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Uncharted Territories

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Understand the world of today to prepare for the world of tomorrow: AI, tech, longevity, fertility, the future of democracy, energy, education, and more. Click to read Uncharted Territories, by Tomas Pueyo, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Society / politics / economyHistoryAI / ML

’21’22’23’24’25’26
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489 from 5 May 2021 to 30 Oct 2026
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weekly (89 in the last year)
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2026 75

  1. Will AI Save France from Bankruptcy?
  2. Why Is France in Chaos?
  3. Most Intelligence Is Search
  4. The Future of Cryptocurrencies
  5. Bitcoin Is Gold, Stablecoins Are Silver
  6. Why Did Japan Rise So Much, but Then Stagnated?
  7. Why Was Kyoto Japan’s Capital?
  8. Why Is Japan’s Population Shrinking So Much?
  9. How Japan Redrew Asia
  10. How Japan’s Geography Determined Its History
  11. Japan’s 4 Priorities
  12. How Earthquakes Made the Biggest City in the World
  13. Why Is Japan So Populated Despite So Little Land?
  14. What’s the Value of a Life?
  15. How to Get Rid of Mosquitoes Around You
  16. Weapons of Mosquito Destruction
  17. Should We Eradicate Mosquitoes?
  18. ¿Qué está pasando en Ceuta?
  19. What Is Happening in Ceuta?
  20. Shallow Intent: Why People Don’t Like AI Content, and How to Make It Great
  21. Uncharted Territories, the TV Series
  22. How Households Drive History
  23. Space Dispatch
  24. Where Will AI Stocks Go from Here?
  25. The Dress Rehearsal of AI Killing Us All
  26. The UK, Europe, and Canada Are Losing Freedom of Speech
  27. Energy & Environment Dispatch
  28. Dispatch on the Craziness of Wealth Taxes
  29. GeoHistory Dispatch
  30. Geopolitics Dispatch
  31. Religion as Software Business
  32. How Islam Overtakes Christianity
  33. How the Industrial Revolution Changed Architecture
  34. When Architecture Became Self-Conscious
  35. How Christianity Went Viral
  36. Design for Uncharted Territories
  37. Islamismophobia
  38. How Can Europe Improve Its Immigration
  39. Why Europe Shouldn’t Close Its Doors to Immigration
  40. The Criminal, Social, and Economic Cost of Immigrants in the EU
  41. What Immigrants Should the West Accept?
  42. What Do Muslim Immigrants Think in the West?
  43. What Do Muslims Believe ?
  44. 50 Learnings from the War in Iran
  45. The Ruthless Liquidity of Modern Love
  46. Do Women Reproduce More than Men?
  47. Why Did Islam Spread So Fast in North Africa & Spain?
  48. How Did Islam Spread So Fast?
  49. 20 Ideas to Grow New Communities
  50. The Future of Fertility
  51. The Cold Start Problem of New Cities & States
  52. What Products Should We Build?
  53. Work with Me to Change the World of Media with AI
  54. Why Florence Started the Renaissance
  55. How Western Religion Drove Its Architectural Evolution
  56. How Roman Technology Drove Its Architecture
  57. How Geography Determines Architecture | Asia
  58. How Geography Determines Architecture
  59. The Future of Petrostates After Oil
  60. Iran: The Day After
  61. Saudi Arabia’s Ordeal
  62. Can We Build AI in Space?
  63. SpaceX + xAI Merger, IPO, Data Centers and Moon Base
  64. The Resource Cliff
  65. Dubai
  66. Peak Oil Is Coming
  67. The $100M Worker
  68. Not Sustainable ➡️ Abundant
  69. AI in 2026
  70. Updated Evidence on Robotaxis
  71. Is the World a Better Place After the Capture of Maduro?
  72. Is Venezuela’s Oil Worth the Hassle?
  73. Venezuela’s Excrement
  74. If You Want to Improve the Environment, Bet on Economic Growth
  75. The Race between Waymo, Cybercab, and Uber

2025 90

  1. A Trip Around the World of Heat, Mountains, and Poverty
  2. GeoHistory Part 2 | 2025 Q4
  3. GeoHistory Magazine Part 1 | 2025 Q4
  4. Shifting Power Between China, Russia, US, and EU
  5. Space Industries Are Lifting Off
  6. How Ancient Metals Started Civilization
  7. Things I Learned at the 2025 Progress Conference
  8. If I Were King, How Would I Prepare for AI?
  9. AI: How Do We Avoid Societal Collapse and Build a Utopia?
  10. When AI Takes Our Jobs
  11. Compute—the Oil of the 21st Century
  12. When Will We Make God?
  13. Is There an AI Bubble?
  14. Why Is Argentina Poor?
  15. Argentina’s Original Sin
  16. Water Taxis Might Change Urbanism
  17. Argentina Could Be a Superpower
  18. The Consequences of the Silver Flood
  19. How Silver Flooded the World
  20. Final Comments on the Theory of Mountains & Warm Countries
  21. Warm Countries’ Poverty & Mountains: Responses to Your Comments
  22. Why Warm Countries Are Poorer
  23. How to Design a Great City
  24. How Do Villages Grow into Cities?
  25. A Science of Cities
  26. Why the US South Is Poorer than the North, and Why This Is Now Changing
  27. China vs US: Which Geography Is Best?
  28. Never Bet Against America
  29. Climate Predetermined the Outcome of the US Civil War
  30. Climate Caused the US Civil War
  31. Putin’s Mindset on Russia
  32. 6 Fascinating Facts about Moscow and Russia
  33. Why Is Moscow So Weird?
  34. Energy, Environment, Politics | Uncharted Territories Magazine | Summer 2025
  35. Fertility, Sex, Relationships, Real Estate, and Diversity | Uncharted Territories Magazine | Summer 2025
  36. Robotaxis & AI | Uncharted Territories Magazine | Tech Update Summer 2025
  37. GeoHistory Magazine | Q2 2025
  38. How Bread vs Rice Molded History
  39. Why Is Fertility Down, and How Much Should You Worry About It?
  40. The Fundamental Problem with Urbanism
  41. How Silver Made Chinese Empires
  42. Silk, Porcelain, Tea, Opium: 2000 Years of Trade Deficit with China
  43. Jeans, Suits, Athleisure, Saris: Four Examples of Why We Dress the Way We Dress
  44. Will Iran’s Regime Change?
  45. Will Iran Pursue the Nuclear Bomb?
  46. Where Will the Israel – Iran War Go from Here?
  47. Why Did Israel Strike Iran Now?
  48. Iran
  49. Why Were Germany and Italy the Last European Countries to Unify?
  50. Pax Mercatus
  51. A Better Solution for Dating in the 21st Century
  52. The Problem with Dating Apps
  53. Alberta’s Independence from Canada
  54. Why Doesn't North America Speak French?
  55. Will Canada Thaw into Greatness?
  56. How Ice Sculpted Canada
  57. Canada vs the 51st State
  58. Why Is Canada’s Population so Concentrated?
  59. The Four Layers of Fashion
  60. 10 Interesting Updates on Why a World with More Humans Is Better
  61. 16 Most Surprising Facts About Korea
  62. The Force That Drives Korea
  63. 12 Interesting Updates on AI, Immortality, Robotaxis, and More
  64. Why Did Korea Split?
  65. What Are My Politics?
  66. 10 Fascinating GeoHistory Updates
  67. 10 Interesting Facts on Relationships & Sex
  68. Rise Up, Europe!
  69. Why Do We Like Concerts?
  70. Robotaxis Are Here
  71. What Asian Development Can Teach the World
  72. Free Speech in the US vs Europe: Who Is Right?
  73. Reaction to Your Comments on German Elections
  74. What’s at Stake in Germany’s Elections
  75. The Birth of German(y)
  76. Why Japan Succeeds Despite Stagnation
  77. The Steps to AGI
  78. AI Weeks When Decades Happen
  79. The Most Important Time in History Is Now
  80. The Israel–Hamas Ceasefire Won’t Last
  81. Final: So Where Should We Build Ten New Cities in the US?
  82. Ten New US Cities: Satellite Cities
  83. Ten New US Cities: New Lakes
  84. Ten New US Cities: Reviving Lakes
  85. Ten New US Cities: The Salton Sea
  86. Ten New US Cities: 3. Presidio
  87. Ten New US Cities: 2. Starbase
  88. Ten New US Cities: 1. Guantanamo City
  89. Where to Build Ten New Cities in the US, Part 1
  90. The Top 50 US Cities: Why Are They Where They Are?

2024 91

  1. Deserts, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Snow, Paradises, Swamps: Why Do People Live Where They Live in the US?
  2. 100,000 Gifts
  3. 10 Other Places Where Geniuses Hide
  4. The Players of the Syrian Chessboard
  5. What Is Happening in Syria?
  6. Where Geniuses Hide Today
  7. The Moral Case for More People on Earth
  8. The Earth Is Better with More People
  9. What Is the Earth’s Carrying Capacity?
  10. 100 Billion Humans
  11. Is Desalination Everywhere Realistic?
  12. Desalination: a Future of Infinite Water
  13. Wind and Solar, a Perfect Match
  14. 6 Questions You Asked Yourself about Solar
  15. The Latest on Healthcare Research
  16. Become a World-Class Communicator
  17. Interesting News & Game Theory of Sex | Q3 2024
  18. 🪐 How Will We Ride to Mars?
  19. GeoHistory News | Q3 2024
  20. Why Could Lebanon Be Rich, but Is so Chaotic?
  21. How to Beat Cancer with Viruses: An Interview with Beata Halassy
  22. Should You Be Able to Experiment on Your Own Cancer?
  23. How Rivers Shaped States
  24. How Humans Wrestle Against Rivers
  25. The River Dispute That Nearly Killed the Presidents of the US and Mexico
  26. The Aftermath of the Death of Tethys
  27. The Ocean Death That Created Civilization
  28. How to Navigate a Tech World Dominated by AI
  29. How AI Disrupts Tech Investing
  30. Can Solar Costs Keep Shrinking?
  31. The Future of Food from First Principles
  32. When Is Diversity Good?
  33. The Woke Pendulum
  34. How Can Vertical Farms Become Viable?
  35. The Promise of Vertical Farming
  36. Why Is Mexico City the Way It Is?
  37. The Meteoric Rise and Fall of the Aztec Empire
  38. Mexico Before Europeans
  39. What's Mexico’s Future?
  40. 25 Fascinating Facts about Mexico
  41. Why Mexico Is Poorer than the US
  42. Why Is 80% of Mexico Nearly Empty?
  43. Wealth vs Inequality
  44. Why Is Chile So Long?
  45. Sam Altman Must Go
  46. (Mostly) Positive News for This Quarter – Q2 2024
  47. What Would You Do If You Had 8 Years Left to Live?
  48. Watermelons
  49. What's New on the Game Theory of Sex Update | Q2 2024
  50. GeoHistory Update | Q2 2024
  51. What Made Hungary Brilliant?
  52. Budapest
  53. Why Is Hungary So Small?
  54. Rites of Passage in the 21st Century: Marriage, and Death
  55. Rites of Passage in the 21st Century: Birth and Hazing
  56. Coming of Age in the 21st Century
  57. Cathedrals in the Age of the Internet
  58. Cathedrals of the 21st Century
  59. Jamaica: Rum, Slaves, Reggae, Rastafari, and the Island’s Future
  60. Why Was Jamaica a Pirate Capital?
  61. YKINMKBYKIOK
  62. Is Any Real Estate Investment Safe?
  63. Why I Don’t Invest in Real Estate
  64. What Future Problems Matter?
  65. Stories vs Systems
  66. Why Is Bangladesh so Dense and so Threatened by Sea Level Rise?
  67. The Rain Shadow Effect
  68. Atlanta
  69. Why Is Texas Mainly a Triangle?
  70. Game Theory of Sex Update | Q1 2024
  71. Energy, Environment, Aging, and News Update
  72. GeoHistory Update | Q1 2024
  73. How to Become a Communication Wizard
  74. AI and the Future of Work
  75. Everything Else You Want to Know about SO2 Injection
  76. How You Can Easily Delay Climate Change Today: SO2 Injection
  77. Poland’s Priorities Today
  78. The Ghost of Poland’s Past
  79. 🌎 Why Is California the Way It Is?
  80. Add a Social Network to Your Offline Event to Make It More Fun and Help People Meet
  81. The Fight for the Remote Worker
  82. Cities Are Blurring
  83. Why Is Madrid the Capital of Spain?
  84. Charisma = Sex = Humor = Leadership
  85. Who Owns the Megaphone?
  86. Family Wars
  87. The Social Graph of Uncharted Territories
  88. Ask Me Anything Tomorrow Tuesday | Sign up
  89. Why Nuclear Is the Best Energy
  90. There Are 2 Types of Environmentalist
  91. We Can Already Stop Climate Change If We Want To

2023 93

  1. Uncharted Territories as a Business
  2. Uncharted Territories: 2023 and 2024
  3. What Does the Free World Stand For?
  4. Update Q4 2023 (Part 2): News
  5. The Singularity Is Fear
  6. OpenAI and the Biggest Threat in the History of Humanity
  7. How AI Is Changing Jobs Today
  8. Update Q4 2023 (Part 1): Energy, Climate, Geography, and Sex
  9. 50 Shades Against the Gods
  10. How to Solve the Israel/Palestine Problem
  11. What Did a Two-State Solution Look Like?
  12. The Struggle for the Soul of Israel
  13. The Problem of West Bank Settlements
  14. The Three State Solution
  15. The Gaza Trap
  16. Do Arab States Support Palestine?
  17. Who Can Claim Palestine?
  18. Will Israel Be at War?
  19. How to Seduce Men
  20. The Hidden Patterns of Sexual Evolution
  21. Bestial Kingdom
  22. The Shape of Us
  23. Why Do We Have Sex Outside of Ovulation? Why Is Sex Pleasurable? Why Do We Love? When Are Men Choosier?
  24. How Have Women Evolved to Attract Men?
  25. Where Is The Game Theory of Sex Series Going?
  26. Other Ways Men Have Evolved to Have More Children
  27. Invite Your Friends to Read Uncharted Territories
  28. What Makes Men and Women Different?
  29. Ukraine: Everything Else You Wanted to Know
  30. Why Isn’t Ukraine a Global Superpower?
  31. Final Update Q3 2023
  32. Cities, Transportation & Energy Update – Q3 2023
  33. Climate Change Update – Q3 2023
  34. What’s Safer, Suburbs or Cities?
  35. How to Make Cities Safe
  36. How New York Beat Montréal and Québec
  37. Why Is New York So Big?
  38. A Review of My COVID Predictions
  39. What Most People Still Get Wrong About COVID Management
  40. Why Hydrogen Is Not the Answer
  41. Solar Energy Solves Global Warming
  42. 24 Surprising Facts About Climate Change
  43. How Bad Is CO2?
  44. Holiday Update
  45. 🌏 The Nutrients of Life and a Better Alternative to Iron Fertilization
  46. 🌏 Farm the Ocean
  47. It’s Your Fault Too
  48. How to Create a Masterpiece
  49. 🌎 Minneapolis vs St Paul | Kansas City
  50. 🌎 How to Create a New City? An Interview with Mark Lutter
  51. 🌎 How to Create a New City or State?
  52. 💡 What Future Energy Revolutions Do We Need?
  53. 💡 Modern Energy Revolutions
  54. 💡 What Can We Learn About Energy from Ancient Energy Revolutions?
  55. Quarterly Update Q2 2023
  56. 🌍 Seaflooding: Past Experience and Future Plans
  57. 🌎 Seaflooding
  58. Was There a Mythological Flood?
  59. The Megaflood that Created the Mediterranean
  60. No Room for Deep Space
  61. Starship Will Change Humanity Soon
  62. Are Maps Deceitful?
  63. Maps Distort How We See the World
  64. How Chicago Became So Huge
  65. The Rise and Fall of Pittsburgh
  66. Future Humans Are Sporadic Indulgences
  67. Infinite Intelligence Solves Most Problems
  68. Automation: Fear of the Past, Economists’ Mistakes, and More
  69. Can We See the Impact of Automation in the Economics Statistics?
  70. How Fast Will AI Automation Arrive?
  71. When Will AI Take Your Job?
  72. Understand Mars’s Surface Better
  73. What Is the Best Real Estate on Mars?
  74. How You Can Make Uncharted Territories Better, Latest on Masks, and an Interview on the Future of Humanity
  75. Fascinating Facts about the Oceans
  76. Why Are Tropical Waters Dead, and Can They Kill Europe?
  77. Masks Follow-Up: How to Fight Biases
  78. Do Masks Work?
  79. Results of the Survey on How to Improve Uncharted Territories
  80. Quarterly Update Q1 2023
  81. Why Is Burma a Military Dictatorship with Constant Civil War?
  82. Why 50% of the World's Population Lives in This Circle?
  83. Brazil, Part II: Everything Else You Didn’t Know You Wanted to Know About Brazil
  84. Can Brazil Become a Superpower?
  85. The Amazon Rainforest
  86. Premium Subscribers: How to Improve Uncharted Territories
  87. Uncharted Territories: What's Coming in 2023
  88. A Mental Epidemic
  89. Why is Java So Weird?!
  90. Incorporate Information Immediately
  91. The Ceiling of Building Up
  92. How Transportation Technologies Shaped Empires, Part 2: Human Spread and Limited Conquests
  93. How Transportation Technologies Shaped Empires

2022 82

  1. A Connected Place
  2. How Transportation Technologies Shape Cities
  3. Why Cities Are Fractal
  4. The Problem with Elon’s Management
  5. Why Some Cities Thrive
  6. Twitter 2.0, Final Part: Ads and User Acquisition
  7. A Roadmap for Twitter, Part 2: Subscriptions
  8. What Should Twitter Do Next? Part 1: Retention
  9. Quarterly Update Q4 2022
  10. Generative AI: What Companies Will Win?
  11. Generative AI: Everything You Need to Know
  12. Boring ≠ Serious
  13. Why the World Becomes Progressive
  14. Why Did Vikings Appear Out of Nowhere?
  15. Freedom Will Always Win
  16. How to Design an Online Watercooler
  17. How to Prepare Dates and Find Business Partners
  18. Standing on the Shoulders of Gnomes
  19. The UK's Unique Monarchy, Language, and Freedom
  20. A Brief History of the UK
  21. German Nuclears: Main Takeaways, Latest News, and Full Interview
  22. Will the German Nuclear Reactors Continue Operating? An Interview with Mark Nelson
  23. Let Others Speak Over You
  24. Why Is Elon Musk Having So Many Kids with So Many Women
  25. Ruble, Appeasers, and How Climate Change Might Decide the Winner of Russia’s Invasion
  26. How to Fight Putin, Climate Change, and Your Energy Bills
  27. The Blue Pill Is Better
  28. Why Is Pakistan Drowning and China Drying?
  29. Why Do 900 Million People Speak Spanish and Portuguese the Way They Do?
  30. Why Catalonia Is Part of Spain but Portugal Is Not?
  31. A Brief History of Portugal
  32. A Brief History of Spain
  33. The Future of NFTs
  34. What NFTs Can Learn from Art and Luxury
  35. What NFTs Can Learn from Art and Luxury
  36. August Updates 2022
  37. The Logic of Myths
  38. The Secret of the Universe
  39. Why Countries Are Shooting Themselves in the Foot
  40. Assholes All the Way Down
  41. Martels vs Hasfiris
  42. What Will Happen If We Never Die?
  43. The 4 Ways You Might Live Forever
  44. What the History of Finance Can Tell Us About a Better Democracy
  45. The Democracy of the Future
  46. How to Understand France
  47. France's Bowels
  48. Thank You
  49. Tech Winter vs. Inflation
  50. An Interview with Eva Maydell, Euro-parliamentarian
  51. You’re a Piece of Software
  52. May Updates 2022: COVID, the future of nation-states, Germany’s nuclear, plastics, intellectual honesty, Substack’s roadmap, Russia, and Africa’s colonization
  53. Why Europeans Colonized America Before Africa
  54. The Future of Written News
  55. The Future of Substack
  56. The Fire Inside
  57. Why Is Fertility Down, and What Can Be Done About It?
  58. Why Germany Won’t Keep Its Nuclear Plants Open
  59. The Man Who Made 50,000 Babies
  60. Children Equal Power
  61. The Twin Revolutions of Politics and Fertility
  62. Hypergrowth Society
  63. Schrödinger's Gun
  64. Network Wars
  65. The United States of Europe
  66. The Future of the European Union
  67. How Elon Musk Defies the Laws of Gods
  68. Citizen Kane Moments of Innovation
  69. The Core Formula of Internet Businesses
  70. Why Spotify Won’t Take Down Joe Rogan
  71. Platforms and Aggregators
  72. The Ineluctable Progress of English
  73. Debate Is Broken. How to Improve It
  74. How to Give Feedback Tactfully and Specific COVID Predictions
  75. AI Does It Best
  76. COVID: End(emic) Game
  77. Coronavirus: Game Over
  78. The Future of Russia
  79. How to Fight the Retail Apocalypse
  80. Russia's Dilemma
  81. How to Give Quality Feedback
  82. Uncharted Territories in 2022: What Do You Want to Read?

2021 58

  1. 2021: Uncharted Territories Year in Review
  2. Anti-Vaxxing, Conspiracy Theories, and Confirmation Bias
  3. Should You Vaccinate Your Kids?
  4. Omicron Follow-Up 1: Simpson's Paradox vs. the Upper Respiratory Tract Hypothesis
  5. The Omicron Question
  6. The Future of Governance and Progress, with Jason Crawford
  7. The Past, Present, and Future of Energy: a Conversation with Jason Crawford
  8. Concentration of Force and the Future of Social Impact
  9. How to Get Feedback
  10. How to Reduce Ocean Plastics
  11. Does Free Will Exist?
  12. The Splintering of the African Horn
  13. Egypt vs. Ethiopia
  14. How to Fight Ocean Plastic
  15. How to Change Beliefs
  16. The Tree of Knowledge
  17. The Importance of Migration in the 21st Century
  18. Non Plus Ultra
  19. Playing Catch-Up with the US
  20. The Illusion of Nation-States
  21. The End of Nation-States
  22. The Dictatorship of the Nile
  23. Society Is a Brain
  24. You’re a Neuron
  25. The Other Long COVID Effects
  26. The Most Alarming Problem about Long COVID
  27. How to Pick Your Skill Stack
  28. How to Become the Best in the World at Something
  29. Deep Dive on How Internet and Blockchain Will Kill Nation-States
  30. Internet Will Kill Nation-States
  31. 14 More Tips from a Financial Advice Industry Insider
  32. How to Invest: The Few Key Things You Need to Know
  33. COVID FAQ Summer 2021, Part 2
  34. COVID FAQ Summer 2021, Part 1
  35. What China Wants and Why
  36. Merchants of Risk
  37. Distribute the Future
  38. A Brief History of India and the Indian Subcontinent
  39. Delta Variant: Everything You Need to Know
  40. The Latest on Remote Work and How to Use S-Curves to Invest
  41. Should Everybody Learn English?
  42. The Rise and Fall of Civilizations—and What It Means for the US
  43. History’s Network Effects
  44. A Brief History of the Caribbean, Part 2
  45. A Brief History of the Caribbean
  46. S Curves
  47. A Space-Crafted Chessboard
  48. The Global Chessboard
  49. How to Consume the News
  50. Remote Work Is Inexorable
  51. Geography Is the Chessboard of History: Bonus Content
  52. The Mental Pitfalls of COVID
  53. What You Want, Switzerland, and How to Become a 3D Conversationalist
  54. How to Make Your Conversations Hyperproductive: 3D Conversation
  55. The Top 25 Mistakes of COVID Mismanagement
  56. Geography Is the Chessboard of History
  57. The Fail West
  58. Enter the Uncharted Territories of the 21st Century