Progress for the Sake of Progress

In class over the past week, we have been talking about some pretty incredible recent technological advancements, such as self-driving cars and head transplants. This has gotten me thinking about the type of progress that we have been making lately and if it they is the kind of progress that is truly the most necessary.

According to the accelerationist point of view, the best way to improve society is a reckless pursuit of progress. In many cases, people believe that this reckless pursuit will lead to our own destruction. Since humanity began making such huge technological advancements, it has become clear that we have also been harming our planet. Blade Runner demonstrated society’s worries about the future; people have a general fear of technology and what it could do to us. This makes sense in some ways, for it is obvious that the developed world is doing some of the greatest damage to the planet. However, not making progress could do great damage as well. According to Hans Rosling, who was a professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the planet is at a huge risk because we have failed to develop the under-developed world. Communities that are poverty-stricken have the highest child mortality rates, which leads to them also having the highest birth rates. Family sizes in these countries are thus very large, because the parents cannot guarantee the survival of all of their children. These large family sizes and high birth rates are causing enormous population growth, threatening our planet’s resources. Rosling argues that by developing third-world countries and bringing people out of poverty, we can slow population growth and save Earth’s limited resources before it is too late.

Unfortunately, the advancements we are making may not be the advancements that are needed to help these poverty-stricken people. Like Rigel mentioned in class, most of our progress has been to help rich people. We spend so much money and intelligence on technology that does not benefit those who are the most in need. Perhaps this is simply because these advancements interest us more; perhaps it is because there is more money in “gadgets” like artificial intelligence and super computers than in programs to help the poor.

To truly help others and help the planet, we need to take big risks. We must completely rethink the way we do things and the types of advancements that we are making. This reminds me of a radical theory which my pastor has shared with us multiple times. He proposes that all research on chronic diseases and all projects related to new technologies should come to a complete stop. All of the brilliant people working on those things should instead be required to work on projects to bring food, clean water, and infrastructure to the poor. Likewise, he thinks that business students at the UA should be required to create business plans for under-developed communities instead of creating businesses for making money in the U.S. These ideas would require huge risks and would force people to make completely new kinds of advancements.

As Dr. Bertsch said, “What does all this have to do with media?” Thoreau argues in Walden that we may be just making progress for the sake of progress. He writes that although Maine and Texas can talk to each other, but they do not have anything important to say. We can now do things that we’ve never been able to do before, but why do them? What’s the point? Perhaps we are just making progress for the sake of progress. Unfortunately, by doing this we are neglecting those that are in real need of help. By making progress for the sake of progress, we may also be harming ourselves by failing to slow population growth and failing to preserve our planet’s resources. This is why it is crucial that we rethink the kinds of advancements that we are making in order to help each other and help ourselves.