Long-form writing on power, institutions, freedom and responsibility. Who Owns Tomorrow? is the foundational companion essay to the book. The continuing essay series begins with the 1812 essay through Tolstoy and War and Peace. AI audio abstracts and AI essay conversations are collected on this page, separate from the individual essay reading pages.
Foundational essay + continuing series
Foundational essay
Who Owns Tomorrow?
Capitalism, Feudalism, and the Multiplied Master
The direct long-form companion to Pocket Guide to Capita(feuda)lism. It develops the book’s central question through authority, ownership, work, risk and claims on another person’s future.
A short AI-generated listening abstract of this essay. Use it as an orientation; the full essay remains the primary text.
AI-generated summary · not a full narration
AI Essay Conversation≈ 52 min
A longer AI-generated two-host discussion that explores the essay’s arguments, tensions and implications. It is a listening companion, not a replacement for the source text.
Discussion guide
How does authority change when the visible master is replaced by institutions, contracts and platforms?
What is gained when modernity separates judicial, political, economic and administrative functions?
When does formal freedom become materially difficult to exercise because exit is costly?
How do time, debt, schedules, data and reputation become claims on a person’s future?
Where does the feudal analogy illuminate modern dependency — and where does it fail?
Which safeguards preserve exit, voice, ownership, security and time?
AI-generated two-host discussion · verify quotations and sources in the essay
Essay series · No. 01
Who Owns Tomorrow in 1812?
Leo Tolstoy and War and Peace as a prism of power, freedom and responsibility
The first essay in the continuing series compares ordinary lives and institutions across the Russian Empire, Europe, North America and New Spain in 1812.
A short AI-generated listening abstract of this essay. Use it as an orientation; the full essay remains the primary text.
AI-generated summary · not a full narration
AI Essay Conversation≈ 44 min
A longer AI-generated two-host discussion that explores the essay’s Tolstoy reading, historical comparisons and central question of practical freedom. It is a listening companion, not a replacement for the source text.
Discussion guide
What does 1812 look like from an ordinary household rather than a battlefield map?
How do Tolstoy’s characters expose the gap between intention, role and consequence?
How did serfdom, conscription, property, family and local institutions shape practical freedom?
Why compare Russian, Ukrainian, Habsburg, Prussian, French, British, American and New Spanish settings?
What does it mean to measure freedom through exit, voice, portability, security and usable time?
What can Tolstoy see that a table cannot — and what can institutional comparison reveal that fiction cannot?
AI-generated two-host discussion · verify quotations and sources in the essay