What is Progress? - Part 2

I have been thinking on George Santayana's concept of progress being our ability to remember the past better. I realized that that is largely a evolutionary perspective. The idea that we are "progressing" as a species. To contrast that I was referring to progress in the context of society. I do not believe that we are progressing as a species at all. With the advancement of economic progress we are able to do a lot more things than our ancestors were able to, but that isn't biological at all. We do live longer, but that is due to advances in medicine and nutrition, not biological shifts.

To that end I want to discuss economic progress today. Economic progress allows societies to advance and become more productive. Improved farming techniques have allowed us to shift beyond being a primarily agrarian society. A few people can produce food for everyone. That frees up millions of people to pursue other functions.

Medicine has improved. We have all but wiped out a number of terrible plagues that cost millions of lives. With improved food availability and medical knowledge we have added decades to life expediencies and reduced infant mortality significantly. This makes life more predictable and allows people to make more secure long term plans.

The invention and refinement of the automobile and aircraft allow us to travel cheaply and quickly even great distances. This has significantly increased economic flexibility where people can travel all over the world for work. This coupled with the internet has allowed people to work with other people all over the world. The innovation and opportunity this has opened up is unprecedented.

The internet in addition to shortcutting the need for a lot of travel has allowed instant and automatic communication for a host of purposes. We are able to manage our lives and our resources much more efficiently. This offers the opportunity (thought it isn't always taken) to be much more productive as individuals and to cut expenses.

Improvements in design, materials, and testing allow us to make significantly better products. From houses and cars to flashlights and faucets. Things can last longer, be made faster, cost less, and do more.

In basically every aspect of technology and human understanding we have made significant progress. The technological progress is sufficient for every human on earth to live a life with enough food, good medical care, internet connectivity, reasonable housing, and transportation. In short the technological progress has reached the point every human could live a life focused on their individual skills at a high level of productivity. Obviously we do not have that in reality, but the technology is 100% there. The issue falls under the second category. Social Progress.