depositphotos Here are two different versions of American nationalism:
Version 1: High tech is evil, part of the woke conspiracy to radicalize America. We need to go back to muscular old industries like coal and steel and autos, which employ lots of blue color workers. We need to revive the Rust Belt. EVs are a fad. Brick and mortar stores are better than Amazon. Silicon Valley is full of lots of immigrants from non-white countries. The Bay Area no longer looks like America.
Version 2: China is our greatest adversary. The battle of the 21st century will be determined by who controls AI, which will impact the battle for military supremacy. We need to import vastly more high skilled engineers from places like India and China. This will strengthen America and weaken China. Greater San Francisco is our most important city, by far. It has the smartest people and it is where the future of AI will be determined.
I am certainly no expert on artificial intelligence. But people much smarter than me insist that military supremacy in the 21st century will be determined by which country achieves AGI first.
It seems to me that there are two types of American nationalism. One type might be called “nostalgic nationalism.” A yearning to recreate the America of the 1950s. Another type might be called “future-oriented nationalism” and focuses on winning the race to control AI and thus dominate the world.I’m not at all sure that what I’ve called future-oriented nationalism is actually nationalism at all. In that case, it might make more sense to think of a single nationalism with internal contradictions. Nostalgic nationalism is the real thing, but it’s full of internal contradictions. Its proponents wish to go back to the 1950s, but they also want to confront the threat of a rising China. Can we do both? PS. Neither of these versions of nationalism reflects my own view.More By This Author:Ask a stupid question . . .Nominal GDP As An Indicator When China Innovates
