the image became one of the internet’s first memes. His company fended off a major antitrust lawsuit from the government, but even so, its dominance didn’t persist. Within just a few years, after the resurgence of Apple, the rise of Google, and the emergence of a dozen other new powers, it was clear that Microsoft, while still a titan, was to be one of many.

Trends can change direction with surprising speed, and no matter what course an economy or culture appears to set, more often than not we end up somewhere else. This chapter proposes possible futures as seen through varying lenses of technology, economics, and policy. As with any good prediction, the value in ours lies in the conversations they catalyze.