Jason Crawford
Founder of the Roots of Progress Institute, who left a software career to write full time about the history and philosophy of technological progress — how it happened, why it took so long, and whether it has slowed.
Jason Crawford did not write this page.
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Their wordsEven in that case, though, what we should trust is not the particular output of the scientific process at any given time. It can make wrong turns. Instead, we should trust that it will find the truth eventually, and that it is our best and only method for doing so.
↗What does it mean to “trust science”?rootsofprogress.org 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsThere is no capital-S Science—a new authority to substitute for God or King.
↗What does it mean to “trust science”?rootsofprogress.org 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsPhysics, chemistry and biology can point out problems, but we need history, economics and philosophy to solve them.
↗What does it mean to “trust science”?rootsofprogress.org 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 3 years earlier
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Their wordsStagnation just means slower progress. And not even slower than that pre-industrial era, but slower than, roughly, the late 1800s to mid-1900s, when growth rates are said to have peaked.
↗Technological stagnationrootsofprogress.org 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsIt’s that we went from five simultaneous technology revolutions to one.
↗Technological stagnationrootsofprogress.org 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 4 months earlier
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Their wordsA foundational conviction of this project is that progress is a trend with definite, substantive causes, and that it can continue far, far into the future.
↗Progress: Fluke or trend?rootsofprogress.org 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsI don’t think progress is primarily driven by material resources.
↗Progress: Fluke or trend?rootsofprogress.org 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsProgress isn’t natural; we make it happen through choice and effort, and we only do so when we believe it is possible and desirable.
↗Progress: Fluke or trend?rootsofprogress.org 3rd of 3 in this piece
- 7 months earlier
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Their wordsIn any case, I think we need to not only look at the incentives facing scientists, but also those facing department heads, journals, and grant-making agencies.
↗Stagnation, scientific incentives, and funding modelsrootsofprogress.org
- 6 months earlier
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Their wordsSo if progress is a moral imperative, it is also a moral imperative to understand its causes, so that we can protect them and reinforce them.