manassanant / Sergey Kohl / Adobe Stock / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons / Sarah Soryal
Key Takeaways
- In October, the Roots of Progress Institute organized Progress Conference 2025 to connect people and ideas in the progress movement.
- Big Think has produced a special issue, “The Engine of Progress,” to highlight the people and ideas featured at the conference.
- According to Jason Crawford, founder of the RPI, the stories in this special issue remind us that across disciplines and ambitions, the progress movement is united by one goal: to move humanity forward.
“Progress” is a broad concept. That’s both a challenge and a strength — especially when you put on a Progress Conference for almost 400 people.
The challenge is this: what, exactly, do we all have in common? Does a YIMBY advocate who writes about single-stair reform in Austin have anything to say to a biomedical researcher experimenting with transcription factors at a longevity startup? Would an AI researcher who believes the Singularity is coming this decade and a farmer who writes about ag tech sit down for a chat? What about the founder of a new city in California and the climate team launching calcite particles into the stratosphere via balloons? Or the econ professor who teaches at the University of Toronto and the guy who wants to build the next World’s Fair? When the crowd contains both philanthropists and capitalists, academics and storytellers, policy wonks and cracked AI coders — what do you all do?
The strength comes from realizing that, actually, there is something we have in common: A vision of the bold, ambitious technological future. A restless energy, dissatisfied with stagnation and sclerosis. A techno-humanist philosophy that holds human life and well-being as its north star.
jozefmicic / Adobe Stock / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons / Sarah Soryal
All of us — from technologists to policy wonks to storytellers — are contributing in our own way to the grand project of human progress. There is strength in realizing that and reminding ourselves of it. By uniting in a progress movement, we can each see our work as part of a larger whole. The NEPA writer isn’t just pushing for permitting reform, and the materials researcher isn’t just trying to improve the efficiency of semiconductor manufacturing — all are working for the advancement of humanity. Each of us has our hill to take. Seeing our efforts that way can inspire and rejuvenate us, and salve the loneliness that often accompanies ambitious work.
So at Progress Conference 2025, there were talks on everything from AI to metascience to climate to urbanism. And in this special issue, you’ll find the same breadth of topics: an update on the longevity field, a paean to the virtues of common law, an essay on American Dynamism, even an argument that both Concorde and Apollo should never have been done (yes, you read that right!). Enjoy the variety — and remember that every article is really about the same thing.
My thanks to Big Think for putting together this special issue, and to all the writers who contributed, in order to help the ideas of Progress Conference 2025 endure.
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