Pathways of Progress: An Essay Series

A compilation of curated essays about human progress.

Pathways of Progress is an essay series from Risk & Progress. It’s a compilation of 60+ curated essays about human progress. At over 60,000 words, Pathways brings together knowledge from 140+ sources, and over 5 years of research. This collection is organically expanded and refined as new research emerges and new issues are published. Subscribe for free and receive the first 7 essays sent directly to your inbox!

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The Paradox of Human Progress

Paradox examines the origins and counterintuitive nature of “progress.”

• What is Progress?

• Human Progress in 9 Charts

• Our Reality Distortion Field

• Progress’s First Principles

• A Cosmic Oddity

• Deafening Silence

• The Fortuitous Planet

• Lifeless to Living

• Evolution’s Algorithm (Coming soon)

• The Rise of Humankind

• Harvesting Sunlight

• Smokestack Singularity (Part 1)

• Smokestack Singularity (Part 2)

• Homefront Liberation

• Bombs and Bananas

• Defying Malthus

• Sapien Sorcerers

• The Social Supercomputer

• The Jungle of the Agora

• Innovation > Invention

• The Experience Curve

• The Engines of Progress

• Let There Be Light

• (Super)abundance

• Billionaire Planet

• Measurement Maladies

• Scaling Kardashev

• Our Shrinking Footprint

• People, Power, and Progress

• Edge of Utopia

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The Perils of Human Progress

Perils examines some of the most pressing threats to future growth.

• The “Time of Perils”

• An AI Empire

• When Everything Spaghettifies

• God From the Machine

• The Empty Planet

• The Processed Food Paradox

• At Flynn’s End

• An Invisible Graveyard

• Democracy’s Demise

• Undermining Unity

• Cursed by Cost (Disease)

• Entangled by Entitlements

• In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower

• A Housing “Theory of Everything”

• The Innovator’s Red Queen’s Race

• Our Lost Future

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Planning for Prosperity

Planning examines practical ideas to spread and sustain human progress into the 22nd Century.

• Advance, Always!

• Streamlining the State

• Baby Boom

• Solving Sickcare

• Surcharging Sugar

• Trillions on the Sidewalk

• Managing Migration

• Education Reimagined

• Harnessing Human Capital

• Rebuilding the Pyramid

• Let Skyscrapers Bloom

• Ports, Prosperity, and Peace

• The Dark Side of Property

• Tax the Land

• Sharing the Bounty

• Correcting the Climate

• Science State

• Patents vs Prizes

• A New Patent Paradigm

• Dust Dome Democracy

• The Banality of Blind Men

• 22nd Century Dreams

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