Flush with the grand success of reason and science to improve human life, the 20th century stumbled into some critical errors. The resulting crisis of optimism posed a mortal challenge to the idea of progress: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-spirit...

Some people think Open Phil are luddites because we work on AGI safety, and others think we’re techno-utopians because we work on abundance and scientific progress. We’re neither. Here's why we think safety and accelerating progress go hand in hand: 🧵 www.openphilanthropy.org/research/wh...

The 19th century enthusiastically celebrated inventive and industrial achievements: with parades and fireworks, in speeches and advertisements, in art and poetry, in World's Fairs. From Chapter 9 of The Techno-Humanist Manifesto: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-spirit...

The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, Chapter 8: The Unlimited Horizon, part 2 We are all poor by the standards of the future. But there is no bold, ambitious vision of the future in mainstream culture. Here's one, based on mastery over all aspects of nature newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-unlimi...

Seeking a freelance project manager to help me publish and launch my book, The Techno-Humanist Manifesto. Must have near-superhuman organizational skills and attention to detail. Experience with publishing projects is a bonus. Apply here: rootsofprogress.notion.site/23e543614e97...

The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, Chapter 8: The Unlimited Horizon, part 1 Is industrial production the end of economic history? Or could AI usher in a fourth age of humanity—an intelligence age? newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-unlimi...

The combinatorial vastness of possibility space means that solutions are out there. The structure of that space, and the power of intelligence to navigate it, means that we can find them. newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-proble...

In part 1 of this chapter, I argued that economic growth is not limited by resources—because growth is not driven by resources, but by ideas. One might well ask, then: will we run out of ideas? newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-proble...

Steven Pinker's approach to humanism closely aligns with my own viewpoints on the world. (I may have a more favorable view of certain forms of collectivism though). Here's a great summary by @jasoncrawford.org of one of Pinker's books: "Enlightenment Now". blog.rootsofprogress.org/enlightenmen...

The Roots of Progress Institute is seeking to commission stories for a new article series, “Intelligence Age,” on future applications of AI We are looking for stories of ~3k words, and will pay $2 per word. Details and apply within: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/we-want-yo...

As long as people have noticed progress, they have wondered: will we run out of natural resources? But there are no natural resources. All resources are artificial: the product of knowledge newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-proble...

The Roots of Progress fellowship deadline is tomorrow! Also, I’ll be at Edge Esmeralda this coming week, find me there! Plus many more announcements, links, charts and more in the latest links digest: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...

I was initially skeptical about claims of stagnation, but I was eventually convinced by a systematic survey of the evidence. Progress has not ground to a halt, but in the US, it has slowed relative to its peak in the late 19th to mid-20th century: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-flywhe...

Where is the YIMBY-style movement for healthcare? Where are those pointing out the gross violation of economic wisdom and campaigning for reform against the worst inefficiencies? This field is wide open, and someone should step in and fill the vacuum. newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/where-is-t...

Reminds me of this from “The Curse of Xanadu” by Gary Wolf in WIRED (1995)

Applications now open for the 2025 Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive! Improve your writing skills, learn from leading progress builders and intellectuals, and publish essays about progress: rootsofprogress.org/fellowship

Impossible sci-fi nonsense, the shadow of the Great War, heliocentrism, the bottom-up abundance agenda, institutional sclerosis, and much more: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...

Why was progress so slow, for so long? And were the last few centuries a fluke, a lucky windfall of progress, after which we should expect a regression to the mean of slow growth? Or were they part of a trend that we can expect to continue? newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-flywheel

Innovation is not linear — by @jasoncrawford.org The more I read science history, the more I think this piece was brilliant.

I am advocating for due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Announcing Progress Conference 2025! Oct 16-19 in Berkeley, CA Speakers include Sam Altman, Tyler Cowen, Jennifer Pahlka, and Blake Scholl Last year several people said it was the best conference they had ever attended, full stop (!) Applications are open now! rootsofprogress.org/conference

“Stopping climate change” is the wrong goal. It is an anti-human, anti-agency framing, focused on negating the impacts of human activity. The techno-humanist framing is that humanity should create *climate control* newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/we-should-...

People who are looking for a way to fight Trump, I have it for you in one name: Kilmar Abrego-Garcia. He's the poor guy who got pulled off the street, declared a gang member for no reason, then sent off to that hell-hole in El Salvador. Fight for him because this case will unravel everything. 🧵

Solar + batteries can be great for specific applications that don’t need very high availability; and they can work as part of an overall system of supplying power to the grid; but they won’t supply all power to the grid in the foreseeable future newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/how-much-d...

The 150-year history of d/acc, a $120M progress fund, fertility on demand, 19th-century kids' sci-fi, the real lesson of Cassandra’s curse, giving the Devil the benefit of law, and more: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...

d/acc Day livestream: www.youtube.com/live/b45hakf... Vitalik starts us off at 10am Pacific; I'm slated for 10:40

A visible sonic boom, AI in SaaS, progress on permitting reform, fewer tornado deaths, the closing of the frontier, Rousseau and Kant vs. the Age of Reason, and more newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...

"Progress is messy. Its benefits come with inextricable costs and risks: pollution, accidents, radiation, carcinogens, rogue AI," writes TPN member @jasoncrawford.org. "Solutionism acknowledges, even embraces, this fact." newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/solutionis...

Good thread by @swiftonsecurity.com about the literal security practices of the literal Taylor Swift

@jasoncrawford.org asks what media portrays science positively, and it is the book “All the Light We Cannot See.” The boy is obsessed with science and radio. Best friend with ornithology The girl is obsessed with mollusks. Her dad with miniaturization and locks. Even the villain is a gemologist!

The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, Chapter 5: Solutionism (part 2) There is no tradeoff between health/safety and progress, because health and safety are a part of progress. But the technical work of health and safety has gone mostly unsung newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/solutionis...

Progress studies in university and high school, a positive supply shock for truth, the hinge of history, Elon in perpetual wartime, Dean Ball on AI liability, Kevin Kelly on the handoff to bots, and more: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...

Did not realize that we have greatly improved tornado mortality.

Save the date: Progress Conference 2025 will be October 16–19 in Berkeley, CA Hosted by Roots of Progress together with Abundance Institute, Foresight Institute, Foundation for American Innovation, Human Progress, Institute for Humane Studies, and Works in Progress rootsofprogress.org/conference

SCOOP: WaPo Opinion editor David Shipley is out. Jeff Bezos emails staff about a change to Post Opinions: "We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets."

After a long wait, the working paper for the Many-Economists Project: The Sources of Researcher Variation in Economics. We had 146 teams perform the same research three times, each time with less freedom. What source of freedom leads to different choices and results? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

In India, selective breeding and better husbandry increased the milk yield per cow significantly from 2013 to 2022. Cattle in poor countries remain far behind their rich-world peers, which means the opportunity for catch-up growth is enormous. Subscribe to Chartbook: tinyurl.com/bdesb9ye.

I gave a talk to high schoolers: The Future of Humanity—And How You Can Help In which I argue that we can create a future that is better than the world has ever seen, and point towards some of the most important problems and opportunities to work on. youtu.be/3Sm7qHd_Qy0

I go away for three weeks and everyone announces everything: Boom first supersonic flight OpenAI Deep Research and GPT-5 roadmap Derek Thompson & Ezra Klein's Abundance Charles Mann's “How the System Works” And much more in my latest links digest: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...

The final videos from Progress Conference 2024 are now on the RPI YouTube channel. The last few added were Chandler Tuttle, Jason Carman, Kanjun Qiu, and Niko McCarty. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Totally randomly, I watched this Orson Welles interview on the Dick Cavett show. Just amazing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_PU...

The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, Chapter 5: Solutionism (part 1) Optimism vs. pessimism can be a false dichotomy. We need to fully acknowledge problems, while vigorously pursuing solutions. Call it “solutionism” newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/solutionis...

On the incremental path to the future, a major trend will be that humans step up a level, into management. Here I start to lay out a vision for human agency in the AI future, and also offer a rebuttal to a recent post about AI and human wages: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-future...

Was in Mojave today for the first Boom supersonic flight test! Amazing accomplishment, after over a decade of work. Congrats to the entire team!

Atlas Shrugged and the irreplaceable founder, pumping stations and civic pride, thoughts on the eve of AGI, skyways for the suburbs, and more: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...

On the risks of politician coins:

New magazines and podcasts, the printing press and the Internet, the ultimate form of travel, grand plans for San Francisco, an AI tutor for Nigeria, and more: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...

People watching SpaceX (but also everybody).

“But you can’t have a story where everyone is happy and everything is perfect! Stories need conflict!” Well, here are several ways that you can write a compelling, exciting science fiction story without making it a dystopia: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/sci-fi-wit...

Comments on the wildfires, why kissing a nuclear waste cask is fine, one weird trick to fight NIMBYs, the case of the missing statues, Eli Dourado's model of policy change, plastic in foods, and more Links and short notes, 2025-01-13: newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-...