# Ethics of Progress **URL:** **By** Aaron Ross Powell, Jason Crawford, Paul Matzko **Published:** February 20, 2020 --- If progress had to be invented, then it can be halted too. It's easy to assume that things naturally improve. After all, in our lifetimes technology has advanced, life expectancies have risen, and standards of living have improved. Yet in historical terms, progress is a relatively new phenomenon, only invented a few centuries ago. And the danger is that if we take the idea of progress for granted, we might slow or even reverse the rate of progress. That would be a disaster given that we have an obligation to leave a society to future generations that is in better shape than we received it. Technologist Jason Crawford joins the show to talk about the ethical obligation to pursue progress. What are the different types of progress? What is the history of progress? Is progress uniform? What progress have we made that is universally good? Is there an ethical imperative to pursue progress? What is sustainable progress? ## Further Reading: [The Roots of Progress](https://rootsofprogress.org/), blog by Jason Crawford [The History of Steel & the Roots of Progress](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCf44d7txcA&feature=emb_title), The Roots of Progress website ## Related Content: [Illiberal Reformers: Race, Eugenics, and American Economics in the Progressive Era](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/illiberal-reformers-race-eugenics-and-american-economics-in-the-progressive-era), Free Thoughts Podcast [Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/progress-ten-reasons-to-look-forward-to-the-future), Free Thoughts Podcast [The Reality of Moral Progress](https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/reality-moral-progress), written by David Boaz