2026 Mid-terms: Voting for the Future

Mike Magee Oct 30, 2026• By MIKE MAGEE This week, New York Times political columnist, Linda Kindler reflected on “How Silicon Valley Stole the Future.” Signaling that this wasn’t simply another article on the binary choices of an AI world – or as she put it “either a world in which A.I. has eliminated all jobs, unleashed bioengineered viruses and enabled catastrophic warfare or a utopia in which the technology gives people ‘greater power to live life as they choose.’” Instead, the AI discussion steered away from Fellow Times columnist, Thomas Friedman’s scary Halloween AI piece the day before (“We Just Set Off the Second Big Bang”) and focused instead on the work of Jonathan White, the Professor of Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science where he teaches on democracy, political thought and political theory. Professor White’s message was a clear warning not to abdicate control over AI to the Tech bro’s, in that “the capacity to imagine alternatives that may be improbable and to pursue them against the odds” is a “democratic resource.” In Kindler’s words, White argues, “When the future increasingly seems like something to avoid rather than something to look f...