Hey folks, I’m Erik. I heard about Progress Studies through an interest in economic history. I’ve always been very interested in the Industrial Revolution, why development occurs or why it doesn’t, and what we could do to accelerate the rate of technological progress. Progress Studies appealed to me because it’s a group of people very interested in those same questions through a modern lens—what works and what doesn’t to increase industrial and technological advancement in the modern day?
As some might guess from my earlier comment, my background is in economics. My day job is in business intelligence, I also have a startup project related to zoning/real estate I’m working on the side. I’m based out of the Philly area, I encourage all other Philly area folks to join the community group! Once we have a few people, let’s find an evening we can do a happy hour or something. Looking forward to connecting with different people!
I think that “Where is my Flying Car” makes this case persuasively, especially for the modern day.
There are a few interesting articles on Anton Howe’s substack if you are interested in a more historical perspective on energy use and technology. He writes on early modern economic history, 1550-1700 or so, and a lot of his writing relates to how the foundation for the Industrial Revolution was laid. Many of his posts are paywalled, however.