I see fixing mental illness as the number one priority here...that would boost both wealth and wealth plus, though probably the latter by more.

Progress has its own fans, namely those who drive it and benefit from it. So I think the Zeitgeist is not entirely against us. It is a better situation than it looks from the so-called "world of ideas" alone.

Walter Grinder was my very first mentor, I met him when I was 13 or 14 years old. He showed me what a life of reading could look like. But I've had many other mentors along the way, Thomas Schelling being one of the most famous of those, Derek Parfit too. Fischer Black.

I don't have a good answer to the pregnancies question...

I think all states will be much better off in 50 years time. Maybe it is the Midwest that is currently underrated? Lots of great cultural roots there.

Currently it is the moment for Florida and Texas, but I wouldn't say I have a very specific prediction for fifty years out, that is a long time away.

I observe more people migrating to the high-technology countries than away from them...poor countries are hardly safe and secure...

In fact I think computers are the main reason why the game is so much more popular. It gives almost everyone access to what is going on in the board -- that was previously unavailable. and you know exactly how your favorite player is doing. Imagine if we had to watch NBA games without knowing the score! That was pre-computer chess for most observers.

Actual R&D involves so much interface with the real world, I fear that AIs will have a tough time there. So much of R&D is like "gardening." AI will be a significant aide to us, but the humans will remain paramount in those endeavors. Important aides, but complements to us, not some means of replacing us. Thus it is hard to give a percentage.

The degree of federalism in the United States helps as well. I see more decisions and functions of government devolving to the states and even cities. That introduces more political competition into the American system.

Development has a lot to do with culture, and "culture" as a problem never will be solved. And new technologies change which features of a country are most important for development.  Will "manufacture plus export" ever be so important again as it was for Japan and Korea? Doubtful, at least not anytime soon. Poland has been going a very different route. Expect something quite different again from the parts of Africa which succeed.

"Theory" in general is out of style these days. Insights of modernisation theory might end up being tested, but as a "theory" I don't think it will make a comeback. Somehow there is too much academic hyperspecialization for that to happen, and it increasingly seems like the approach of a bygone era. And to be clear, I still have some sympathies for that bygone era, even if most of its hypotheses were wrong.