Progress (history), the idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life, etc.
Social progress, the idea that societies can or do improve in terms of their social, political, and economic structures.
Scientific progress, the idea that science increases its problem solving ability through the application of some scientific method.
Philosophical progress, the idea that philosophy has solved or at least can solve some of the questions it studies.
Defnitions of the term go on and on but ultimately its like someone said about unemployment rate - when you do not have a job the unemployment rate is 100%.
Now to ponder about what is coming down the road is also not a new idea but from my vantage point of having been on the planet for four decades or so and reading about the first two thousand years of civilization (or what came to be known as such anyway, all the un-civil aspects notwithstanding) I am undecided.
I am not sure if what we currently have is progress to begin with. Our understanding of the world around us has definitely increased from the point of accepting 'what constitutes the world around us'.
As we account for that surrounding we began appreicating (some of us anyway) how things worked in the past and how they might work tomorrow. Whether the way they work in Istanbul is same as the way they might work in Gurgaon or Atlanta or Darwin or Mogadishu.
Sometimes they do and sometimes they do not. But we are far from equitable access to basic resources that help build a meaningful life for each one of our species. Of course the very definition of 'meaningful life' varies from continent to continent and place to place.
Every one of us is enslaved in a modern form of slavery - to our jobs, to our aspirations, to our spouse, to who ever or what ever. Is that bad? Consultant answer is - it depends.
Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
Progress is an opinion. Ageing is a fact, to paraphrase a great guy who said cost is a fact, and price is a perception, or something on these lines- keep forgetting great quotes regularly. Ageing, I guess.
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