Can’t speak for Jason but maybe I can change your mind. IMO, the a case for progress can be made pretty simply to anyone who cares about the welfare of people living today and their future welfare. Assuming that, I’ll make two observations.
Life before the modern age was bad. Fanciful stories of kings and queens leave out the abject poverty, disease, and filth the average person lived in. Based on your post, I assume you’ll agree with this assessment.
Society’s present “good enough” is not sustainable. If all technological progress were to halt tomorrow, we would not remain in some kind of steady-state economy forever. With the climate disaster only getting worse with time and fossil fuel extraction costs ever increasing, conditions will deteriorate. If more of the developing world were to also reach this “good enough” standard these consequences will only be magnified. In fact, with current technology, it would be impossible to provide the world’s 7 billion with first world living conditions.
“Try not to make things worse than they were before” has been a classic argument made against nuclear power for decades. Maybe with fewer regulatory constraints, nuclear power could provide more energy for a lower cost than fossil fuels, but is it really worth the tail risk of nuclear proliferation or catastrophic meltdowns? Society decided it wasn’t and now we find ourselves in a slow motion global catastrophe while “good enough” living standards remain fundamentally out of reach for most of the world. Perhaps renewables will save us from this mess, but surely not if technological progress were to end today.
That’s not to say that all technological progress is good. Asbestos having some really cool insulating properties doesn’t mean it was a net benefit. But technological progress in general is desirable if you wish to avoid present “good enough” living conditions from deteriorating and want to make such standards attainable for the whole world.
Technological progress isn’t just a chance to do more, it’s also often a chance to pivot from one resource to another so as to avoid depletion. Ultimately, freezing it won’t insulate present society from the risk of things getting worse. On the contrary, halting progress condemns our society to a slow rot.
Can’t speak for Jason but maybe I can change your mind. IMO, the a case for progress can be made pretty simply to anyone who cares about the welfare of people living today and their future welfare. Assuming that, I’ll make two observations.
Life before the modern age was bad. Fanciful stories of kings and queens leave out the abject poverty, disease, and filth the average person lived in. Based on your post, I assume you’ll agree with this assessment.
Society’s present “good enough” is not sustainable. If all technological progress were to halt tomorrow, we would not remain in some kind of steady-state economy forever. With the climate disaster only getting worse with time and fossil fuel extraction costs ever increasing, conditions will deteriorate. If more of the developing world were to also reach this “good enough” standard these consequences will only be magnified. In fact, with current technology, it would be impossible to provide the world’s 7 billion with first world living conditions.
“Try not to make things worse than they were before” has been a classic argument made against nuclear power for decades. Maybe with fewer regulatory constraints, nuclear power could provide more energy for a lower cost than fossil fuels, but is it really worth the tail risk of nuclear proliferation or catastrophic meltdowns? Society decided it wasn’t and now we find ourselves in a slow motion global catastrophe while “good enough” living standards remain fundamentally out of reach for most of the world. Perhaps renewables will save us from this mess, but surely not if technological progress were to end today.
That’s not to say that all technological progress is good. Asbestos having some really cool insulating properties doesn’t mean it was a net benefit. But technological progress in general is desirable if you wish to avoid present “good enough” living conditions from deteriorating and want to make such standards attainable for the whole world.
Technological progress isn’t just a chance to do more, it’s also often a chance to pivot from one resource to another so as to avoid depletion. Ultimately, freezing it won’t insulate present society from the risk of things getting worse. On the contrary, halting progress condemns our society to a slow rot.