This week on The Hope Axis, I’m happy to welcome back Eli Dourado. Eli has joined us before in Interintellect salons, and now he’s on the podcast to revisit some of the ideas we talked about in the past. He previously worked at the Abundance Institute and is now the Head of Strategic Investments at Astra. We talk about abundance, progress, and what it takes to help the world flourish a little bit more. Hope you enjoy.
For the full transcript of our conversation, click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mO1maYYI0KzoR-lrjkhB9w9IZbT1XZFc/view?usp=sharing
Important Links:
X (Twitter) – https://x.com/elidourado
Astera – https://astera.org/team/eli-dourado/ .
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/elidourado
Substack – https://www.elidourado.com/
Show Notes:
(00:00) Guest Introduction
(01:51) Why Joseph Tainter
(09:45) The Great Stagnation
(15:13) Imagining Someone in 1866
(16:48) Hungary
(22:24) The Fragility of Economic Growth
(26:02) Complexity
(29:56) Chernobyl as The Cause of USSR's Collapse
(32:32) The Uneven Stagnation, Explaining Mismanagement
(39:16) The Nature of The Elites
(43:05) Staving off the Collapse, History and the Future
(50:05) Diminishing Marginal Returns
(55:24) How to Rebuild Faith in the System
Books, Essays & References Mentioned:
The Collapse of Complex Societies — Joseph Tainter
The Great Stagnation — Tyler Cowen
End Times — Peter Turchin
Collapse — Jared Diamond
Cliodynamics
Total Factor Productivity
The Roman Empire
The Soviet Union
Industrial Revolution
Diminishing marginal returns
Resource subsidies
Technological progress
Nihilism in stagnating societies
Expansion into the solar system
Complexity budget
