renewing our commitment to progress james j. hughes ph.d. executive director, institute for ethics...
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Renewing our Commitment to ProgressJames J. Hughes Ph.D.Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies Lecturer, Public Policy Studies , Trinity College
Conn College Tedx – April 14, 2012
Origins of Progress
Sketch for an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Spirit (1795)
Reason liberates us from church, kings, nature
Women’s suffrage and an end to slavery
Radical life extension
Freedom from work
"Nature has set no term to the perfection of human faculties; the perfectibility of man is truly indefinite.”
Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet
Moral and Political Progress
Linear progression of history towards more freedom, equality and justice
Copyright Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 2005Freedom House Democracy Index 2011
Economic ProgressBetter health and longer lifeHigher quality of lifeMore wealth and leisure, more equally shared
Copyright Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 2005
Scientific Progress Growth of reason and
knowledge
Scientific and technological progress works complementarily with social progress
Social ills are the result of ignorance not sin
Reaction to Progress Counter-Enlightenment
Religious reaction
Rejection of totalitarian utopianism
Counterculture & Ecology
Post-modernism
Disillusionment, rising expectations
Problems with Moral ProgressProgress as rationale for imperialismReason erodes moral certainty
Copyright Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies 2005
Problems with Scientific Progress Scientific uncertainty, biases, abuses
Not TRUTH, just better hypotheses
Scientists reflect social biases (eugenics, medicine)
Science can be used to oppress as well as liberate
Progress Could Stop Completely
Civilization has become very complexNatural and man-made catastrophes
could end human civilization
No Inevitability As in biology, nothing is inevitable in
the evolution of ideas and institutions
Lack of inevitability is precisely why we need a conscious commitment to a chastened idea of progress
Progress as Great Work
Evidence of ProgressThere has been social and
political progress
Pinker: Decline of violence, torture, slavery
Gay oppression to gay marriage in 40 years
Sam Harris’ The Moral Landscape: We all accept basic goals
Scientific Progress Imperfect, but Directional
Problems of scientific bias solved by more science, not less
Dangers of anti-science skepticism
Renewing the Progress ProjectExpanding Rights,
Equality, Democracy
Freedom from the gender binary
More perfect forms of democratic self-governance
Rights for non-human persons
Beyond War, Death and Toil
End War John Horgan
Global security
Make Death OptionalAnti-aging medicine
Longevity Dividend
Beyond Toil for WagesAutomation
Basic income guarantee