What’s in the book
Free. Fair. Forward. is a wide ranging book that eludes traditional genre categorization or the typical “elevator pitch” summary — it contains six parts:
Learning how we perceive ourselves and each other
Learning how we (try to) talk to each other
Learning how societies (including our own society) are structured
Rethinking how we support each other
Considering alternatives to our current structure of government
Other specific policy suggestions
Each part builds a bit upon the preceding parts but could also stand on its own if the reader is only interested in a narrow segment of the topic at hand: How do we recognize and then get past the unnecessary artificially-imposed barriers that prevent us from collaborating effectively? How do we as a society respect everyone’s time and attention — balancing freedom and fairness to make forward progress over the next 250 years of the on-going American experiment?
[For readers in other parts of the world or at different moments in time, feel free to borrow and adapt the ideas in the book for your own sociomorphic circumstances.]
For those too excited to wait for a copy of the published book (and those who have already read the book and want to do a deeper dive on a certain topic), I’ve provided an annotated bibliography below that corresponds to things I’ve read, watched, and listened to during my lifetime that informed how I wrote Free. Fair. Forward. (Or that I subsequently discovered but thought that readers might be interested in.)
Annotated Bibliography
under development / check back again soon
History & Societal Evolution
Why America's Parties Are Crumbling and What Happens NextFrank J. Distefano / ISBN 978-1-633-88508-0 This book is a mix of American history and political philosophy. I referenced it several times in my book, and it served as a core jumping off point for the original version of the titular chapter of Free Fair Forward.
A New History of HumanityDavid Graeber & David Wengrow / ISBN 978-0-374-15735-7This is an amazing book, which packs in more of human history, sociology, and culture than any book has a right to. This book helped me to frame out my thoughts around the long arc of societal evolution and helped me to grasp how the “3 freedoms” and “3 dominations” form a dialectical boundary that drives cultural evolution in a society.
Alan Weisman / ISBN 978-1-905264-03-2The book is a counterfactual revelation about a world where humans suddenly disappear. By explaining how the built environment, infrastructure, and material goods currently would impact and retreat into nature, Weisman brings into sharp relief all of the ways that we as a society are impacting (or not impacting) the natural environment. It is a must-read for anyone trying to understand the real hazards and risks of natural disasters and man-made catastrophes (and conversely how to avoid overestimating our impact on the environment).
How A Religious Revolution Secularized SocietyBrad S. Gregory / ISBN 978-0-674-08805-4This book provides a detailed and deeply researched history of the intersection and interplay of religion and science in Western society over the past 500 years.
The Fates of Human SocietiesJared Diamond / ISBN 978-0-393-31755-8In retrospect, this book provides an overly deterministic approach to the evolution of society. However, it was personally one of my first introductions thinking about how societies evolve, interact, and grow (or collapse) globally and over long the course of centuries and millennia.
The Mind, Morality, and Being Human
William MacAskill / ISBN 978-1-541-60403-2This book is centered around an argument in favor of “longtermism” including an overview of several competing types of moral philosophy. It was thought provoking and provided a framework for weighing what “better” means with regard to choices in society, which inspired the conclusion of Free Fair Forward.
The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply SeenDavid Brooks / ISBN 978-0-593-23007-7I started reading this book just as I was finishing the edits of the first full draft of my book. I found it deeply insightful and a natural compliment to Free Fair Forward — focusing more on the intimately personal nature of building genuine relationships with other people.
A Guide to Spirituality Without ReligionSam Harris / ISBN 978-1-4516-3602-4This book explores the nature of consciousness and what it means to be a conscious person in a world full of other people.
Thoughts of a Citizen-ScientistRichard P. Feynman / ISBN 978-0-465-02394-3This book is full of insights about the intersection of civics, philosophy, and science in society.
Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply AgainJohann Hari / ISBN 978-0-593-13851-9This book explores what it truly means to pay attention and be mindful in modern society (and the apps and algorithms at the heart of the attention-seeking Silicon Valley business model are making it impossible to focus).
Economics, Aspirational Governance, and Barriers to Progress
Barnes & Noble Collectible EditionsCompilation / ISBN 978-1-4351-3930-5This book includes a copy of the US Constitution but also provides additional documents and political writings that help to put the Constitution within the context of the time it was written.
Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson / ISBN 978-1-668-02348-8This book came out when I was in the middle of writing Free Fair Forward, and I read it straight thru in a matter of a couple weeks (as opposed to my typical plodding pace). Since initially reading it, I have heard it referenced on any number of podcasts — and for good reason. It helped to put into words some of the problematic aspects of modern-day “progressive” politics (and helped me to further understand why I have a hard time adopting the moniker even as I continually advocate for social progress). I can only hope that the concepts in Abundance — the drive to build useful things rather than obstruct them — catch on in American politics and society more generally.
Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your CorporationJames P. Womack & Daniel T. Jones / ISBN 978-0-7432-4927-0This book helped me to understand economic and process efficiencies in business. The concepts in this book are at the center of most successful post-World War II American and international corporations, especially those focused on a physical manufacturing (but also industries as varied as medicine and government bureaucracies). This book is a must read for anyone trying to participate in or influence for-profit companies or global supply chains.
From oil dependency to local resilienceRob Hopkins / ISBN 978-1-900322-18-8I read this book in graduate school when I was studying climate change science. It helped me to rethink local resiliency — introducing concepts about establishing local and alternative currencies and prompting considerations about what it would truly mean for a community to be self-sufficient.
Adventures of a Curious CharacterRichard P. Feynman / ISBN 978-0-393-31604-0This is a genuinely amusing book to read, and it has a number of anecdotes that highlight how absurd bureaucratic processes impact the way we perform science in America.
A Pandemic StoryMichael Lewis / ISBN 978-0-393-88236-5This book shows how a lack of coordination between disparate health agencies at the local, state, and national levels resulted in a failure to predict and ultimately provide a reasonable, measured, and appropriate science-based response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Understanding the Physical Universe
The Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary EditionStephen Hawking / ISBN 978-0-553-38016-3At this point it almost seems trite to recommend this book, but it is a modern classic for a reason. It allowed me to start understanding time as a discrete property of the universe that influences how we experience life, the universe, and everything.
String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent DesignLeonard Susskind / ISBN 978-0-316-01333-8This book helped to shape my understanding of the nature of reality and the physical universe.
My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum MechanicsLeonard Susskind / ISBN 978-0-316-01641-4 This book helped to shape my understanding of the nature of reality and the physical universe.
Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of RealityRichard Panek / ISBN 978-0-547-57757-9 This book helped to shape my understanding of the nature of reality and the physical universe.
An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern MysticismFritjof Capra / ISBN 978-1-57062-519-0I read this book shortly after college, and I don’t remember a lot of the details. However, I recall that it was one of the first times I started consider the parallels between the questions that physicists try to answer and those contemplated by eastern religious traditions (and by juxtaposition western religious traditions).
Deeply Philosophical
Barnes & Noble Collectible EditionsDouglas Adams / 978-0-307-29181-3This is by far my favorite fiction book (if you can really call it a single book as opposed to a vast compendium), which upon first reading helped me to grasp the ungraspable nature of reality. It is one of the few books that I’ve read more than once in life and will likely read again at least a few more times before I die (should I be so lucky).
The Original Uncut VersionRobert A. Heinlein / ISBN 978-0-441-78838-5 I encountered the term “grok” many times in life and could never find a proper definition (only the Wikipedia article explaining the concept and referencing this book). As I started to compile some of my previous blog posts into my book, I came across my own previous reference to grok and realized that I could not publish a book featuring the term without fully digesting the context where it originated. I was certainly not disappointed and only regret that I hadn’t read it earlier in life.
Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second FoundationIssac Asimov / ISBN 978-0-307-59396-2I originally checked this book out of the library early on in life (I believe it was high school, but it might have been in my early twenties.), and then later knew I had to buy a copy for myself. The sci-fi narrative stories in this trilogy drove my initial interest, but the concepts about how societies evolve were revolutionary to me when I first read them and stuck with me as I approached politics as an adult.
Both Stories in a Single Book George Orwell / ISBN 978-0-15-101026-4These two 20th Century classics each explore extreme and terrifying ways in which government and society can get locked into destructive, self-defeating, and freedom-crushing patterns of behavior if left unchecked. While written within the context of the Cold War, Orwell provides metaphors that seem to perpetually fit to the current sociopolitical moment (or the one that might be just around the corner if any form of autocracy or populism is left unchecked).
Imagining the Future of Society, Technology, and the Environment
Paolo Bacigalupi / ISBN 978-0-385-35287-1Set in Southwestern USA with a vision of one possible future where existing water shortages run headlong into a breakdown of a strong federal government and national unity.
Paolo Bacigalupi / ISBN 978-1-59780-158-4Set in Asia with a vision of one possible future where climate change and genetic engineering of food crops and domesticated animals run amok.
Omnibus Books One and TwoDaniel Jeffries / ISBN 978-1-539-18508-6Set in Asia where a decentralized “crypto” blockchain introduces a form of AI-assisted direct democracy as an alternative to current Chinese communist regime.
Neal Stephenson / ISBN 978-0-06-302805-0A novel about the lengths people and governments will go to when faced with existential threats from climate change.
Ted Chiang / ISBN 978-1-101-94788-3An entertaining compendium of short stories each based on a new or unique “technology” that reshapes the nature of reality.
Economics
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Innovative Technologies
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Historical Context
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