Steven Pinker Discusses Rationality and Humanist Values
Point of Inquiry
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Is Technology Independent of Social and Moral Progress?
I'm struck by the implicit optimism. It particularly in your latest books, Better Ages of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now. And a thesis that I think that is not explicitly stated is that scientific mindset on a societal level drives both technological progress and social progress. But as I was reading that, we saw two technologically advanced nations, Germany and the Soviet Union that committed among other atrocities genocides. Are these two examples anomalies or is technological progress independent of social and moral progress?
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