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History & Society
Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.
From politics to culture, we blame “tribalism” for humanity’s problems. This explanation is entirely wrong.
John Templeton Foundation
The theory is accurate within at least one part in a quadrillion.
Since our arrival, humans have driven a seven-fold drop in the mass of wild land mammals.
How drugs, demons, and the search for immortality gave us words we use everyday.
Successful forgers are remembered as great conmen, not artists. This is strange, considering their forgeries fooled even the most seasoned critics.
Just as human beings diversified so that people in Asia look different from people in Europe, so too did their microbiomes.
If you don't mourn in North Korea, you risk being executed.
UAP are no laughing matter anymore.
Our inaugural special issue is focused on progress — the search for, the study of, and the project towards a better world.
8mins
The futurist behind Minority Report explains 3 steps for predicting what comes next.
Progress got derailed somewhere between indoor plumbing and the flying car. Why?
We asked our experts where they see the biggest blockers right now for more progress. Essentially, from their various areas of focus, what did they see as the largest impediments to driving progress forward around the world and how they would prioritize the necessary interventions? The answers were appropriately varied from the philosophical to the political to the technological.
About the project The goal of driving more progress across the world—scientifically, politically, economically, socially, etc—is one shared by many. And yet, debates about the best way to maximize progress […]
About the project The goal of driving more progress across the world—scientifically, politically, economically, socially, etc—is one shared by many. And yet, debates about the best way to maximize progress […]
About the project The goal of driving more progress across the world—scientifically, politically, economically, socially, etc—is one shared by many. And yet, debates about the best way to maximize progress […]
About the project The goal of driving more progress across the world—scientifically, politically, economically, socially, etc—is one shared by many. And yet, debates about the best way to maximize progress […]
About the project The goal of driving more progress across the world—scientifically, politically, economically, socially, etc—is one shared by many. And yet, debates about the best way to maximize progress […]
If our goal is to effect the greatest possible progress, what would it look like to approach this holistically? What might need to dispositionaly in how we approach solving our most important problems—at an individual level, a community level, or at a civilizational or global one? We asked our experts to think big picture about how what new thinking would be required to create a larger pro-progress framework.
One of the fundamental questions for those studying and advocating progress is around understanding what variables can move the needle for the type of progress that you might want to see in the world. It's a key focus of the "progress studies" discipline and a question that has received increased attention from academics and public intellectuals in recent years.