Civilization is a Ponzi scheme. that we cannot stop, even as we face increasingly scarce resources, environmental degradation, market bubbles, and an Artificial Intelligence that grows energy-hungrier every day. The complex history of the Middle East shows how we got here, and how we can turn those challenges into opportunities. We are helped by those energy-hungry thinking machines, by combining their data crunching power our human intuition and ability to think outside the box. George J. Nasr shows how this team-up can help us turn challenges into opportunity, by can drawing on the turbulent past of the Middle East and its future hopes. We can transcend scarcity-driven ""Black Wars"" for resources like oil and water, and toward a technology-led ""Blue Peace"" of shared growth and continued expansion and even conquer the stars.