Jason Crawford writes about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. He joins Mark and Adam to talk about technologies like messenger RNA vaccines, nanotech, and supersonic jets. Plus society-level questions like whether we are in a period of stagnation, how we fund maverick ideas, and why we need hubris.

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Show notes

• Jason Crawford / The Roots of Progress / @jasoncrawford
• Fieldbook
• A Small Matter of Programming
• We Need a New Science of Progress
• The Torch of Progress — Ep. 13 with Adam Wiggins
• The Great Stagnation
• Bessemer steel process
• germ theory
• We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters
• The Rise and Fall of American Growth and Jason’s summary
• Where Is My Flying Cars? and Jason’s summary
• Luddites
• Victorian-era concept of Progress
• A Culture of Growth
• Francis Bacon
• growth mindset
• The March of Progress
• World’s Fair posters
• phase 3 clinical trials
• Hardcore History
• techno-optimism
• 1927 Charles Lindbergh ticker-tape parade
• Why haven’t we celebrated any major achievements lately?
• Academy of Thought and Industry
• Boom
• 747: Creating the World’s First Jumbo Jet
• Concorde