Applications are open until June 1st for the 2026 Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive! Launch a blog and improve your progress-focused writing with expert guidance and an amazing community progress builders, writers and intellectuals. You'll learn from a phenomenal advisor lineup including @tylercowen, @_brianpotter, @elidourado, @vpostrel, @_alice_evans, @kesvelt, @glukianoff, @akoustov, @Brendan_McCord, and Elle Griffin. RPI fellows are now leading conversations on AI policy, transportation, agriculture, biotech, housing abundance, and more—with work appearing in major outlets like the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Atlantic. What you'll get: Launch/re-launch a blog/Substack, develop consistent writing habits, improve your craft, build your audience, and connect with progress studies leaders and build community with engaged, thoughtful fellow writers. During the 10-week program, you'll write and publish 4 essays with feedback from our developmental editor @MikeRiggs, the RPI team, and your fellow writers. This year features two tracks, in addition to our general progress track: human flourishing & potential and security & resilience. We welcome fellows writing on ANY progress topic, but a handful of spots will be reserved for these tracks. BONUS: Attend a 3-day in-person retreat in Pennsylvania and receive a free ticket to the invitation-only 2026 Progress Conference with ~400 authors, technologists, policy experts, academics, and nonprofit leaders. Meet your peers and your heroes! This is for you if: You're passionate about progress studies and love writing. Maybe you want to explore a writing career, join a think tank, write to build community around a cause area, and of course take your existing blog to the next level. Commitment: 10–15 hours weekly for 10 weeks (July 27–Oct 2). The weekend retreat is August 20–23. There is no cost to participate. Applications close June 1st!

Announcing Progress Conference 2025 Hosted by @rootsofprogress together with @abundanceinst @foresightinst @JoinFAI @HumanProgress @IFP @TheIHS and @WorksInProgMag Speakers include @sama @tylercowen @pahlkadot @bscholl @jasoncrawford Berkeley, CA • Oct 16-19

When I first heard the stagnation hypothesis, I was skeptical. But as I studied the history of progress, I slowly came around, and now I’m fairly convinced rootsofprogress.org/technolo…

Announcing Progress Conference 2024: Toward Abundant Futures Hosted by @rootsofprogress together with @foresightinst @HumanProgress @TheIHS @IFP @WorksInProgMag Keynotes from @patrickc @tylercowen @jasoncrawford @sapinker Berkeley, Oct 18–19

We're seeking to commission stories for a new article series, “Intelligence Age,” on future applications of AI We are looking for stories in the ballpark of 3,000 words, and will pay $2/word Details and application below!

First batch of recorded talks from Progress Conference 2024 are available now for your holiday viewing pleasure! 17 videos featuring @tylercowen @sapinker @jasoncrawford @CJHandmer @bkugelma @celinehalioua @vpostrel @juliadewahl @elidourado @salonium @Marian_L_Tupy @AlecStapp @wilbanks @Ben_Reinhardt @johanknorberg @ChadJonesEcon Special thanks to @freethinkmedia for their excellent work producing these A few final videos to come after the holidays! piped.video/playlist?list=PL…

We need a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. One that teaches people not to take the modern world for granted. One that acknowledges the problems of progress, and offers solutions. And one that holds up a positive vision of the future rootsofprogress.org/a-new-ph…

The “principal investigator” model of science funding is deeply broken and needs to be replaced. Instead, funding should go in a single block to a relatively large research organization. Here’s why rootsofprogress.org/the-bloc…

Today, The Roots of Progress officially becomes the Roots of Progress Institute (RPI). The new name represents the new identity we took on ever since we announced our first program last year, the Roots of Progress Fellowship.

Save the date: Progress Conference 2025 will be October 16–19 in Berkeley, CA Hosted by @rootsofprogress together with @abundanceinst @foresightinst @JoinFAI @HumanProgress @TheIHS @WorksInProgMag Speakers and more details to be announced this spring. rootsofprogress.org/conferen…

I’ve said before that understanding where our modern standard of living comes from, at a basic level, is a responsibility of every citizen in an industrial civilization. Let’s call it “industrial literacy.” rootsofprogress.org/industri…

When I wrote my post on technological stagnation, the top question I got asked was: So, how do we fix it? rootsofprogress.org/how-to-e…

📢 Applications are now OPEN for the 2025 Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive! Launch a blog and improve your progress-focused writing with expert guidance and an amazing community progress builders, writers and intellectuals.

We’re thrilled to introduce our 2024 Blog-Build Intensive Fellows! This year’s fellows are a group of 25 progress writers selected from a pool of over 350 applicants. They are founders, researchers, academics, policy-makers, capital allocators, and journalists from across the U.S., Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, the U.K., and Hong Kong. They will be writing about nuclear fusion, reproductive longevity, space manufacturing, housing reform, urban mobility, industrial policy, AI safety and opportunity, biotechnology, European innovation, eco-modernism and so much more. Here are the 2024 Roots of Progress Institute Blog-Building Intensive Fellows: 🧵 1/29

Things invented/begun in 1973: • Recombinant DNA technology • Measles-mumps vaccine • Fosfomycin (antibiotic) • Cell phones • SQL databases • Internet (TCP/IP) • A NYT columnist who can't think of a major problem tech has solved in our lifetimes

We’re thrilled to introduce our third cohort of 2025 Blog-Build Intensive Fellows!

Our mission is to establish a new philosophy of progress for the twenty-first century. rootsofprogress.org/nonprofi…

We shouldn’t be against AI safety any more than we are against seat belts, fire alarms, or drug trials. Why confronting AI risks is important even for optimists: rootsofprogress.org/solution…

Big news: We're planning a major expansion of our activities, and we are seeking a CEO to lead the new organization (@jasoncrawford will remain Founder & President) rootsofprogress.org/seeking-…

Excited to announce that I’m now working on The Roots of Progress and related projects full-time: rootsofprogress.org/going-fu…

In the 1950s, nuclear was the energy of the future. Two generations later, it provides only about 10% of world electricity, and reactor design hasn‘t fundamentally changed in decades. What happened? A recent book addresses this question: rootsofprogress.org/devanney…

What is steel? Why is it so hard to make? And how did it come to be everywhere around us, though it was once considered a gift of the gods? rootsofprogress.org/iron-fro…

Today we’re opening applications for the 2024 cohort of The @rootsofprogress Blog-Building Intensive, an 8-week program for aspiring progress writers to start or grow a blog. Get into a regular writing habit, improve your writing, and build your audience fellowship.rootsofprogress.o…

The Techno-Humanist Manifesto is a new book from Roots of Progress founder and president @jasoncrawford:

Progress Conference 2025 is on track to once again be a main event for the progress community. Over the last two months we’ve added... 21 more great speakers: @deanwball @jaybaxter @sampritibh @isodope @seemaychou @NeverSassyLaura @AGamick @eric_is_weird @dakotagruener @ilangur @EconDerek @pronounced_kyle Mekala Krishnan (@McKinsey_MGI) @JLopas @AnjneyMidha @ramez @Ben_Reinhardt @eshear @jansramek @SonjaTrauss Jeff Tsao (@SandiaLabs) ... and a few more still to be announced!

Build! rootsofprogress.org/a-builde…

“Progress studies” is crucially important for the future of humanity. Here's what I'm doing about it—and how you can help rootsofprogress.org/progress…

The ideal human population size is not “much smaller,” but “ever larger.” A large and growing world is a dynamic world that can create and sustain progress rootsofprogress.org/why-a-la…

“Would you intend to do anything for the advancement of science?” “No, I believe scientific progress is too fast as it is.” “I share your feeling about this point, but then why not do something about the retardation of scientific progress?” rootsofprogress.org/szilard-…

The early history of steam power, with interactive animated diagrams! From Hero's engine to Savery's pump, with many highlights in between that aren't in the standard telling of this story Text by @antonhowes, animations by @xtrrdnryfclty rootsofprogress.org/steam-en…

Seeking help to create interactive diagrams—an “explorable explanation”—of the history of the steam engine, with content based on @antonhowes’s research. Looking for a technical illustrator, animator, and/or front-end developer who can deliver this: rootsofprogress.org/wanted-t…

Announcing the Study Group for Progress Weekly reading/discussion group with Q&A from featured guests including: @rjg_gordon Margaret Jacob Richard Nelson @ProfAroraAshish @pierre_azoulay @ericgoldwyn @mattsclancy @patrickc @antonhowes @DrAliciaJackson rootsofprogress.org/announci…

Other fantastic speakers include @aarmlovi @jburnmurdoch @mishachellam @LauraDeming @JerusalemDemsas @elidourado @CSElmendorf @fiiiiiist @hamandcheese @liseman @MartinBJensen @tkalil2050 @bkugelma @sebkrier @leportfr @MarkLutter @CharlesCMann @LNuzhna @dwarkesh_sp @NicoPerrino @espricewright @RyanPuzycki @SGRodriques @rSanti97 @AlecStapp @isaiah_p_taylor @RuxandraTeslo @DKThomp @calebwatney ... and more to come!

The number of protons in an atom determines what element it is; the number of electrons usually matches. But how many neutrons are in the nucleus? Does it even matter? It turns out that it matters *a lot:* rootsofprogress.org/nuclear-…

We're hiring a developmental editor! We are looking for a gifted developmental editor who is passionate about helping 20-25 writers hone their writing skills to craft compelling essays about human progress during our summer/fall fellowship program. 1/4

We need progress not only because of the poor. We need it for everyone. Because *we are all poor*—compared to where we can be and should be in the future, if we can keep progress going rootsofprogress.org/the-plig…

The first progress conference was a huge success. Progress Conference 2025 will happen next October. More info early next year! Also, we’re hiring an Event Manager to help us make this an annual event and to run other in-person events:

Other fantastic speakers include @jburnmurdoch @salonium @juliadewahl @elidourado @CJHandmer @ChadJonesEcon @bkugelma @NikoMcCarty @johanknorberg @fuelfive @vpostrel @kanjun @Ben_Reinhardt @bscholl @AlecStapp @chandlertuttle @Marian_L_Tupy @calebwatney and more to come!

A few months ago we announced a major expansion of our activities, and we launched a search for a CEO to lead the new organization we are building for this program. We're very happy to announce that we have found a CEO: @heikelarson rootsofprogress.org/incoming…

The bicycle was a simple mechanical invention. Why wasn’t it invented until the late 1800s? rootsofprogress.org/why-did-…

Smallpox was one of the worst diseases in history. It is also the only human disease we have ever *completely eradicated.* It led to fierce debates, some of the first clinical trials, and the first vaccines. The story of smallpox—and how we killed it: rootsofprogress.org/smallpox…

Is stagnation permanent? Robert Gordon argues yes; I'm not convinced: rootsofprogress.org/summary-…

Applications are now open for our third Blog-Building Intensive fellowship! This year we've added an agriculture track. Are you thinking deeply about ag innovation and progress? This might be for you.

We're sponsoring the creation of a Progress Forum: an online discussion forum for the progress community, modeled after @lesswrong. Here's why, and how you can get involved in building and launching it: rootsofprogress.org/progress…

The Roots of Progress has received a grant from the “progress studies tranche” of @tylercowen's Emergent Ventures! Announcement here: marginalrevolution.com/margi… I'm receiving other support as well, which I'll announce soon.

Why did it take so long to invent… … the wheel? … the steam engine? … the bicycle? … the flying shuttle? … the cotton gin? Starting to collect articles here (let me know any others): rootsofprogress.org/why-did-…

The metaphor of environment as infrastructure implies that we should neither trash the planet nor leave it untouched. Instead, we should maintain it—and upgrade it rootsofprogress.org/environm…

A survey of funding models for R&D, including: • Independent wealth • Patronage • Sinecures • University • Foundations • Military • Other government agencies • Corporate research labs • For-profit • Prizes • Lotteries rootsofprogress.org/funding-…

I’m hiring a part-time research assistant to support work on my essays, talks, and the book I’m writing on the history of industrial civilization: rootsofprogress.org/wanted-r…

I recently picked up a book that surveys major US inventions from ~1830s to WW1, and skimmed through the entire thing to find how each venture was funded. Here’s what I found: rootsofprogress.org/how-earl…

Why a pandemic should push us to redouble our efforts to make scientific, technological, and industrial progress on all fronts. “No matter the odds, applied intelligence is our best weapon against disaster.” My World Health Day article for @leapsmag: leapsmag.com/more-progress-f…

A four-day event to connect people in the progress movement. Meet great people, share ideas in deep conversations, catalyze new projects, get energized and inspired. Info and registration: rootsofprogress.org/conferen…

Some lessons about funding progress: • Progress requires funding • Corollary: progress can stall for lack of funding • Funding isn’t automatically allocated to the most productive uses • Funding models themselves are not obvious rootsofprogress.org/funding-…

“With so many achievements in science and technology, how many more examples do you need to increase your confidence in human ingenuity?” A letter on optimism, to @theandrewglover via @LetterWiki: letter.wiki/conversation/202…

Of all the weapons against infectious disease—vaccines, antibiotics, antiseptics, pest control, sanitation, hygiene—which mattered most? To answer the question, we should look at mortality rates over time and correlate them with specific interventions: rootsofprogress.org/draining…

In reading stories of progress, one thing that has struck me was the wild, enthusiastic celebrations that accompanied some of them in the past. Read some of these stories. Somehow it’s hard for me to imagine similar jubilation happening today: rootsofprogress.org/celebrat…

Most biologists think there's no such thing as a cure for cancer, @SGRodriques wrote recently, because it is “many diseases”. But infection was also “many diseases”, and we still reduced every major metric of infection by 90%+. A historical analogy: rootsofprogress.org/cure-for…

.@RosieCampbell leads the policy frontiers team at @OpenAI. She’ll be writing about governance of agentic systems, the intersection of AI and epistemics, and the ethics of digital minds. 3/29

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. Info and registration: rootsofprogress.org/conferen…

Why the for-profit model is underrated and should be used whenever possible: rootsofprogress.org/organiza…

@afrazhaowang has a wealth of experience in Silicon Valley across AI, media, and crypto. She is writing about AI narratives, progress studies, and cultural stories shaping China and Silicon Valley. She is interested in examining how China serves as both a challenge and a mirror for Western technology communities.

“No man, however bold or however high he may stand in his profession, can resist the benumbing effect of rules laid down by authority.” Isambard K. Brunel on the need for “the free exercise of engineering skill”: rootsofprogress.org/isambard…

Next Wednesday, Sep 4, I'll be giving an informal talk in SF at the first Progress Studies meetup! I'll cover the research I've been doing into the history of steel, and my view on progress studies in general. Sign up here (required): forms.gle/MGJrDZuUM56f9yuc9

“For two centuries the Western world has been sustained by a profound belief in the doctrine of progress.… Since 1918 this hope has perceptibly faded.” A clue to the decline of the idea of progress: rootsofprogress.org/in-the-s…

.@s_r_constantin is a science generalist and consultant with a math Ph.D. She is writing about speculative technological ambitions like longevity and human enhancement. 4/29

Churchill had many hobbies. He wrote more than a dozen volumes of history, painted over 500 pictures, and completed one novel. But did you know he was also a futurist? rootsofprogress.org/winston-…

- @TerraformIndies Terraformer Mark One - @slatestarcodex on the “illusion of moral decline” - @stewartbrand on auto maintenance philosophies - @kesvelt's biodefense roadmap - @ATabarrok on why we feel harried - @DerekLowe on GLP-1 agonists - and more rootsofprogress.org/links-an…

Keynes famously predicted that by now we would only be working 15 hours a week. What is less well-known is that Charles Steinmetz, Buckminster Fuller, and others made similar forecasts. So why is the 40-hour work week still standard? rootsofprogress.org/the-four…

*Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia* is an ethnographic account of Russian peasants around 1900. I went in expecting poverty; I did not expect to also find a disturbing degree of cruelty and abuse rootsofprogress.org/russian-…

“Inventor” is not a role one can be hired for. The aspiring inventor finds themselves straddling science and business rootsofprogress.org/a-career…

One of the ideas @DKThomp explores in his recent feature for @TheAtlantic is that what matters for progress is not just the moment of invention, but what happens after that. Here are some ways I think this is true rootsofprogress.org/beyond-t…

Happy New Year! Here's a look back at 2021 for The Roots of Progress, including highlights of the books and papers I read this year rootsofprogress.org/2021-in-…

• Build Nuclear Now, a new policy campaign from @TheBTI • An online PhD-level course in the economics of innovation from @IFP • @DeepMind has released structures for almost every known protein • @Convergent_FROs and @longnow are hiring • And much more rootsofprogress.org/links-an…

Progress Conference 2024 now has more speakers and sponsors! Five more great speakers: - @jasonjoyride, documentary filmmaker at S3 - @celinehalioua, CEO at Loyal - @catehall, CEO at Astera - @knowledgeprob, professor at Northwestern - @hannu, HelixNano founder & sci-fi author

The threshing machine was a crucial advance in agricultural mechanization, but diffusion/adoption took many decades. As with the bicycle, the flying shuttle, or the cotton gin, we have to ask: what took so long? rootsofprogress.org/why-did-…

Announcing Progress Studies for Young Scholars, a joint project of The Roots of Progress and @to_higherground

A proposal to measure progress by a set of metrics, instead of just one such as GDP. They are as broad as possible while still being objective and well-defined, and are deliberately chosen from across the breadth of the economy: rootsofprogress.org/metrics-…

Talk I gave on the history of iron & steel at the first SF progress studies meetup: piped.video/SCf44d7txcA

There is not a single, narrow path to industrialization, but you have to get there through *some* path, and ancient Rome was simply nowhere close rootsofprogress.org/why-no-r…

In recent essays I’ve outlined the need for a progress movement, and the core ideas that I think this movement is based on. What would a thriving progress movement look like, in terms of activities, programs, and institutions? rootsofprogress.org/a-thrivi…

These will be reported essays, not science fiction. We want to understand how AI might change individual sectors of the economy and the working lives of the people within them: newsletter.rootsofprogress.o…

The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, by Roots of Progress founder and president Jason Crawford, is a book laying out a new philosophy of progress. blog.rootsofprogress.org/ann…

I’ve said that we need a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. This implies that the world needs, not just progress studies, but a progress movement: the advocacy of a set of ideas. What are those ideas? rootsofprogress.org/progress…

2020 year-end review: 47 articles, over 64,000 words; two new speaker series; 30 podcast and conference interviews; thousands of new followers and subscribers; and a high school summer program rootsofprogress.org/2020-in-…

Our Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship program, which runs between July and October every year, is part of the larger mission of The Roots of Progress Institute to establish a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century. 3/4

A cast iron stove might still be working after 100 years; modern stoves have a much shorter lifespan. Is this “progress?” Yes: rootsofprogress.org/old-vs-m…

How do we know that people in the late 19th century saw glory, romance, even poetry in progress? One way we know is that they literally wrote poetry about it: rootsofprogress.org/poetry-o…

Announcing a workshop on the Moral Foundations of Progress Studies. What major moral/ethical questions are at the foundations of a study of progress, and what broad answers to these questions have been proposed? Get details and apply here: rootsofprogress.org/moral-fo…

When you get your covid shot in 2021, take a moment to think back on the 300 years of progress that got us to this point: rootsofprogress.org/immuniza…

First recorded talk from Progress Conference 2025 is now available! Many more great talks will be posted soon. Stay tuned here and on YouTube to catch every talk.

Quick concept sketch / wireframe of an electric power grid simulator, an “explorable explanation” (a la @worrydream or @ncasenmare). What do you think, should I build it?

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, so it’s a good time to announce that The Roots of Progress has received its 501(c)(3) determination letter from the IRS, officially recognizing its non-profit status: rootsofprogress.org/501c3-an…

The story of workplace safety illustrates both the serious problems that progress can cause, and how the solution to those problems can be found in further progress. #longreads rootsofprogress.org/history-…

Tell us how you plan to approach the piece, what novel insights you can bring, and what sources you’ll use. If we approve your pitch, you will work with an RPI editor throughout the process Submit your pitch here: rootsofprogress.typeform.com…

Suppose you could reach into the mirror universe and pull out the exact opposite of Robert Gordon’s book *The Rise and Fall of American Growth*. You would get *Where Is My Flying Car?*, by J. Storrs Hall: rootsofprogress.org/where-is…

Podcast interview about progress and “capitalism appreciation” with @eriktorenberg and @Tracinski, covering everything from “sustainability” to what it felt like to live under the threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War: spreaker.com/user/10197011/t…

If you want to ask, “why did it take so long to invent X”, what are the epistemic standards for the answer? My opinions on how to think about this—and how not to rootsofprogress.org/epistemi…

• @civic_future's UK Great Stagnation summit • @OpenAI's $1M in cybersecurity grants • @annasofialesiv's new magazine about future tech • @MTabarrok tours the Extropian archives • @ATabarrok on Orwell vs. progress • @s8mb on Coasean democracy rootsofprogress.org/links-an…

We're hiring a full-time, in-house event manager to run our annual Progress Conference and other events: rootsofprogress.notion.site/…

I’ve previously said that progress compounds, creating a flywheel effect. Here’s another way of looking at the same idea. Why wasn’t the threshing machine invented in, say, the 1300s? Consider all the barriers to such a thing: rootsofprogress.org/why-prog…

.@RuxandraTeslo is a PhD candidate in genomics at @sangerinstitute. She is writing about reproductive biology, accelerating progress in biology, and philosophies of progress. 24/29