I wrote a 4k word BBC Future article on Progress Studies, and I’d love your thoughts

[garrison]

I wrote a 4k word feature on Progress Studies for BBC Future that just went up. (Tweet here). I explore:

• The stagnation hypothesis

• the origins of progress studies

• what PS believes

• frontier vs. catch-up growth, and how PS’s focus on the former reveals its biases

• progress and existential risk

• the future of the community

Curious for your (genuine) thoughts and critiques.

You may also find this timeline I put together useful.

Timeline

• March 2017 - Roots of Progress blog starts

• July 2018 - Stripe Press launches

• July 2019 - “We Need a New Science of Progress” essay published in Atlantic

• August 2019 - PS Slack channel launches

• Oct 2019 - Roots of Progress becomes a nonprofit

• Aug 2020 - Works in Progress online magazine starts

• January 2022 - Institute for Progress think tank launches

• Feb 2022 - Works in Progress acquired by Stripe Press

• April 2022 - Progress Forum launches (sponsored by Roots of Progress)

• May 2022 - The Atlantic Progress series launches