In my search for interesting insights into the history of engineering and technology, I came across a website called “The Roots of Progress”. The premise is interesting but I disagree completely with the author’s top post. It’s supposed to be about why it’s important to study the history of technology, but instead my attention was drawn to how different our definitions of progress are.
Thanks for raising the question -- feels like capitalism has swallowed up so many of the goals that previously might have been considered part of the public interest. For example, the space program was originally a public program and only now are we seeing private enterprise encroach in that territory. Similarly, why aren't things like autonomous vehicles public enterprises? Surely, the purely real economic value of the project is in the public good.
Obviously this is too simple, but I guess part of the problem you're raising is that we, collectively, don't know what we're trying to do. Until there is a consensus on what we want to do, "progress" will continue to be driven in countless, searching directions by individual entities interested primarily by the profit incentive. Far from being an obsolete idea, a position I feel I hear relatively often, it seems like one that's fallen into disrepair and should be reclaimed. Thanks again for the thoughts.
Thanks for raising the question -- feels like capitalism has swallowed up so many of the goals that previously might have been considered part of the public interest. For example, the space program was originally a public program and only now are we seeing private enterprise encroach in that territory. Similarly, why aren't things like autonomous vehicles public enterprises? Surely, the purely real economic value of the project is in the public good.
Obviously this is too simple, but I guess part of the problem you're raising is that we, collectively, don't know what we're trying to do. Until there is a consensus on what we want to do, "progress" will continue to be driven in countless, searching directions by individual entities interested primarily by the profit incentive. Far from being an obsolete idea, a position I feel I hear relatively often, it seems like one that's fallen into disrepair and should be reclaimed. Thanks again for the thoughts.