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.
Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
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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