ok so i’ve heard at least 2 different definitions of progress.
- one strictly defines progress as technological progress. the reasoning is that “progress” comes from latin “pro-gress” (marching forward) which refers to any labor process feeling very similar to a long march. exhausting.
- another nice angle i’ve heard was that “progress” is a play-on-words with progesterone which is a substance produced by biological women to advance various internal processes, as such it is understood as “what women do” or as women’s movement. it’s silly but i’ve heard it and now so have you.
especially, do you think that “progress” properly describes your goals? do you say that progress is what we need as a society? if no, how else would you describe your goals?
Progress could also take you full circle, back to where you started.
If that happens, though, it wasn’t really a sound idea. At least, not all the way through.
To use some math jargon, improvement is supposed to be transitive with other improvement.
We had electric cars at first. Lead acid batteries were pretty miserable a hundred years ago, so no wonder why gasoline and diesel took over so quickly. That was progress in the 1900s, because gasoline was just so much more practical in every way.
Currently, we’re transitioning back to electric cars, but this time we have vastly superior batteries. Today’s progress means we’re driving cars that pollute less than their predecessors. Even when you get less range, it’s still counted as progress because priorities have shifted. That’s not exactly full circle, but it’s close enough.
With bisons and whales we’re really trying to come full circle. About a hundred years ago, we were driving both groups towards extinction, but now we’re trying to get those numbers back to normal. Both directions were viewed as progress because priorities have changed so much.
Either way, decisions were made based on what the situation called for at the time. As the world changes, more information becomes available, and different things become important. These things shape decisions all the time. Perhaps future generations will look down on us building all these wind mills instead of developing fusion reactors.