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Human Progress
Globalization did not fail — it improved the lives of billions of people. The next phase of human development could push us to a new level of global abundance.
Technology, shifting rules, and human ambition push athletes beyond biology’s perceived limits.
From surviving on wild plants and game to controlling our world with technology, humanity's journey of progress is a story of expanding human agency.
9 minutes of cruel history may cure the anti-progress delusion.
The world needs a moral defense of progress based in humanism and agency.
Science and technology were making early modern Europe a better place to live, but at what cost?
Our brains are hardwired to find fault. The best managers don't let this steer how they interact with their team.
Changes in the world population are determined by two metrics: the number of babies born, and number of people dying.
From COVID and cancer vaccines to a steady drop in the number of people living in extreme poverty, there are reasons for optimism in 2023.
The most important events in history have nothing to do with politics or wars.
Three reasons why a radically better future is more likely than we think.
Our inaugural special issue is focused on progress — the search for, the study of, and the project towards a better world.
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 […]
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.
As with any "big idea" progress means a lot of different things to different people and not everyone comes into the discussion with the same priors. Some experts are primarily focused on material progress while others emphasize the importance of moral progress. So to start the discussion, we asked each expert to define the term as they see it from their specific vantage point.
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 […]
It is wrong to think that these three statements contradict each other. We need to see that they are all true to see that a better world is possible.
"You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it."