Books

Welcome to @jasoncrawford.eth!

Jason is the founder of The Roots of Progress, a non-profit dedicated to progress studies. In addition, he has served as an advisor for Our World in Data and as a guest lecturer at MIT.

His essay, We Need A New Philosophy of Progress, is one of the best arguments for techno-optimism that I've read: https://rootsofprogress.org/we-need-a-new-philosophy-of-progress/

He has agreed to do an AMA for the /books channel as part of the ongoing Silicon Valley Canon course.

Reply with your questions. :)

Founder, The Roots of Progress (rootsofprogress.org). I write about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Former tech founder.

Building /bright-moments - minting onchain art IRL | /purple #15 | FID 129 #magikarp

You talked about “The 20th century shattered the link between material and moral progress”

How do you think we can reconnect these two types of progress in the 21st century, or should they even be linked at all?

Ultimately all forms of progress go together. But people in pre-WW1 era were too naively optimistic about how tightly they went hand-in-hand. The world wars showed that material progress could create destruction as well as prosperity: machine guns, chemical weapons, atomic bombs.

We need to commit ourselves to making both moral progress and material progress, understanding that technology can only do good if it exists in good social systems.

I wish I had a fuller view of this issue and a better answer. But I do believe that improving our philosophy of progress is part of it.

Many of the most destructive elements in society today are operating on a declinist narrative in which the world is going to hell and “the system” is to blame. This leads them to a nihilistic, “burn it all down” mentality, as if it doesn't even matter what replaces the current system, because nothing could be worse.

I think we need a proper respect for the achievements of industrial civilization and the Enlightenment, and that's part of what I'm trying to do with my work.

Love the points, do you know any steps we can take to foster moral development alongside technological innovation in today’s rapidly advancing world?