--- description: The long shadow of 9/11, countering Francis Fukuyama, human-technology symbiosis, helping veterans transition, and diversifying crops. title: These Are Today's Best Ideas image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Innovation](/tag/innovation/) ## Innovation Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 12 by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 12, 2014 4:18 PM CUT by [The Aspen Institute](/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 12, 2014 4:18 PM CUT **1\.** [**The long shadow of September 11th haunts our modern defense policy as well as our plan of attack against ISIS.**](http://blogs.cfr.org/davidson/2014/09/11/thirteen-years-later-echoes-of-911-shape-our-battles-still/ "undefined") By Janine Davidson at the Council on Foreign Relations **2\.** [**Far from “The End of History:” Recent experience shows that democracy’s defenders have their work cut out for them. We should start by linking democratic values to our humanity.**](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/09/its-still-not-the-end-of-history-francis-fukuyama/379394/?single%5Fpage=true "undefined") By Timothy Stanley and Alexander Lee in the Atlantic **3\.** [**Climate change could remake agriculture. The world should diversify its crops.**](http://theconversation.com/in-a-warming-world-we-cant-keep-depending-on-the-same-few-crops-31323 "undefined") By Sayed Azam-Ali in The Conversation **4\.** [**To transition from warfighting to the working world, America’s veterans need support from a broad range of government agencies. And that’s actually happening.**](http://www.govexec.com/feature/from-war-to-work/ "undefined") By Charles S. Clark in Government Executive **5\.** [**The Apple Watch will make people and computers more intimate.**](http://time.com/3318377/apple-watch-intimate/ "undefined") By Walter Isaacson in Time  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/ "undefined") _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3340756/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-12/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3340756/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-12/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 12","datePublished":"2014-09-12T16:18:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:39:04.400Z","description":"The long shadow of 9/11, countering Francis Fukuyama, human-technology symbiosis, helping veterans transition, and diversifying crops.","url":"https://time.com/3340756/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-12/","keywords":["Innovation","Veterans","Apple","Agriculture","climate change","Technology","Obama","war","ISIS","9/11","democracy","Western"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3340756/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-september-12/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: September 12"}}]}] ```