progress narrative

progress narrative

1. Naive Optimism and the Costs of Progress

• Schmachtenberger critiques the naive belief that technological and economic progress unequivocally improves humanity's condition.
• While advancements like antibiotics and reduced infant mortality are undeniably beneficial, this perspective often ignores the hidden costs: environmental degradation, species extinction, and the depletion of non-renewable resources (e.g., fossil fuels, rare minerals).

2. Finite Resources and Unsustainable Growth:

• The narrative of progress is subsidized by the Earth’s finite resources (e.g., fossil fuels, biodiversity, aquifers). We are depleting these resources millions of times faster than they regenerate.
• This reliance creates a growth imperative tied to economic systems (e.g., GDP), where growth is necessary to sustain modern financial and institutional models.

3. Selective Benefits of Progress

• Progress has not been equally beneficial for all. Many indigenous cultures, species, and oppressed groups have borne the costs of progress. This introduces a critique of progress as benefiting an "in-group" at the expense of out-groups, future generations, or the biosphere as a whole.

4. Wide vs Narrow Definitions of Progress

• Schmachtenberger advocates for a wide-boundary definition of progress, considering all stakeholders, including future generations and other life forms. This approach contrasts with narrow definitions focused solely on metrics like GDP, short-term profits, or immediate technological gains.

5. Challenges in Systemic Change

• Current systems are structured to prioritize short-term goals and measurable outputs (e.g., feeding more people today). However, these often externalize long-term harms (e.g., environmental damage).
• Narrow optimizations lead to systemic fragility and risk tipping points that threaten all life support systems on Earth.

6. Intelligence vs Wisdom

• Intelligence often focuses on achieving narrow goals efficiently, while wisdom considers long-term and systemic impacts.
• The imbalance between intelligence and wisdom has allowed for rapid technological progress without sufficient foresight to mitigate its consequences.

Implications for the Meta Crisis

• The meta-crisis encompasses interconnected challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and governance failures. The conversation highlights the need for
• Restraints on runaway technological and economic systems.
• A shift from intelligence-driven innovation to wisdom-guided systems thinking.
• Global cooperation to prevent "race to the bottom" dynamics, where short-term competitiveness undermines long-term survival.