4min chapter

Intelligence Squared cover image

Steven Pinker and David Runciman on Optimism, Enlightenment and Progress PART 2

Intelligence Squared

CHAPTER

The Reversal of Life Expectancy

The default of human history is not that progress happens. Progress is a very special state of affairs, one that I attribute to the Enlightenment. There's no contradiction between noting that there are severe problems in particular times and places and the idea that there has been progress overall. The second law of thermodynamics says that without the input of energy or information, things fall apart.

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