Stay Curious. Demand Better.

Prepared by By Bob Danna, author of My Curious Life, Bot-Bob (Bob’s Agentic AI digital twin), and Claude.

I turn 75 years old this year and have written a memoir about my life, created an Agentic AI digital twin of myself, and become proficient in the use of AI tools to assist in my day-to-day life -- including becoming a better writer. This piece is part of a series of actionable assets published on Substack and authored by myself, my digital twin (Bot-Bob), and Claude (created by Anthropic). I plan to be around yet in 2040, and at 90 years old, I look forward to seeing the world that is now in my mind. Here is a peak into what I am hoping for.

I’ve been curious my whole life. It’s not a hobby — it’s a survival strategy. As a physicist, a naval officer, a consulting engineer, a Deloitte managing director, and now a grandfather in Las Vegas trying to make sense of the world for my grandkids, curiosity is the thread that connects all of it. And right now, my curiosity is pointed squarely at one question: what kind of America are we leaving them?

I was born in 1951. I grew up visiting the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing, Queens, watching America put a man on the moon, serving under Admiral Rickover in the nuclear navy, and later helping some of the world’s biggest organizations figure out how to work smarter. I’ve seen this country at its most inventive and its most stubborn. And here’s what I know after more than seven decades: the problems we face are not a mystery. The solutions exist. What’s missing is the will to apply them.

I wrote My Curious Life for my grandchildren — to give them the insights I had earned the hard way, the values I’d tested under pressure, and an honest account of the world I’d lived in. One of the core things I told them: get centered on your values and guiding principles, then live them to the maximum. So, let me do that here. Let me tell you what I believe we need to build by 2040 and why.

Start with healthcare. I spent years working with complex organizations. I understand systems. And I can tell you plainly: the American healthcare system is a badly designed system producing predictable, expensive failure. Every other wealthy country has figured out universal coverage. It is not rocket science. And, I say that as someone who literally worked on rocket launch complexes and with nuclear reactors. Medicare for All, with dental and vision included, is the rational solution. Curious people follow the evidence. The evidence is clear.

The same goes for climate. I’m a scientist. I trust data. The data on climate change is not ambiguous. A fully decarbonized electrical grid by 2040 is technically achievable; we have the technology right now. The question is whether we deploy it with the same urgency we once applied to putting a submarine-launched ballistic missile program together. I’ve seen what America can do when it decides something matters. Climate has to matter.

I’m also a secular humanist, and I’m not shy about it. I don’t look to the supernatural for my moral framework. I look to reason, evidence, and the accumulated wisdom of people who thought hard about how to treat each other well. That means keeping religious institutions out of public policy. It means protecting every person’s right to make their own decisions about their body and their life. And, it means confronting America’s history of racism and discrimination honestly -- not because it’s comfortable but because the data demands it.

Here’s the thing about curiosity that I’ve learned: it requires humility. You have to be willing to ask questions whose answers might challenge what you already believe. That’s what I’m asking of America right now. Get curious about why we’re the only wealthy nation without universal healthcare. Get curious about why we spend more on our military than the next ten countries combined. Get curious about who actually benefits from the rules as they’re currently written — and who doesn’t. Then, demand better.

My grandkids are going to inherit this place. So are yours. They’re going to ask us what we did when the moment called for bold action. I’d like to have a good answer. A progressive, secular vision for 2040 — rooted in universal dignity, structural justice, scientific honesty, and democratic accountability — is not a fantasy. It’s a choice. And in my experience, the people who look over the horizon and plan for the future are almost always the ones who get there. Stay curious. And for the love of everything, demand better.