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In this episode, Crowell's hosts Agustin Orozco and Jason Crawford speak with Crowell attorneys Simeon Yerokun and Katherine Quinn about DOJ's plan to aggressively use the FCA against illegal foreign trade practices. This episode includes discussion of common areas of FCA enforcement in cases involving allegations of customs fraud, and the hosts address steps that importers can take to mitigate risks. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring's podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.
In this interview Mark interviews author, actor, and narrator Aaron Fors about numerous aspects of his creative life. Prior to the interview, Mark shares comments from recent episodes, a personal update, and a word about this episode's sponsor. This episode is sponsored by an affiliate link to Manuscript Report. Use code MARK5 at checkout and save $5.00 off your own personalized report. During their interview Mark and Aaron talk about: Recently hanging out at Superstars Writing Seminars Aaron's creative life as an author, an actor, and a voice talent/narrator How Aaron started acting when he was eight years old, and his supportive father who took a "sure, let's do this" approach when Aaron's older siblings talked about wanting to get into acting Aaron's first scene doing a dark-themed dramatic monologue and how he fell in love with acting The list Aaron created at the age of 5 which included being a famous actor, a rock star, President of the United States, and a basketball star Being a voracious reader from an early age, with his favorite authors being Stephen King, William Shakespeare and Isaac Asimov Latching on to "found family" style stories from science-fiction disguised as "bad ass robot movies" Wanting to be a part of sharing stories that help remind people who feel alone or outcast that there's a place for them Being a guest star on a lot of cop, doctor, and lawyer shows on TV and having to have read hundreds of scripts - and how that has played a role in studying story Getting into writing books because of his sister C L Fors and her husband Jason Crawford suggesting it How writing stories and novels felt a lot like "coming home" The natural symbiotic relationship between performers of story and creators of story Some of the fundamental storytelling aspects that translate well from screenplays to narrative fiction, such as the "camera's focus" on the relevant details in a scene How having a healthy relationship with rejection as an actor has been helpful to Aaron in his role as a writer Having 17 auditions in person in a single day driving from 6 AM until midnight to get to the various offices and studios The concept of when you are doing an audition you're actually performing in front of an audience that's right there in the room (even if that audience is one or two or just a few people) - and that you're actually getting to do your job - you got to entertain Aaron's story "Best Foot Forward" which appeared in the anthology Weird Wilderness edited by Lisa Mangum The first two full length novel manuscripts that Aaron has written Aaron's work doing voice-over performances in various different categories How the industry for doing voice-over and narrator roles changed during the pandemic which allowed for a lot more work-from-home-studio opportunities The way that the narrator themselves add a layer of artistry to the manuscript they are reading The fact that Aaron is a dialectologist who studied in Masterclasses with Robert Easton And more . . . After the interview Mark makes an offer to his patrons for getting a chance to work with Aaron and also reflects on three different things that Aaron mentioned. Links of Interest: Aaron Fors Website EP 411 - Small Acts of Kindness in Every Little Thing with Janice Landry Draft2Digital Self Publishing Insiders (May 1, 2025) - Creating Your Community of Superfans with Rachel Rener (YouTube) Manuscript Report (Mark's affiliate link) Buy Mark a Coffee Patreon for Stark Reflections Mark's YouTube channel Mark's Stark Reflections on Writing & Publishing Newsletter (Signup) An Author's Guide to Working With Bookstores and Libraries The Relaxed Author Buy eBook Direct Buy Audiobook Direct Publishing Pitfalls for Authors An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores Wide for the Win Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books This Time Around (Short Story) A Canadian Werewolf in New York Stowe Away (Novella) Fear and Longing in Los Angeles Fright Nights, Big City Lover's Moon Hex and the City Only Monsters in the Building The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles Yippee Ki-Yay Motherf*cker: A Trivia Guide to Die Hard Merry Christmas! Shitter Was Full!: A Trivia Guide to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Aaron Fors is a passionate actor, dialectologist, writer, and all around performer. He is a weaver of stories, with threads of magic, science, wonder, and love. He is a collector of information, skills, and wisdom. He also crafts with his hands, leather-working and woodworking. His two cats and wife (honorary third cat) love him very much, and are spoiled by his cooking. He does all the things. Want a thing done? He can probably do it. You can find Aaron online at www.aaronfors.com The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
In this episode, we chat with Niko McCarty—a scientist turned writer who is the founding editor of Asimov Press and head of creative at Asimov. Niko takes us through his unexpected journey from biochemistry research to science journalism. He shares insights on transitioning from the lab to the press, crafting deep-dive narratives, and even pioneering projects like a book encoded in DNA. Whether you're a scientist looking to sharpen your writing or simply curious about the art of storytelling in biotech, Niko's advice and experiences offer plenty of food for thought.Note:During the episode, Niko mentions a blog post from Jason Crawford about positive science fiction. It was not posted at the time but has since been posted. You can read it here.For more information about EBRC: Visit our website at ebrc.org. If you are interested in getting involved with the EBRC Student and Postdoc Association, fill out a membership application for graduate students and postdocs or for undergraduates and join today! Transcription:Episode transcripts are the unedited output from Whisper and likely contain errors.
In this episode, hosts Jason Crawford, Agustin Orozco, and Yuan Zhou discuss the evolving disclosure landscape and the various risks and rewards that contractors must weigh when deciding what to disclose, when to disclose, and where to direct the disclosure. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring's podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.
The Lunar Society: Read the notes at at podcastnotes.org. Don't forget to subscribe for free to our newsletter, the top 10 ideas of the week, every Monday --------- I interviewed Tyler Cowen at the Progress Conference 2024. As always, I had a blast. This is my fourth interview with him – and yet I'm always hearing new stuff.We talked about why he thinks AI won't drive explosive economic growth, the real bottlenecks on world progress, him now writing for AIs instead of humans, and the difficult relationship between being cultured and fostering growth – among many other things in the full episode.Thanks to the Roots of Progress Institute (with special thanks to Jason Crawford and Heike Larson) for such a wonderful conference, and to FreeThink for the videography.Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here.SponsorsI'm grateful to Tyler for volunteering to say a few words about Jane Street. It's the first time that a guest has participated in the sponsorship. I hope you can see why Tyler and I think so highly of Jane Street. To learn more about their open rules, go to janestreet.com/dwarkersh.Timestamps(00:00:00) Economic Growth and AI(00:14:57) Founder Mode and increasing variance(00:29:31) Effective Altruism and Progress Studies(00:33:05) What AI changes for Tyler(00:44:57) The slow diffusion of innovation(00:49:53) Stalin's library(00:52:19) DC vs SF vs EU Get full access to Dwarkesh Podcast at www.dwarkeshpatel.com/subscribe
The Lunar Society Key Takeaways While the AIs will be smart and conscientious, they will still face human bottlenecks, such as bureaucracies and committees at universitiesWe may not notice AI productivity gains on shorter timeframes: Even if they only boost economic growth by 0.5% per year, that is a massive productivity gain over 30-40 years! “There are going to be bottlenecks all along the way. It's going to be a tough slug – like the printing press, like electricity. The people who study diffusion of new technologies never think there will be rapid takeoff.” – Tyler CowenOpposition to AI will only increase as the technology starts to change what the world looks like There is increasing variance in the human distribution: Young people at the top are doing much better and are more impressive than they were in earlier times. The very bottom of the distribution is also getting better. But the “thick middle” is getting worse.Since humans are an input “other than the AI”, then humans will rise in marginal value, even if we will have to learn to do different thingsOn Popularity and Progress: There is a danger that as a thing becomes more popular, at the margin it becomes much worseThe Tyler Cowen Investment Philosophy: Buy and hold, diversify, hold on tight, make sure you have some cheap hobbies and can cook Tech diffusion is universally pretty slow: While people in the Bay Area are the smartest, most dynamic, and most ambitious, they tend to overvalue intelligence On progress: War should always be the main concern during a period of rapid technological progress; throughout history, when new technologies emerge, they are turned into instruments of war – and terrible things can happen Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgI interviewed Tyler Cowen at the Progress Conference 2024. As always, I had a blast. This is my fourth interview with him – and yet I'm always hearing new stuff.We talked about why he thinks AI won't drive explosive economic growth, the real bottlenecks on world progress, him now writing for AIs instead of humans, and the difficult relationship between being cultured and fostering growth – among many other things in the full episode.Thanks to the Roots of Progress Institute (with special thanks to Jason Crawford and Heike Larson) for such a wonderful conference, and to FreeThink for the videography.Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here.SponsorsI'm grateful to Tyler for volunteering to say a few words about Jane Street. It's the first time that a guest has participated in the sponsorship. I hope you can see why Tyler and I think so highly of Jane Street. To learn more about their open rules, go to janestreet.com/dwarkersh.Timestamps(00:00:00) Economic Growth and AI(00:14:57) Founder Mode and increasing variance(00:29:31) Effective Altruism and Progress Studies(00:33:05) What AI changes for Tyler(00:44:57) The slow diffusion of innovation(00:49:53) Stalin's library(00:52:19) DC vs SF vs EU Get full access to Dwarkesh Podcast at www.dwarkeshpatel.com/subscribe
The Lunar Society Key Takeaways While the AIs will be smart and conscientious, they will still face human bottlenecks, such as bureaucracies and committees at universitiesWe may not notice AI productivity gains on shorter timeframes: Even if they only boost economic growth by 0.5% per year, that is a massive productivity gain over 30-40 years! “There are going to be bottlenecks all along the way. It's going to be a tough slug – like the printing press, like electricity. The people who study diffusion of new technologies never think there will be rapid takeoff.” – Tyler CowenOpposition to AI will only increase as the technology starts to change what the world looks like There is increasing variance in the human distribution: Young people at the top are doing much better and are more impressive than they were in earlier times. The very bottom of the distribution is also getting better. But the “thick middle” is getting worse.Since humans are an input “other than the AI”, then humans will rise in marginal value, even if we will have to learn to do different thingsOn Popularity and Progress: There is a danger that as a thing becomes more popular, at the margin it becomes much worseThe Tyler Cowen Investment Philosophy: Buy and hold, diversify, hold on tight, make sure you have some cheap hobbies and can cook Tech diffusion is universally pretty slow: While people in the Bay Area are the smartest, most dynamic, and most ambitious, they tend to overvalue intelligence On progress: War should always be the main concern during a period of rapid technological progress; throughout history, when new technologies emerge, they are turned into instruments of war – and terrible things can happen Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgI interviewed Tyler Cowen at the Progress Conference 2024. As always, I had a blast. This is my fourth interview with him – and yet I'm always hearing new stuff.We talked about why he thinks AI won't drive explosive economic growth, the real bottlenecks on world progress, him now writing for AIs instead of humans, and the difficult relationship between being cultured and fostering growth – among many other things in the full episode.Thanks to the Roots of Progress Institute (with special thanks to Jason Crawford and Heike Larson) for such a wonderful conference, and to FreeThink for the videography.Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here.SponsorsI'm grateful to Tyler for volunteering to say a few words about Jane Street. It's the first time that a guest has participated in the sponsorship. I hope you can see why Tyler and I think so highly of Jane Street. To learn more about their open rules, go to janestreet.com/dwarkersh.Timestamps(00:00:00) Economic Growth and AI(00:14:57) Founder Mode and increasing variance(00:29:31) Effective Altruism and Progress Studies(00:33:05) What AI changes for Tyler(00:44:57) The slow diffusion of innovation(00:49:53) Stalin's library(00:52:19) DC vs SF vs EU Get full access to Dwarkesh Podcast at www.dwarkeshpatel.com/subscribe
Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. He writes and speaks about the history and philosophy of progress, especially in technology and industry. Key HighlightsAbout Foresight InstituteForesight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.Allison DuettmannThe President and CEO of Foresight Institute, Allison Duettmann directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, alongside Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees. She has also been pivotal in co-initiating the Longevity Prize, pioneering initiatives like Existentialhope.com, and contributing to notable works like "Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy" and "Gaming the Future".Get Involved with Foresight:Apply to our virtual technical seminars Join our in-person events and workshops Donate: Support Our Work – If you enjoy what we do, please consider this, as we are entirely funded by your donations!Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedInNote: Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm, an innovative podcast search engine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I interviewed Tyler Cowen at the Progress Conference 2024. As always, I had a blast. This is my fourth interview with him – and yet I'm always hearing new stuff.We talked about why he thinks AI won't drive explosive economic growth, the real bottlenecks on world progress, him now writing for AIs instead of humans, and the difficult relationship between being cultured and fostering growth – among many other things in the full episode.Thanks to the Roots of Progress Institute (with special thanks to Jason Crawford and Heike Larson) for such a wonderful conference, and to FreeThink for the videography.Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Read the full transcript here.SponsorsI'm grateful to Tyler for volunteering to say a few words about Jane Street. It's the first time that a guest has participated in the sponsorship. I hope you can see why Tyler and I think so highly of Jane Street. To learn more about their open rules, go to janestreet.com/dwarkersh.Timestamps(00:00:00) Economic Growth and AI(00:14:57) Founder Mode and increasing variance(00:29:31) Effective Altruism and Progress Studies(00:33:05) What AI changes for Tyler(00:44:57) The slow diffusion of innovation(00:49:53) Stalin's library(00:52:19) DC vs SF vs EU Get full access to Dwarkesh Podcast at www.dwarkeshpatel.com/subscribe
In this episode, Jason Crawford, Agustin Orozco, and Will Tucker discuss U.S. ex. rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates LLC, the recent decision in which a court found the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act to be unconstitutional. The hosts analyze the court's reasoning and consider its potential impact on FCA cases. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring's podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.
Tyler Cowen is an economics professor and blogger at Marginal Revolution. Patrick Collison is the billionaire founder of the online payments company Stripe. In 2019, they wrote an article calling for a discipline of Progress Studies, which would figure out what progress was and how to increase it. Later that year, tech entrepreneur Jason Crawford stepped up to spearhead the effort. The immediate reaction was mostly negative. There were the usual gripes that “progress” was problematic because it could imply that some cultures/times/places/ideas were better than others. But there were also more specific objections: weren't historians already studying progress? Wasn't business academia already studying innovation? Are you really allowed to just invent a new field every time you think of something it would be cool to study? It seems like you are. Five years later, Progress Studies has grown enough to hold its first conference. I got to attend, and it was great. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/notes-from-the-progress-studies-conference
Jason Crawford is the new lobbyist and Chief Communications Officer for the Home Education Foundation (HEF). He originally approached the HEF offering his marketing skills to increase visibility. As a father of 4 home schooled children and a husband of 20 years his core passion is strong families and his desire to preserve parental rights and school choice with the least amount of governmental intrusion gives him a vested interest in the work. In January 2024, he moved his family to Tallahassee to work alongside Brenda as a registered lobbyist. Since joining the team, he has rebranded HEF, created the new website, manages and directs the public communications, speaking engagements, social media, live forum, and the weekly podcasts. After working with Brenda for a year, Jason is ready to take the torch and move HEF into the future. FLHEF.ORG Thank you for listening to the A+ Parents podcast. If you love the show, don't forget to subscribe, share and leave us a review. Also, follow us online at www.aplusparents.com www.mrdmath.com or on our social channels @MrDMathlive @aplusparentspodcast Also, host Dennis DiNoia has a new book out NOW called “Teach: Becoming Independently Responsible Learners. Order your copy: https://aplusparents.com/teach OR on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X2B3MG8/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_i_DDH16A3BD5X79CSFSQXB To learn more about Mr.D Math Live Homeschool classes, visit: https://mrdmath.edu20.org/visitor_class_catalog?affiliate=10252228
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Progress Conference 2024: Toward Abundant Futures, published by jasoncrawford on June 26, 2024 on LessWrong. The progress movement has grown a lot in the last few years. We now have progress journals, think tanks, and fellowships. The progress idea has spread and evolved into the "abundance agenda", "techno-optimism", "supply-side progressivism", "American dynamism". All of us want to see more scientific, technological, and economic progress for the good of humanity, and envision a bold, ambitious, flourishing future. What we haven't had so far is a regular gathering of the community. Announcing Progress Conference 2024, a two-day event to connect people in the progress movement. Meet great people, share ideas in deep conversations, catalyze new projects, get energized and inspired. Hosted by: the Roots of Progress Institute, together with the Foresight Institute, HumanProgress.org, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Institute for Progress, and Works in Progress magazine When: October 18-19, 2024 Where: Berkeley, CA - at the Lighthaven campus, an inviting space perfect for mingling Speakers: Keynotes include Patrick Collison, Tyler Cowen, Jason Crawford, and Steven Pinker. Around 20 additional speakers will share ideas on four tracks: the big idea of human progress, policy for progress, tech for progress, and storytelling/media for progress. Full speaker list Attendees: We expect 200+ intellectuals, builders, policy makers, storytellers, and students. This is an invitation-only event, but anyone can apply for an invitation. Complete the open application by July 15th. Program: Two days of intellectual exploration, inspiration and interaction that will help shape the progress movement into a cultural force. Attend talks on topics from tech to policy to culture, build relationships with new people as you hang out on cozy sofas or enjoy the sun in the garden, sign up to run an unconference session and find others who share your interests and passions, or pitch your ideas to those who could help make your dreams a reality. Special thanks to our early sponsors: Cato Institute, Astera Institute, and Freethink Media! We have more sponsorships open, view sponsorship opportunities here. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org
Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Progress Conference 2024: Toward Abundant Futures, published by jasoncrawford on June 26, 2024 on LessWrong. The progress movement has grown a lot in the last few years. We now have progress journals, think tanks, and fellowships. The progress idea has spread and evolved into the "abundance agenda", "techno-optimism", "supply-side progressivism", "American dynamism". All of us want to see more scientific, technological, and economic progress for the good of humanity, and envision a bold, ambitious, flourishing future. What we haven't had so far is a regular gathering of the community. Announcing Progress Conference 2024, a two-day event to connect people in the progress movement. Meet great people, share ideas in deep conversations, catalyze new projects, get energized and inspired. Hosted by: the Roots of Progress Institute, together with the Foresight Institute, HumanProgress.org, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Institute for Progress, and Works in Progress magazine When: October 18-19, 2024 Where: Berkeley, CA - at the Lighthaven campus, an inviting space perfect for mingling Speakers: Keynotes include Patrick Collison, Tyler Cowen, Jason Crawford, and Steven Pinker. Around 20 additional speakers will share ideas on four tracks: the big idea of human progress, policy for progress, tech for progress, and storytelling/media for progress. Full speaker list Attendees: We expect 200+ intellectuals, builders, policy makers, storytellers, and students. This is an invitation-only event, but anyone can apply for an invitation. Complete the open application by July 15th. Program: Two days of intellectual exploration, inspiration and interaction that will help shape the progress movement into a cultural force. Attend talks on topics from tech to policy to culture, build relationships with new people as you hang out on cozy sofas or enjoy the sun in the garden, sign up to run an unconference session and find others who share your interests and passions, or pitch your ideas to those who could help make your dreams a reality. Special thanks to our early sponsors: Cato Institute, Astera Institute, and Freethink Media! We have more sponsorships open, view sponsorship opportunities here. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org
Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, where he writes and speaks about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Previously, he spent 18 years as a software engineer, engineering manager, and startup founder.Worldbuilding CourseThis session is a part of THE WORLDBUILDING CHALLENGE: CO-CREATING THE WORLD OF 2045. In this virtual and interactive course, we engage with the most pressing global challenges of our age—climate change, the risks of AI, and the complex ethical questions arising in the wake of new technologies. Our aim is to sharpen participants' awareness and equip them to apply their skills to these significant and urgent issues.Existential HopeExistential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice ErkersFollow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope InstagramExplore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
El complejo caso de Jason Crawford, condenado por acabar a su esposa, Tiffiney Crawford, en 2017 en Cullman, Alabama. Guion elaborado por: Guiontube Distribuido por Genuina Media
In this episode, Steve Byers, Jason Crawford, and Agustin Orozco discuss the intersection between False Claims Act investigations and parallel criminal proceedings. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring's podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.
If you could ask one the Top 20 Podcasters in the world to share one book, what would it be? Our guest today is Stefanie Gass, who is not only one of the Top 20 Podcasters is the world, but is also a Christian who is passionate about helping other Christian Women to grow their online businesses using podcasting. We discuss some of our favorite marriage books, what it takes to have a great marriage, Stef's recommendations for business books, AND one special book she brought with her to share! Let us know your Top Marriage and Business Books in our Facebook Group here! Stefanie Gass is a Christian business and podcast coach, boundary boss, and seven-figure CEO. She helps women grow their online businesses and make consistent income, using podcasting. She is the host of a top 20 globally ranked business podcast, Online Business for Christian Women. She believes it's possible to partner with God to create income and impact without sacrificing your family, faith, or buying into the social media hustle. Find Stef at stefaniegass.com and The Stefanie Gass Show on all podcast platforms! Stef's Freebies! Clarity on Your Calling Workshop 7-Step Spiritual Battle Plan Book Mentioned in this Episode: Sacred Marriage by Gary L Thomas The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God by Timothy J Keller and Kathy Keller Unbreaking: How Giving Up Saved Our Marriage by Jason Crawford and Crystal Crawford The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss The Seven Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell Plus, any other book by John Maxwell Don Miller books Everybody Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People by Bob Goff Join our reading group to read The Ethics of Beauty by Dr. Timothy Patitsas! Tricia is facilitating a group to read this book slowly - one chapter a month- for the first 9 months of this year. If you'd like to be included, reach out though our website or message us on social media. Visit our new WEBSITE www.bookfarepodcast.com You can leave us your email there to receive a free gift- a printable pdf of some of our best book-finding resources for you AND your kids! And when you do that, you'll be entered in a drawing to win an exclusive Book Fare sticker pack for free!! Leave us a 5 Star Review in iTunes and we just might read it on air! Leaving a 5 Star Review is the BEST way to grow our show and we dearly appreciate them! All 5 Star reviews will be entered for a change to win BookFare Swag - namely a BookFare Mug!! One winner will be drawn every week through Valentine's Day! Do you love books or do you want to? Are you tired of reading in a vacuum and struggling to find good books? Has motherhood somehow made your brain a dusty shamble? Friend, you are in the right place! BookFare Podcast is here to help you find great books that you will LOVE and a community to share them with, all while nurturing your own brain and helping you create a culture of reading in your life and family. We are Elizabeth, Tricia, and Amanda, and we are here to help you do just that! That's why we started Book Fare - to create a safe and welcoming place for women who care about the content of what they read- an exciting book club that combines FUN with truth, goodness and beauty! So… from newbie readers to seasoned bibliophiles, from beach reads to Beowulf, from new releases to classic literature and everything in between- we are here to explore and curate reading content for you and your family. Together, we will laugh and think our way through all that good and great literature has to offer. We will seek virtue and values through literature and training our affections one dog-eared, coffee-stained and child-graffitied book at a time! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bookfare/message
In this episode, Jason Crawford, Agustin Orozco, and Erin Rankin look back at one of the more noteworthy settlements of 2023—the $377M settlement by Booz Allen Hamilton to resolve allegations arising out of the company's purported non-compliance with Cost Accounting Standards. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring's podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.
Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, where he writes and speaks about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Previously, he spent 18 years as a software engineer, engineering manager, and startup founder.Session Summary: Jason envisages a future marked by dynamic, continuous progress, encapsulated in the concept of protopia. This vision diverges from a traditional notion of a utopia, and instead embraces a reality of constant, incremental improvement. In Jason's view, progress is an ever-evolving journey, not a destination. It's a series of small, significant steps that, over time, lead to profound transformations in our world.Central to Jason's perspective is the transformative potential of AI, paralleling historical technological leaps like the steam engine and personal computing. He views AI as a catalyst for a new era in human history, one that could redefine societal structures by making high-quality services accessible to a broader demographic. This democratization of resources, akin to services becoming as affordable as a Netflix subscription, could bridge societal gaps. However, Jason emphasizes that this protopian future requires collective agency, responsibility, and a balanced understanding of our role in shaping it. He believes that progress accelerates over time, with each innovation building upon the last, thus speeding up future advancements.Full transcript, list of resources, and art piece: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcastsExistential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice ErkersFollow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope InstagramExplore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode, Jason Crawford, Nkechi Kanu, and Agustin Orozco discuss a recent settlement that underscores the DOJ's increased use of the False Claims Act to enforce noncompliance with cybersecurity requirements. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring's podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.
Jason Crawford is the founder of Roots of Progress and a prolific writer on all things technology and progress. Jason […] The post Jason Crawford on progress and the history of technology appeared first on Luminary.fm.
Cullman County, Alabama, USA. Am 2. Mai 2017 gegen 23 Uhr geht der Notruf von Jason Crawford ein. Er braucht Hilfe. Seine Frau wurde erschossen. Auf die Frage, wer geschossen hat, gibt der 37-jährige Familienvater keine Antwort. Als die Einsatzkräfte bei den Crawfords ankommen und Jasons Frau Tiffiney leblos und mit pinken Revolver in der Hand vorfinden, scheint der Fall auf den ersten Blick klar zu sein. Doch dann fallen den verschiedenen Beteiligten immer mehr Ungereimtheiten auf. Bald stehen die Ermittler vor einer schwierigen Frage: Haben sie es hier einfach mit einem sehr atypischen Fall zu tun oder versucht man sie hinters Licht zu führen? Könnte das Geheimnis, dass Tiffiney die letzen Monate mit sich herum getragen hatte, der Schlüssel zum Fall sein? Inhaltswarnungen: Suizid, explizite Gewalt, Psychische Gesundheit, Alkoholkonsum, Ob der Fall gelöst oder ungelöst ist, seht ihr ganz unten in der Beschreibung. (N=nicht gelöst, G=Gelöst) SHOWNOTES: Danke an Lea und Josias von Adventsome - unserem heutigen Werbepartner. Mit den wundervollen Adventskalendern von Adventssome kann die Vorfreude auf die Weihnachtszeit so richtig losgehen. 20 hochwertige, vegane Startup-Produkte und 4 Spenden an tolle Organisationen erwarten euch - wir sind riesige Fans von Adventsome und freuen uns schon wahnsinnig darauf, dass erste Päckchen öffnen zu können. Wenn ihr euch auch einen Kalender sichern wollt, dann geht zu https://www.adventsome.de und nutzt unseren Code "Puppies" um ein Sticker- und Postkartenset gratis dazuzubekommen.
Mark and Adam take a look back at three years of podcasts to reflect on their favorite episodes—and the friends they made along the way. They discus Metamuse's origin story, walk through the production process, and wax nostalgic on some of their favorite episodes. Plus: a look at what the future holds for our hosts and the podcast. Discuss this episode in the Muse community Follow @MuseAppHQ on Twitter Show notes NPR The future of iPad Ferrite Hello Internet, Gastropod, Lexicon Valley This American Life, Gimlet Media Most downloaded episodes: Computers and creativity with Molly Mielke, Sync, Growing ideas with Andy Matuschak Mark's favorite episodes: Local-first software with Martin Kleppmann, Local-first one year later, Hiring, Cities with Devon Zuegel Adam's honorable mentions: Progress with Jason Crawford, Rich text with Slim Lim Metamuse podcast guest handbook lossless audio Riverside Audio editor Mark Lamorgese Post-producer Jenna Miller Podcasting Microphones Mega-Review XLR microphone pro sound dampening material RØDE Podcaster Pop filter, plosives John Michael Greer
Nuclear power seems like exactly what we want: a reliable, low-carbon source of huge amounts of energy. So why does it produce less of our electricity per capita now than it did decades ago?A major reason: nuclear power suffers from very bad PR. In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart discuss the ever-present safety fears surrounding nuclear power, the problems of nuclear waste, and the reasons that nuclear power is so drastically expensive. How many people died in the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters, anyway? Could new reactor designs fix some of nuclear power's problems? And is nuclear power so irredeemably unpopular that we should just give it up and move on to renewables?The Studies Show is sponsored by the i, the UK's smartest daily newspaper. You can get a half-price deal on digital subscriptions to the whole paper, including full access to Stuart's columns and his subscriber-only science newsletter, by following this special podcast link.The Studies Show is also sponsored by Works in Progress, an online magazine about science, technology, and human progress. The newest issue of Works in Progress is out now, with essays on topics like the discovery of the malaria vaccine and the surprising economics of copper.Show Notes* Fumio Kishida eats a Fukushima flounder; John Selwyn Gummer eats a British beef burger (with his daughter)* Graph showing the plateau in nuclear power generation* Hannah Ritchie on the safest sources of energy; review comparing health effects of different sources of electricity generation* Jack Devanney on plutonium in Works in Progress; and on why the “Linear No-Threshold” model is “nonsense”* Jason Crawford summary & review of Devanney's book Why Nuclear Power Has Been a Flop* Article on the wildly-varying cancer and death numbers suggested for Chernobyl* UNSCEAR report; IAEA estimate of deaths; Alternative TORCH estimate; IARC estimate of cancers up to 2065* IAEA analysis of Fukushima water and comparison to normal levels of radiation* Report on deaths from the evacuation after the Tōhoku earthquake/tsunami* Tom's article in the i on Fukushima and nuclear power's PR problem* Article on spent fuels and waste from nuclear reactors* Summary of “breeder” and “burner” reactors* Hannah Ritchie on mining for low-carbon energy vs. mining for fossil fuels* Article on the pollution produced from lignite mines* Sceptical view of new nuclear plant technologies* Graph of solar panel prices dropping over timeCreditsThe Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thestudiesshowpod.com/subscribe
In this episode, Jason Crawford, Olivia Lynch, and Agustin Orozco discuss government investigations and enforcement trends regarding pandemic relief fraud. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring's podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.
In this episode, Jason Crawford, Agustin Orozco, and Lyndsay Gorton discuss the Supreme Court's opinion in United States ex rel. Polansky, which held in an 8-1 decision that the Department of Justice maintains broad authority to dismiss qui tam cases over a relator's objection. The hosts also discuss Justice Thomas' dissenting opinion which could ultimately prove to be more impactful than the Court's holding.
Jason Crawford is the founder & president of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. Jason has written well over 100 essays on the history of technology and the philosophy of progress, and given numerous talks and interviews on the same. He joins the show to discuss whether humans deserve progress, how to make progress cool, the two types of optimism, and more! Important Links: The Roots of Progress Jason's Website Jason's Twitter Discourse on the Arts and Sciences; by Jean-Jacques Rousseau Triumph of the Nerds Why I'm a proud solutionist Show Notes: Why do we need progress studies? Are humans conditioned to resist progress? Increasing the burden of safety What the Roots of Progress is seeking to achieve How can we make progress cool? Pessimism of the intellect; optimism of the will Do we deserve progress? Progress & politics Steelmanning the case against progress How can we defend against bad actors? Calibrating our approach to risk MUCH more! Books Mentioned: Frankenstein; by Mary Shelley Erewhon; by Samuel Butler Darwin Among The Machines; by Samuel Butler The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch The Ultimate Resource; by Julian L. Simon The Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines Our Freedom; by Philip K. Howard The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; by Douglas Adams The Jungle; by Upton Sinclair One Summer: America, 1927; by Bill Bryson
In this episode, Jason Crawford, Brian Tully McLaughlin, and Agustin Orozco explore the issues before the Supreme Court in two consolidated cases involving the False Claims Act. The hosts discuss the April 18 oral argument in Schutte/Proctor where the question before the Justices is whether a defendant's subjective knowledge about whether its conduct was legal is relevant to whether it “knowingly” submitted false claims.
This episode of Hub Dialogues features Sean Speer in conversation with Jason Crawford, founder of the U.S.-based non-profit organization Roots of Progress, about human progress, why it has slowed, and how a new philosophy of progress can help to accelerate it.The Hub Dialogues (which is one of The Hub's regular podcasts) feature The Hub's editor-at-large, Sean Speer, in conversation with leading entrepreneurs, policymakers, scholars, and thinkers on the issues and challenges that will shape Canada's future at home and abroad. The episodes are generously supported by The Ira Gluskin And Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation and Linda Frum and Howard Sokolowski Charitable Foundation. If you like what you are hearing on Hub Dialogues consider subscribing to The Hub's free weekly email newsletter featuring our insights and analysis on key public policy issues. Sign up here: https://thehub.ca/free-member-sign-up/. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A former software engineering manager, Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. In this episode we talk self-driving cars, Amazon and the endless possibilities of AI.
In this episode, hosts Michael Shaheen and Jason Crawford discuss the Department of Justice's recently announced False Claims Act (FCA) recovery statistics for fiscal year 2022. The podcast breaks down last year's FCA activity—which included a record number of new matters—and considers what the trends could portend for fraud enforcement in the year to come. "Let's Talk FCA" is Crowell & Moring's podcast covering the latest developments with the False Claims Act.
For more about Jason Crawford see: https://jasoncrawford.org/ and https://rootsofprogress.org/Show is Sponsored by Ayn Rand University https://university.aynrand.org/ as well as by https://www.expressvpn.com/yaron & https://www.fountainheadcasts.comJoin this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/@YaronBrook/joinLike what you hear? Like, share, and subscribe to stay updated on new videos and help promote the Yaron Brook Show: https://bit.ly/3ztPxTxSupport the Show and become a sponsor: https://www.patreon.com/YaronBrookShow or https://yaronbrookshow.com/membershipOr make a one-time donation: https://bit.ly/2RZOyJJContinue the discussion by following Yaron on Twitter (https://bit.ly/3iMGl6z) and Facebook (https://bit.ly/3vvWDDC )Want to learn more about Ayn Rand and Objectivism? Visit the Ayn Rand Institute: https://bit.ly/35qoEC3#progress #industrialrevolution #rootsofprogress #progressmovement #entrepreneurship #selfesteem #Morality #Objectivism #AynRand #politics
In the last few years, a new intellectual community and movement has arisen, centered on the value of scientific, technological, industrial, and economic progress. These ideas have caught the attention of business leaders, academic economists, and prominent journalists. Where did this movement come from? Why is it gaining traction? And what are the key steps to maximize its positive impact? Crawford will give his viewpoint as someone who has been inside the epicenter of this movement since its beginning. Recorded live on July 7, 2022 as part of the Objectivist Summer Conference.
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Wanted: Technical animator and/or front-end developer for interactive diagrams of invention, published by jasoncrawford on February 8, 2023 on LessWrong. Seeking help for a project to create interactive diagrams—an “explorable explanation”—of the history of the steam engine. Goal: To allow readers to explore the early evolution of one of the most impactful technologies in human history. Content: The content will come from Anton Howes's extensive research uncovering the origins of the steam engine (parts 1, 2, and 3). We envision it covering precursors like the perpetual motion machine of Cornelis Drebbel, early thermometers and barometers, seventeenth-century experiments on atmospheric pressure, precursor devices like those shown by Salomon de Caus, our best guesses of the Kalthoff/Petty engine, the Savery engine, and the Newcomen engine and its improvements. (After this initial phase, we would then want to expand it to include the improvements by James Watt, and the rise of the high-pressure engine, with its various nineteenth-century improvements.) This page on the steam engine may serve as a start for eventually creating the definitive online and interactive reference work on the history of technology, informed by the latest expert research. Format: We have been greatly inspired by the works of Bartosz Ciechanowski, such as his mechanical watch and internal combustion engine explanations. We're looking to create something like this. Here are more examples of locomotive valves. The team: Anton Howes as researcher/writer, me (Jason Crawford) as editor/producer, you as animator/developer. Your input: We'll provide the written essay and some sketches and ideas for what diagrams we should create and how they should work. Your deliverables: The code and/or other files to implement a set of interactive and/or animated technical diagrams. You: A technical illustrator, animator, and/or front-end developer, or a team, who can deliver this. Must have a portfolio of relevant work to demonstrate your abilities. The ideal candidate will have an interest in engineering, invention, and the history of technology. How to apply: Email explorables@rootsofprogress.org with a description of your skills and examples of your work. We have budget for this project and are willing to pay market rates for high-quality work. Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.
How old is fast food? And to what extent was food actually healthier in the past, before our days of factory farming and artificial preservatives? A deep dive into the pros and cons of convenience food then and now.Links:A Plea for Culinary Modernism by Rachel Laudan, 2001 Thread and replies on the article (Jason Crawford, Twitter)11/21/23 episode including a brief background on the baguette (Cool Stuff Ride Home) 01/29/21 episode on the Pompeii snack bar (Cool Stuff Ride Home)Maintenance Phase "You Just Need to Lose Weight": And 19 Other Myths about Fat People by Aubrey Gordon McDonald's Opens a Tiny Restaurant — and It's Only for Bees (OpenCulture, 2019) Jackson Bird on TwitterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
We explore technological progress and how innovation and invention happens. We're joined by Jason Crawford, Founder of Roots of Progress. We cover nurturing progress as a moral imperative, the growth of progress studies, and how bureaucracy can slow progress. “We can pay it forward to future generations by making sure that progress continues and by making sure that future generations are living as well off compared to us today, as we are compared to the past. So let's have that ambition for the future.” – Jason Crawford EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/progress-studies-roots-of-progress-jason-crawford-ig-show-notes FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/progress-studies-roots-of-progress-jason-crawford-ig-transcript CHAPTERS This episode is our definitive guide to technological progress and innovation. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:02:09 – About Jason's work with The Roots of Progress 00:04:30 – Nurturing progress is a moral imperative 00:06:24 – On Louis Pasteur 00:14:20 – What is progress? What is technology? 00:21:06 – On starting The Roots of Progress 00:25:18 – The growth of progress studies 00:30:30 – Is progress really stagnating? 00:37:38 – How bureaucracy can slow progress 00:42:18 – The speed of innovation 00:48:26 – Advancements in biotech, artificial intelligence, energy technologies, and nanotech 00:56:00 – Appreciating the progress we see on a daily basis ABOUT ROOTS OF PROGRESS Jason Crawford is one of the researchers and writers at the forefront of the progress studies movement, which seeks to understand what's driven human progress historically in order to cultivate and accelerate it moving forward. Jason Crawford, through his blog and non-profit Roots of Progress, has studied and written about everything from the invention of the bicycle and why it took so long to be invented, to the smallpox vaccine. He's one of the world's leading thinkers on how progress happens, why it seems to have slowed in recent years, or at the least narrowed, and what we need to do to accelerate human progress in the coming years.
We deconstruct Jason Crawford's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. Jason Crawford is the Founder and CEO of The Roots of Progress. We cover the Gutenberg press, startup failures, and recommended apps. “I would say the single most powerful technique that I have found is when you start your day, rather than checking email or or anything, start by pulling out a blank sheet of paper, whether that's literal paper or whether, like me, you use an electronic note-taking system, and just think on paper about your day. How's it going? What's up? What am I going to do today? What are my priorities and so forth?” – Jason Crawford EPISODE GUIDE (LINKS, QUOTES, NOTES, AND BOOKS MENTIONED) https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/roots-of-progress-jason-crawford-20mp-show-notes FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT https://www.danielscrivner.com/notes/roots-of-progress-jason-crawford-20mp-transcript CHAPTERS In this episode, we deconstruct Jason Crawford's peak performance playbook—from his favorite book to the tiny habit that's had the biggest impact on his life. In it we cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:01:24 – Research on the Gutenberg press 00:03:51 – Learning, planning the day, and improving sleep 00:10:09 – Recommended apps, including Bear, Readwise, and Anki 00:12:27 – Startup failures, sci-fi books, and success on your own terms ABOUT JASON CRAWFORD Jason Crawford is one of the researchers and writers at the forefront of the progress studies movement, which seeks to understand what's driven human progress historically in order to cultivate and accelerate moving forward, which is to say the least absolutely fascinating. Jason Crawford, through his blog and nonprofit Roots of Progress has studied and written about everything from the invention of the bicycle, to the smallpox vaccine. He's one of the world's leading thinkers on how progress happens, why it seems to have slowed or at least narrowed in recent years, and what we need to do to accelerate it in the coming years.
Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. He writes and speak about the history and philosophy of progress, especially in technology and industry.He's also the creator of Progress Studies for Young Scholars, an online learning program about the history of technology for high schoolers, and a part-time technical consultant and adviser to Our World in Data.Formerly, he was a software engineering manager and tech startup founder. He was co-founder & CEO of Fieldbook, a hybrid spreadsheet-database.He's also been an engineering manager at Flexport, Amazon and Groupon, and was at a few other startups as co-founder or early employee. Long ago he helped build a biotech supercomputer for D. E. Shaw Research. The Roots of Progress: https://rootsofprogress.org/Jason's Personal Site: https://jasoncrawford.org/Find Jason on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasoncrawford
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Why Weren't Hot Air Balloons Invented Sooner?, published by Lost Futures on October 18, 2022 on LessWrong. TL;DR Hot air balloons certainly could have arrived at least decades earlier and there's a high chance they could have arrived centuries, possibly even millennia earlier. Jason Crawford asks, "Why did it take so long to invent X?" The post is an invitation. It asks the reader to identify low-hanging fruit, inventions that could have been invented far earlier but weren't. Now, most technologies don't fit the bill. Not everything could have been invented long before it was. Many relied on recent advancements. The airplane only became possible once engines became powerful enough to lift them into the sky. But for other inventions such as the cotton gin or flying shuttle, neither scientific nor technological barriers seem present. To this list of mysteriously absent inventions, I'd like to propose an addition: The hot air balloon. Ancient Balloons? The notion of the ancient or medieval world having hot air balloons makes for exciting counterfactual history. Floating Roman military lookouts, ornate balloons arriving with Zheng He's fleet in South Asia, balloon cartographers in the age of exploration. It's all very eye-catching, but is it realistic? In actual history, there were no Roman, Umayyadan, or Imperial Chinese hot air balloons. In fact, highly dubious claims of ancient South American balloons aside, no one in the classical or medieval world is known to have constructed a manned balloon. The first verified flight occurred in 1783, amid the industrial revolution. This early balloon was created by the Montgolfier brothers, French industrialists in the paper industry. Why Manned Balloons Could Have Been Invented Sooner Previous Inventions/Historical Precedent Mini Hot Air Balloons The sky lantern was invented by the Chinese by at least the 3rd century AD. Constructed from paper and a small fuel source, sky lanterns operated using the same principles as manned hot air balloons, well over a thousand years prior to the invention of the latter. Human Flight Before Balloons Beyond this, the concept of human flight was by no means novel to Dynastic China. Man-lifting kites were likely developed shortly before the time of the Sui Dynasty (581–618). Such kites became widespread enough throughout East Asia for the Japanese government to have prohibited them at a time. The First Hot Air Balloon Didn't Take Long To Invent While Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, having created parachutes in the past, possessed preexisting knowledge of aeronautics, the brothers did not begin experimenting with balloons until the winter of 1782. By the end of the year, the duo had successfully built two prototypes, the second of which had so much lifting force they lost control of it. The prototype would proceed to float for nearly two kilometers (1.2 miles) before landing. Upon touchdown, it was ripped apart by frightened passersby. By October 1783, the first manned flight occurred, and a month later on November 21, 1783, the first untethered manned balloon flight was performed. The Montgolfiers' Balloon Was Inefficient The Montgolfier brothers didn't quite understand the physics involved– they believed thick smoke was the key to keeping the bag aloft, so they burned things like straw, wool, and even old shoes to produce the densest possible smoke. Not recognizing that the heat had made the bag rise, the brothers also seem to have believed at the time that they had produced a new, previously undiscovered gas that was lighter than air. The Montgolfier brothers created a functional hot air balloon without understanding the underlying physics. They believed that it was the smoke rather than hot air that caused the balloon to rise. Because of this, they burned materials that would produce thick smoke su...
What happened to the idea of progress? How do we regain our sense of agency? And how do we move forward, in the 21st century and beyond?Jason CrawfordI am the founder of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. I write and speak about the history and philosophy of progress, especially in technology and industry. I am also the creator of Progress Studies for Young Scholars, an online learning program about the history of technology for high schoolers, and a part-time technical consultant and adviser to Our World in Data.Session summary: (425) Jason Crawford | A New Philosophy of Progress - YouTubeThe Foresight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.Allison Duettmann is the president and CEO of Foresight Institute. She directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees, and shares this work with the public. She founded Existentialhope.com, co-edited Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy, co-authored Gaming the Future, and co-initiated The Longevity Prize. Apply to Foresight's virtual salons and in person workshops here!We are entirely funded by your donations. If you enjoy what we do please consider donating through our donation page.Visit our website for more content, or join us here:TwitterFacebookLinkedInEvery word ever spoken on this podcast is now AI-searchable using Fathom.fm, a search engine for podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jason is the Founder & President of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. He is also an adviser to Our World in Data and the creator of Progress Studies for Young Scholars, an online learning program about the history of technology for high schoolers. Jason writes and speaks about the history and philosophy of progress, especially in technology and industry. Follow him on Twitter @jasoncrawford. [2:18] - How Jason's evolving interests have influenced his understanding of human progress [10:53] - Jason's experience “dropping out” of high school and choosing to learn on his own [15:22] - Why Jason chose to transition from building tech startups to studying human progress [18:35] - Introducing The Roots of Progress [24:07] - The kind of CEO Jason is looking to lead The Roots of Progress foundation and its fellowship program [28:05] - Writers and models that have inspired and influenced Jason's studies [32:32] - Humanism vs. Environmentalism [39:44] - Why Jason views the invention of electricity as one of the most important drivers of human progress in the last 150 years --- Support the show by checking out my sponsors: Join Levels and get personalized insights to learn about your metabolic health. Go to https://levels.link/jake. --- https://homeofjake.com
What is progress and how do we get more of it? It's a core question here at Faster, Please! and something Jason Crawford thinks a lot about. Jason is the founder of The Roots of Progress, a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. He writes about the history of technology and industry and the philosophy of progress.In this episode of Faster, Please! — The Podcast, Jason explains how progress is about more than just economic growth, discusses where it comes from, and distinguishes progress from utopianism. Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.James Pethokoukis: You are part of a growing intellectual movement that aims to understand two big things: why human progress happens and how to speed it up. First of all, why is this of interest to you?Jason Crawford: Most of my career for almost 20 years was in the tech industry. I have a background in computer science. I was a software engineer, engineering manager, and tech startup co-founder. And about five-plus years ago, I got really interested in progress. It began as an intellectual hobby, and I just came from the perspective that, like, the progress in material living standards over the last couple of hundred years—I mean more than an order of magnitude improvement in industrialized countries—is basically the greatest thing ever to happen to humanity, or at least way up there. You know, in the top three. And if you care about human wellbeing and you look at this fact of history, I think you have to be a little awestruck about it. And I think you have to ask three basic questions: First, how did this happen? Second, why did it take so long to really get going? And three, how can we continue it into the future?What do we mean by progress? Are you talking about spending power or are you talking about human lifespan? Leisure time? People could define it differently. When we use the word progress during this conversation, what are you talking about?Yeah, there's at least two basic and important meanings to progress. So one is progress in our capabilities, our ability to understand and control the world: science, technology, industry, infrastructure, wealth accumulation, and so forth. But then there's …I love that wealth accumulation part. Oh man, I love hearing about that.Surplus wealth is very important, and infrastructure is a form of wealth, right? But then there's an even deeper—I think the ultimate meaning of progress, the true progress of human progress is progress in human wellbeing: the ability to live longer, happier, healthier lives, lives of more freedom and choice and opportunity with more things open to us, more ability for self-actualization. Ultimately, it's that human progress that matters, and it's why we care about this.I think a lot about choice and opportunity, the human freedom aspect. Sometimes when I talk about it, people will kind of condense it down to “stuff.” Like, “You just want more stuff. How much more stuff do we need?” But I think there is that deeper meaning, and I don't think most people who are interested in progress and these questions are interested in it just because they just think we want more stuff.First off, stuff is underrated. People like to dismiss it as if material comforts don't matter. They matter a lot. And I think people just take the current level of affluence for granted and they don't think about how life could be way better. You know, people in 1800 if you could ask them, they would probably say they were fairly satisfied with their lives as well. They had no idea what was possible. But you're right that it's not just about stuff. I mentioned choice and opportunity. Think about the ability that the average person has (at least the average person in a reasonably wealthy country) to live where they want, to have the kind of job that they want instead of having to be a farmer or just having to accept the trade that their father had, the ability to marry whom they want when they want, to have children or not and how many children to have and when to have them, the ability to go on vacation.There are a lot of these things that we take for granted now that people did not always have. So it's not just about a full belly and a roof over your head and a warm bed to sleep in at night. Those are great things. And, again, they're underrated. But it's also about romance and knowledge and exploration and excitement and adventure and self-actualization, and self-expression—all of those very human values, which are psychological values. Those are also supported and enabled by material progress.Do we still not know how progress happens, for the most part? We know institutions are important. Deirdre McCloskey talks about the Bourgeois Deal, in which innovators said, “Let me creatively destroy the old and bad ways of doing things, the scythes, ox carts, oil lamps, propeller planes, film cameras, and factory lacking high-tech robots, and I will make you all rich.” Do we need to know more than that?Those questions that I posed earlier, I'm obviously not the first person to ask any of them or even to deeply study them. So two things: First off, I think that while the knowledge is out there and is maybe well known to academic experts who study this stuff, I don't think it's ever been given really great popular treatment. And definitely not one that goes into … remember the very first question that I posed was literally, how did it happen? So when I started, I went into this study and I'm now writing a book because there was a book that I wanted to read five years ago and I couldn't find it. It didn't exist. I don't think it does exist. I wanted to learn in one volume, in one summary, what were the major discoveries and inventions that created the modern world, and that gave us this standard of living?And I wanted to really understand what were we doing wrong that made agricultural productivity so low? What were we doing wrong that made disease so rampant, right? What were we doing wrong such that most people were stuck going not very far outside their village their entire lives? And I mean, doing wrong: I say that a little tongue in cheek. Obviously we were doing something wrong. We just didn't know how to do it better, but what did we have to learn? So I don't think that that has ever been put together in a very accessible summary for the general public in a single volume.You said a lot of this information is out there, but it's more academic so we need to popularize it. Though, for sure, we're not just talking about old papers that we're going to refer to. There's plenty of new research on the Industrial Revolution; on how you create today a modern, fast-growing economy; how you increase productivity growth. It's a well-researched topic on which the research is definitely ongoing.Yeah, absolutely. So that's the other part of it, which is that even within academia, even at the frontiers of knowledge among the experts, there are open questions and there's still, frankly, a fair bit of disagreement. If you want a good summary of the academic literature and where the state of the discussion is at this point, there's a new book that just came out, How the World Became Rich, by Koyama and Rubin. It does a good job of summarizing [of] the academic literature. I do think there's a fairly good consensus, or at least among most folks in the field, that institutions and culture somehow are at the root of a lot of both how the original Great Enrichment began and also why some nations have caught up and others haven't.I think there are still a good amount of open questions at a sort of fine-grained detail level: If it's institutions and culture, which institutions exactly? And which aspects of culture really make the difference? You can look at Britain and you can say they were able to create the Industrial Revolution, in part, because they had a great deal of economic freedom among other things. But then you can also look at various Asian countries that have caught up in a large part in terms of economic growth with some economic freedom, but certainly not the level that Britain had. And even Britain was sort of weirdly missing things. Like, for more than a century after the South Sea bubble in 1720 it was extremely difficult to create a corporation, let alone a limited liability corporation, right? So you could make a partnership like Boulton and Watt, but to do a corporation I believe required an act of Parliament for over a hundred years. Now, making it easy to create corporations is sort of a key institution and ultimately a key part of economic freedom. Britain was able to start the Industrial Revolution without that. So if you want to really understand what's going on here, you have to get to a pretty fine-grained level. And I think that is still an open area of research.I think that's an interesting point. You bring up corporations. It's not just technology; it's not just the steam engine or the combustion engine or Moore's law and the microchip. It's not just these bits of technology that somehow happen and thank goodness they did. And maybe in the future will get more. It's broad; it's really kind of a holistic, whole-society thing where you have culture, you have institutions, you certainly have innovators and entrepreneurship. So it's figuring out all these things. Why I find it so fascinating is that it provides a lens to examine all parts of human activity. In my newsletter on Substack, I write about movies and TV shows and books: the cultural aspect. I'll also talk to technologists and I'll talk to economists because all those pieces added together are what create progress.You can look at economic freedom as one thing that happened in Britain that helped create the Industrial Revolution. But I also think it is not at all a coincidence that Britain was the land of Locke and Bacon and Newton. There was something much deeper than just laws and politics going on, something at the level of philosophy and culture, I think, that enabled them to break out the way they did.Part of this is the belief that you can solve problems. Your solution may create some other problem, but we can solve that one, too. It's about a belief that we can make tomorrow better. But it's not about creating utopia, because some of those solutions are going to create new problems.I do like the term “solutionism,” and in fact, I adopted that term in an opinion piece I wrote for MIT Technology Review a little while ago, where I was talking about optimism versus pessimism—I tend not to use the term “optimist” because there are different types of optimism, and you can have complacent optimism, where you just assume that there aren't going to be any big problems or that everything will go fine, no matter what we do. And that is a big mistake. But you can also have more prescriptive optimism that says, “Look, we may or may not be facing large challenges. Maybe the world is even not heading in a good direction, but we have some agency. We have some ability to work and to fight if necessary and to create a better world. And so let's go about it.” Blind optimism is just complacency, but blind pessimism is just defeatism. And neither of those are good. In that editorial, I use the term “solutionism” to try to get at this mentality that both acknowledges the reality of problems, but then also acknowledges the possibility of solutions. I think that's the mindset we need.I'm not a big believer in utopia, as long as those utopias are populated by flawed humans. But I don't think this is the best of all possible worlds. It can be better without being utopian.I think the mistake in utopian visions is the notion that utopia is a sort of static end state and then we stop and we don't progress beyond. And I have a much more dynamic view of what even utopia is or could be and of the future. My view is one of continuous progress where we keep getting better. And then we get better after that. And then we get better after that. And, and by the way, David Deutsch points out in his book, The Beginning of Infinity, that every step of progress along the way will create new problems. And that is not an indictment of progress. It's simply the nature of progress, the same way that advancements in science open up new questions that we don't know how to answer. Advances in material progress or in technology will open up new problems that we don't yet know how to solve but can solve with the next iteration of progress.There was a nice BBC profile of this progress movement that you were featured in. And it said that among progress thinkers, "There is an entrepreneurial bias towards action. The prospective benefits of a new technology dominate considerations of what a bad actor might do with it. The fear of missing out overwhelms the fear of losing everything." Do you think that's a blind spot? Are we too dismissive of how things might go wrong?I think that could easily become a blind spot for the progress community. And that's part of why I don't like the term “optimist” or why I think it can be misleading. That's why I talk about complacent optimism as being not the mentality we want. We want to acknowledge and engage with many of these very real risks and concerns. If we don't, the future will go badly and that's not what we want, and there are good examples of this. Early in the development of genetic engineering, some people started to realize, "Hey, if we're not careful with this, we could be creating dangerous new diseases." And they actually put a moratorium on certain types of experiments. They called for this and got together about eight months later at a conference, the famous Asilomar Conference—1975, I think it was—to discuss safety procedures.And they came up with a set of danger levels or risk levels for different types of experiments. And they came up with a set of safety procedures, matching those levels: “If you're at bio risk level three, you should be doing safety procedures X, Y, and Z.” So at the simplest, maybe you don't even need a mask or gloves or whatever. And then at the absolute highest level, you're in an extremely controlled room. You've got a full suit on and the room has negative pressure so that if the door accidentally opens the air blows in, not out, etc. You've got all of these things, right? And so that was a pretty effective method—proactively, by the way. Very importantly, this was not in response to an outbreak.It wasn't like they created the disease first and killed a bunch of people and then said, “Whoops. Let's figure out how to not do that again.” They actually anticipated the potential risk, but they did so not on kind of like vague fears that were motivated by just some sort of anti-science or anti-technology sentiment. They did so by just very hard-headedly, rationally, logically looking at what could happen and, how do we prevent this? And how do we make progress and also have safety? So I think, ultimately, safety has to be a part of progress. In fact, historically, getting safer is one of the overall aspects of progress. If you set aside potential tail risk but just look at day-to-day safety, we are much safer today than we were in the past. That is an accomplishment. And really a world of progress ought to be a world in which we are getting continually safer, right? If we're not, we're missing some important aspect of it.Of course, then there's the other side who assume any more technological progress will just make the world worse. I wrote this piece about a movie and its sequel I love. I love Blade Runner. I love the sequel, Blade Runner 2049. But it occurred to me that there's a lot of amazing technological advances in that movie. You have human-level AI, fully sentient robots. We have space colonies. You have flying cars, yet it's a terrible world. It's a world where it seems like most people don't live particularly well. The climate is horrible. But there wasn't really a mechanism in the film to say why things are bad other than, well, it works for the film, because it creates drama. Do you feel like you're making the contrarian argument in this society or you're making the argument which maybe most people believe, but maybe they forgot that they believe it?I think it has become contrarian to think that continued scientific and technological and industrial progress will actually lead to human wellbeing. I think that was not contrarian, say, a little over 100 years ago. Certainly before World War I, that was pretty much assumed, and you could just sort of take it for granted. And then ever since then, the wars and the Depression, and everything—that was a major shock to the Western world. Everything seemed to be going really well. In fact, people were even optimistic that technology would lead to an end to war. They thought maybe technology and industry and this economic growth and everything and free trade was all leading to a new era of world peace. And then it absolutely did not. And so that was a very rude awakening, that it turns out moral progress and technological progress don't actually necessarily go hand-in-hand. We can have stagnation or even regress on moral issues at the same time as technology is racing ahead. And I think that was a shock to the Western psyche, and maybe in some sense we have not fully recovered.At the heart of progress, is it essentially a capitalist, democratic philosophy? Or is it not necessarily either of those things? I write that I'm not going to create a better world that I want to live in that is not fundamentally democratic-capitalist. Now it doesn't have to be capitalist exactly like the United States. Maybe it's going to be capitalist like Scandinavia, but I think something that would be recognizable as capitalist and be recognizable as a democracy. In my image of the future, that's at its very heart. Is that part of progress studies or is that a different issue? Is that what you think?Look, I love the notion of a capitalist future, personally, but that doesn't mean that everybody shares that view. So historically certainly …Are there pro-progress socialists?Yeah. Well, so historically, I mean the early Marxists and in the early Soviet era, so we're very …Yeah, utopian. It's inherently utopian. I love retweeting images from the Soviet space program. You know, Soviet lunar bases. So that was part of it. But I wonder if it is still the same?It wasn't just space. I mean, they wanted to industrialize the farms. They wanted to have huge power plants. There was this ethos that technology was going to bring us into the future. Unfortunately, it was a collectivist future. And it didn't turn out so well. But, today, there are still a few folks who believe in progress and want some sort of full socialism or communism. There's this notion of fully-automated luxury communism.But mostly I would say the proponents of progress are more general proponents of, broadly speaking, the liberal order or liberal democracy or whatever you want to call it. Within that, there's definitely a broad range of political ideologies. On the one hand, you've got libertarians who say, "Look, the way to make progress is to get the government out of the way." On the other hand, you have a spectrum from that to the progressives who say "The way to make progress is to have massive government investment in progress." But what I like about the progress movement is that the very notion of progress gives us a shared goal and a value and some common ground to actually have these discussions about. And we can now actually debate all of our preferred policies on the basis of what's actually going to cause progress. And let's bring history and data and evidence and logic to the discussion. And I think that would be a healthy discussion to have.What's the biggest reason that you think you are not utterly wasting your time here? Some people would say, “Listen, we have a half century where progress seems to have slowed down.” There are a lot of theories that all the easy gains have been made. Yes, things will get better, but it's going to be very, very slow. People who are talking about leaps and acceleration forward, that is the world of science fiction. Why do you think that things could not just be better in the future, but that pace of improvement could be such that people notice it? What I'm imagining is a pace of material progress, of health, where it is noticeable. Where people would say, "Yeah, I think something's happening here." Do you think that's possible? And why are you confident, if so, that that is possible?The pace of progress is already such that people see lots of progress in their lifetime, if they are able to notice it. What are we doing right now? Recording a podcast. That's not a thing that existed 20 years ago. Wikipedia didn't exist or barely existed. The entire explosion of the internet has happened within living memory, right? Not to mention, we didn't have mRNA vaccines. Soon hopefully we'll have supersonic airplanes again and rockets to the Moon and Mars. And I think there's plenty of progress to find if you look for it.One reason why I started the newsletter was I really felt for the first time really since the ‘90s like something was happening. Even with the pandemic, I felt something was happening. It seemed like AI wasn't just about better search algorithms or something. But AI was going to be used in healthcare to create better drugs. You have what's going on with SpaceX. And then the vaccines, which seemed to come really, really fast. And I sort of felt like some things seemed to be coming together, where the progress seems to be palpable. Whatever was ever happening with the GDP numbers or productivity numbers, there seemed to be things happening in the larger world that said to me that something's taking off here. And I want it to continue again. If we're in an age of progress, I think that feeling is palpable and noticeable to people.Yeah, I hope so. But facts don't interpret themselves, and people can look at the same facts and come to very different conclusions. So ultimately, I think we need not only the continued progress to show people that continued progress is possible, but we also need the voices who are pointing this out and explaining it. Because the fact is that even in the greatest possible era, there will be some curmudgeon who says that, "This is the end. And none of the stuff is very good anyway." And even in eras where not very much progress was happening at all, like the age of Francis Bacon, Bacon and some of his contemporaries could look around at just a few scattered examples of inventions and discovery—like the new continents that were being discovered, and gunpowder, and the compass, and the printing press—and they could extrapolate from that to essentially the Industrial Revolution, which is an amazing act of vision. So in any era, no matter how well or badly things are going, there will be some people who see it or don't see it. And so, ultimately, that's why we need more popular treatment of this stuff. We need to tell the story of progress and make it accessible to the general public. That's what I'm working on.If we're talking in 10 years and things really don't seem to have gotten a lot better, what do you think probably went wrong?You said 10 years. At a very deep level, I think this is a generational project. I think changing people's attitudes at this fundamental of a level is the sort of thing that really you speak to the young. And you get through to people when they're still open to changing their minds and are still thinking deeply about the world. And hopefully in the next generation you know you can have a shift.You've said that every high school in America should have a curriculum of progress. What are the stories that would be in that curriculum? What would people be learning? Would it be a class or would it just be kind of in everything—it would be in science class, it would be in history class?I think it could be certainly be integrated into some of those classes. I think it falls most squarely in history. I think it certainly could be a class on its own or incorporated into the general curriculum. Now, I actually created a high school-level progress course, a course in the history of technology, essentially. It was commissioned by a private high school and is still being taught by them, I believe.That's outstanding.There's a virtual option, so even if you're not enrolled, you can take it online. And we cover a number of major topics. The major topics are agriculture, materials and manufacturing, energy, transportation, information, medicine, and safety. And then we do a little bit about looking forward to the future. But we cover what were the major developments in each of those.So in agriculture, we'll go into things like mechanization of agriculture and the invention of the reaper and the combine harvester. We'll take a look at soil fertility and how fertilizer was understood and developed. We'll look at things like food preservation and refrigeration and freezing and so forth. And so we just kind of dive into some of the major developments that took us from, in agriculture, a world where half the workforce had to be farmers and yet we still had periodic famines and also people had not very varied diets and not very fresh food. And then today we have this world where a small percent of the workforce can provide everybody with a robust, reliable food supply of fresh, varied food. That complete transformation of the food world. And we look at what created that. And then we do the same thing in transportation and energy and manufacturing and so forth. And when you're done with all those modules, all of that adds up to a really dramatic picture of how the entire world was transformed and life was transformed in every dimension.Jason, thanks for coming on the podcast.Yes, it's been great. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit fasterplease.substack.com/subscribe
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: MATS Models, published by johnswentworth on July 9, 2022 on LessWrong. I've been using the summer 2022 SERI MATS program as an opportunity to test out my current best guesses at how to produce strong researchers. This post is an overview of the methods I've been testing, and the models behind them. The Team Model My MATS participants are in three-person teams with specialized roles for each person: theorist, experimentalist, and distillitator (“distiller” + “facilitator”). This team setup isn't just a random guess at what will work; the parts are nailed down by multiple different models. Below, I'll walk through the main models. Jason Crawford's Model & Bits-of-Search In Shuttling Between Science and Invention, Jason Crawford talks about the invention of the transistor. It involved multiple iterations of noticing some weird phenomenon with semiconductors, coming up with a theory to explain the weirdness, prototyping a device based on the theory, seeing the device not work quite like the theory predicted (and therefore noticing some weird phenomenon with semiconductors), and then going back to the theorizing. The key interplay is the back-and-forth between theory and invention/experiment. The back-and-forth between theory and experiment ties closely to one of the central metaresearch questions I think about: where do we get our bits from? The space of theories is exponentially huge, and an exponentially small fraction are true/useful. In order to find a true/useful theory, we need to get a lot of bits of information from somewhere in order to narrow down the possibility space. So where do those bits come from? Well, one readily available source of tons and tons of bits is the physical world. By running experiments, we can get lots of bits. (Though this model suggests that most value comes from a somewhat different kind of experiment than we usually think about - more on that later.) Conversely, blind empiricism runs into the high-dimensional worlds problem: brute-force modeling our high-dimensional world would require exponentially many experiments. In order to efficiently leverage data from the real world, we need to know what questions to ask and what to look at in order to eliminate giant swaths of the possibility space simultaneously. Thus the role of theory. In order to efficiently build correct and useful models, we want empiricism and theory coupled together. And since it's a lot easier to find people specialized in one or the other than people good at both, it makes sense to partner a theorist and an experimentalist together. Nate Soares' Model The hard step of theory work typically involves developing some vague intuitive concept/story, then operationalizing it in such a way that an intuitive argument turns into a rigorous mathematical derivation/proof. Claim which I got from Nate Soares: this process involves at most two people, and the second person is in a facilitator role. (Note that the description here is mine; I haven't asked Nate whether he endorses it as a description of what he had in mind.) What does that facilitator role involve? A bare-minimum version is the programmer's “Rubber Duck”: the rubber duck sits there and listens while the programmer explains the problem, and hopefully the process of explanation causes the programmer to understand their problem better. A skilled facilitator can add a lot of value beyond that bare minimum: they do things like ask for examples, try to summarize their current understanding back to the explainer, try to restate the core concept/argument, etc. What the facilitator does not do is actively steer the conversation, suggest strategies or solutions or failure modes, or drop their own ideas in the mix. Vague intuitive concepts/stories are brittle, easy to accidentally smash and replace with some other story; you d...
#87 Jason Crawford on progress Links: https://rootsofprogress.org/devanney-on-the-nuclear-flop https://rootsofprogress.org/can-growth-continue-ignite-talk https://rootsofprogress.org/why-pessimism-sounds-smart
Jason Crawford, CEO of Sovereignty Supplements has a mission to help change the trajectory of people's lives and empower those who want to feel and perform at their best. Specializing in powdered formulas that blend fermented and adaptogenic herbs with clinically studied ingredients for energy and sleep. Allowing you to harness your body's natural and most optimized states of being. TRY THIS BLANKET GET SLEEP TREATMENT SUPPORT THE SHOW Dr. Brandon Hedgecock (Host) Matthew Allard (Host) Dan Galvan (Producer) YouTube | Facebook | Instagram
Is progress still possible? We believe so, and we're not alone. Jason Crawford, founder of The Roots of Progress, sits down with us to talk about the possibilities of the future and makes a case for optimism in the face of pessimistic predictions about tomorrow. What Could Go Right? is produced by The Progress Network and The Podglomerate.
How exactly am I able to communicate with you? We're not in the same room - we're likely not even in the same state. And if my listener stats are accurate - 30% of you reading this right now live in a completely different country! So... how did we get here? What makes the world modern - technologically, socially, morally - is often under-appreciated, but the history of the modern world is a history of progress. The Roots of Progress founder Jason Crawford believes that understanding that history is key to empowering the next generation to progress ever further.The Roots of ProgressWe Need a New Science of Progress, by Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen for The AtlanticWhy Did We Wait So Long for the Bicycle? - The Roots of ProgressScientists May Have Discovered How the Ancient Greeks' ‘First Computer' Tracked the Cosmos - Smithsonian MagazineA Dashboard for Progress - The Roots of ProgressProgress, Stagnation, and Flying Cars - The Roots of ProgressTechnological Stagnation - The Roots of ProgressThe Roots of Progress Is Now a Nonprofit Organization - The Roots of ProgressIndustrial Literacy - The Roots of ProgressProgress Isn't Natural, by Joel Mokyr for The Atlantic1984 World's Fair1982 World's FairThe Institute for ProgressAcademy of Thought and IndustryFollow Jason on Twitter: @jasoncrawford----------Email: wherewegopod@gmail.comInstagram: @wwgnpodcast
Read the full transcript here. What is progress? How do we (and should we) measure progress? What are the most important questions to ask in progress studies? What are the factors that lead to progress? Why has large-scale progress taken so long (i.e., why did we not see much progress until the Industrial Revolution)? Why did industrial revolution, scientific revolution, and democratic revolution all seem to start within a relatively short period of time of each other? How can we prevent progress from slowing down, stopping, or even reversing? What factors have contributed to the slowing of progress in the last 50 years? What's the state of progress in nuclear energy? What is the history of attitudes towards progress? And why is it important for people to believe that progress is good?Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, where he writes and speaks about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. Previously, he spent 18 years as a software engineer, engineering manager, and startup founder. Follow him on Twitter at @jasoncrawford. [Read more]
It sure was a busy week for our transportation tech bro overlords. Elon Musk announced a deal to build another one of his car tunnels beneath the waterlogged streets of Fort Lauderdale, Florida while also admitting that, “haha” the self-driving cars he's been promising for years aren't going to happen any time soon. Malcolm Gladwell launched the new season of his “Revisionist History” podcast with an episode that comes across like a demented advertorial for robot cars. And a tech bro named Jason Crawford spent the better part of a day arguing on Twitter that "cars are one of the most amazing and wonderful inventions in all of history.” In this special episode for our Patreon supporters, Andrew Hawkins, senior reporter at The Verge, joins Doug and Aaron for a deep dive into the tech bros and their vision for the future of transportation. Plus: Lance Armstrong! As if it couldn't get any more bro-ish. Sign up starting at just $2 per month and you can listen to this episode and lots of other bonus content. Plus we'll send you stickers. SHOW NOTES: Follow Andrew Hawkins and his reporting at The Verge and on Twitter. Elon Musk's tweet announcing that, “Haha” he won't be able to keep his promise to deliver full-self driving car technology any time soon. “I Love You Waymo,” the first episode of the new season of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast. "Cars are one of the most amazing and wonderful inventions in all of history.” A day-long piece of social media performance art by “former tech founder” Jason Crawford. Elon Musk's Boring Company pitches underground transit loop to Fort Lauderdale (The Verge) Get official War on Cars merch at our store. Check out The War on Cars library at Bookshop.org. Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. This episode was edited by Ali Lemer. Our music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D. Find us on Twitter: @TheWarOnCars, Aaron Naparstek @Naparstek, Doug Gordon @BrooklynSpoke, Sarah Goodyear @buttermilk1. Questions, comments or suggestions? Email us: thewaroncars@gmail.com TheWarOnCars.org