Lecture on Authentic Progress vs. Progress Narrative

Key Themes

• Understanding what authentic progress entails
• Emphasizing caution, restraint, and maintenance
• Critique of the market-driven incentive to always create new things
• Acknowledging the role of history and who writes it in shaping our views on progress

Guests

• Speaker: Daniel Schmachtenberger
• Host: Unidentified

Topics Covered

Introduction to the Consilience Project

• Directed by Daniel Schmachtenberger
• Focus on understanding real progress and developing sustainable strategies
• New paper: Development in Progress

Progress Narratives

• Definition and history of progress
• Who gets to write the progress narrative?
• Does progress genuinely mean betterment for society, humanity, and nature?
• Challenge of narratives that primarily celebrate technological advancement and economic growth

The Role of Maintenance and Wisdom

• Importance of maintaining existing systems rather than consistently making new ones
• Need for wisdom and restraint rooted in historical indigenous practices
• Wisdom traditions emphasize living within natural constraints instead of maximizing utility

Authentic vs. Immature Progress

• Immature Progress: Often market-driven, focused on short-term gains and narrowly defined goals
• Authentic Progress: Requires broader consideration of impacts and aims for the common good, longer-term betterment

The Problem with Technological Solutions

• Often technological solutions create more problems than they solve
• The racket of creating issues through past solutions and offering new solutions that continue the cycle
• Examples: Leaded gasoline, DDT, fast food, and digital tech like smartphones

Consequences of Technological Advances

• Increasing disconnection from nature
• Rising health issues from industrial solutions (e.g., mental health impacts from smartphones, physical health impacts from processed foods)
• Loss of meaningful ancestral practices and communal ties

Multipolar Traps and the Role of Psychopathy

• People with dark triad traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, sociopathy) often ascend to power in current systems
• The dangers of hyperagents who prioritize agency and power without empathy
• Structural problems in our socio-economic and political systems exacerbate these issues

Redefining Our Approach to Progress

• Incorporating yellow teaming to forecast potential negative externalities
• Emphasizing holistic and systemic thinking in problem-solving
• Questioning whether certain problems need technological solutions at all
• Some issues may be features of reality that require a more naturally integrated approach

Cultural Shift and Values

• Advocating for a cultural shift toward deeper appreciation and connection with nature and community
• Learning from indigenous wisdom and traditions
• Recognizing the inherent interconnectedness of all things (Ubuntu: I am because we are)

Call to Action

• Reevaluate personal and societal values towards genuine progress
• Shift from individualism and consumption to collective wellbeing and maintenance
• Embrace and maintain existing natural systems rather than disrupting them with new tech

Conclusion

• Encouraging reflection on our place within a broader natural context
• Emphasizing a slower, more thoughtful approach to change and progress
• Need for both values change and systemic adjustments to create a sustainable future