That Was The Year in Tech: When Nothing Happened (except Everything, Everywhere, All at Once)
That was the year in tech. When nothing and yet everything happened. A year betwixt and between, simultaneously revolutionary and uneventful. That's the ironic conclusion Keith Teare and I reach about Silicon Valley in 2025. It's as if the AI revolution is changing the world without us fully noticing. AI has become electricity—ubiquitous and essential, yet barely noticed. So what will happen on the tech front (or not happen) in 2026? Will it be another year in which nothing happened (except everything, everywhere, all at once). Or are we reaching 1789 or 1917 or 1989—a grand historical year where the logjam breaks and tech formally takes over the world? A true end and beginning of history. The first real year of the tech 21st century.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Episode 2245: Is it really "not hard" to be a billionaire these days?
Episode 2244: Tim Wu on how to decentralize capitalism
Episode 2243: Nick Bryant on why Trump 2.0 is as historic as the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Episode 2242: Ian Goldin on the past, present and future of migration
Episode 2241: Gaia Bernstein on the Threat of AI Companions to Children
Episode 2240: Ray Brescia on how our private lives have been politicized by social media
Episode 2239: Frank Vogl on why Trump's financial deregulation is likely to lead to another global economic crash
Episode 2238: What to make of J.D. Vance's speech at the Paris AI Summit
Episode 2237: Matthew Karp explains how progressives can successfully bulldoze America
Episode 2236: Colum McCann and Dianne Foley on what a mother said to her son's ISIS executioner
Episodes 2235: Jeffrey Toobin on whether we all deserve second chances
Episode 2234: Walter Mosley on Easy Rawlins, King Oliver and the history of fictional black American detectives
Episode 2233: John Kay on why (almost) everything we are told about business is wrong