#72 Roots of Progress: On Technological Progress and How Innovation and Invention Happens | Jason Crawford, Founder

In Episode #72, 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.

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