Human Progress

AI risk arguments often assume that pursuing any goal implies wanting to stay alive. As the AI scholar Stuart Russell put it: “You can’t fetch coffee if you’re dead.” While that’s true for evolved agents, it's not a general law of intelligence. humanprogress.org/why-hal-9000-w…

Read more: humanprogress.org/degrowth-means…

In the long run, nature is by far the biggest threat to humanity. Without exponential growth in wealth and technology, humanity will go extinct—like nearly every species that came before us.

Over and over again, climate alarmists jump to hasty conclusions, then fail to correct the record when their predictions don't pan out. Olive oil prices are a recent example. humanprogress.org/olive-oil-pric…

"Amazon said Tuesday it’s starting one-hour and three-hour deliveries in parts of the U.S., as the company continues to look for ways to satisfy impatient consumers." cnbc.com/2026/03/17/ama…

One dangerous effect of doomerism is tyranny. If the next innovation marks our doom, then surely a little—or a lot—of tyranny is justified! But in fact, it is stasis, not change, that will mark our end. humanprogress.org/enemies-of-civ…

Explore the data: humanprogress.org/dataset/u-s-ap…

Back in 1958, just 4% of U.S. adults supported marriage between black and white people. By 2021, that had risen to 94%.

Computers don’t have an inborn desire to survive or dominate. Those drives are products of natural selection, not inherent properties of intelligence. humanprogress.org/why-hal-9000-w…

The past year has seen an explosion in coding productivity, per FT:

Halting economic growth would hamstring our ability to tackle any problem, including climate change. There would be fewer innovations to reduce emissions or capture CO2, and we would become more vulnerable to climate variability—natural or man-made. humanprogress.org/the-end-of-the…

Read more about the Grim Old Days: humanprogress.org/grim-old-days-…

In Europe before the 16th century, even wealthy diners ate with their fingers and drank from communal cups.

Innovative societies tend to stay creative for only brief periods. This pattern repeats so consistently because the conditions that support sustained innovation are fragile and specific. Maintaining those conditions is difficult—but not impossible. humanprogress.org/cardwells-cage…

"Infections from enterotoxigenic E. coli bacteria are the most common cause of travelers’ diarrhea... They cause up to 42,000 deaths annually. Soon there may be a vaccine to protect against these infections." humanprogress.org/first-of-its-k…

The West’s tendency to question itself, empathize with its enemies, and confront its own imperfections is not a recent phenomenon. It is age-old and unique. It may even be one of the main sources of Western civilization's strength. humanprogress.org/the-ancient-ro…

Explore the data: humanprogress.org/dataset/global… Read more about this trend: humanprogress.org/trends/farming…

For the last few decades, the annual wild fish catch has been flat, hovering around 90 million metric tons. Fish farming, however, has grown spectacularly. This is a win for humans, who now feast on record quantities of fish, and eases pressure on wild fish stocks.

Doomsday predictions about climate change-driven heat mortality are pessimistic as well as condescending. Humans are not passive, hapless creatures plodding along to their doom, but a uniquely innovative species capable of rapid and continual adaptation. humanprogress.org/the-heat-crisi…

"A start-up company wants to light up the night with 50,000 big mirrors orbiting Earth, bouncing sunlight to the night side of the planet to power solar farms after sunset, provide lighting for rescue workers and illuminate city streets." humanprogress.org/start-up-wants…