Chapter 1: The Fallacy of Progress

The notion of progress is often misunderstood; it’s not an evolutionary guarantee but rather a question of adaptation. A crocodile is not more advanced than a bee, just as humans are not inherently superior to dinosaurs. Adaptation to specific environments is what defines survival, as paraphrased from Charles Darwin’s thoughts: “It's not the strongest or the smartest species that endures, but those best suited to change.”

Humanity has managed to maintain the illusion of progress primarily because our environment has remained relatively stable. We often believe our foundations are solid when, in reality, they are in constant flux. This misconception is rooted in the Enlightenment, where early thinkers mistakenly assumed that the universe's physical laws could be fully understood and controlled. In contrast, the true enlightenment offered by the Buddha teaches that impermanence is the only constant.

Humans have thrived under two significant factors: a stable environment and a one-time bounty of fossil fuels inherited from our ancestors. Our reckless consumption of these fossil fuels has jeopardized this stability. We’re akin to children playing with dangerous tools, oblivious to the potential consequences.

This isn’t the first instance of life disrupting environmental balance. Around 2.3 billion years ago, our photosynthetic ancestors emitted oxygen, which drastically altered the planet's atmosphere. Now, we are unwittingly reversing this process, believing ourselves to be the pinnacle of evolution, while in truth, we are merely exploiting resources from those who came before us.

As we arbitrarily categorize history into periods of enlightenment and ignorance, we overlook the nuances of our existence. We marvel at technological advancements without acknowledging the crumbling foundations beneath us. Our division of history into "real" events and "prehistory" leads us to miss the bigger picture. We pride ourselves on our technological growth, much like dinosaurs might have reveled in their physical attributes, oblivious to their ultimate fate.

The physicist Tom Murphy articulates this sentiment well in his essential textbook:

The rapid rise in energy and resource consumption over the past few centuries is merely a fleeting moment in human history. It has created a distorted view of what is considered “normal” on this planet. While the spectacle of modern life is exhilarating, it is also exceptionally rare. Just as a meteorologist trained in a brief fireworks display cannot accurately predict future weather, we, too, lack the ability to foresee what lies ahead after this unique era. (Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet)

The prevailing misconception is that burning resources doesn’t have consequences, and that we can simply progress without reckoning with our actions. We view ourselves as the apex of evolution, yet we quickly deplete our resources while many species have thrived for millennia. As Shakespeare poignantly noted:

[Human] Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

To reiterate, the idea of linear evolutionary progress is a myth. Just as anaerobic organisms faced extinction when oxygen levels rose, our own survival depends on adaptability rather than perpetual growth.

The belief that human intelligence equates to adaptability is a dangerous oversimplification. Many contemporary thinkers, like Yuval Noah Harari, view history through a lens of progress but fail to recognize the consequences of our actions. The hubris inherent in the scientific mindset—that knowledge is synonymous with understanding—is a fundamental error.

Historically, Western philosophy has often equated knowledge with superiority, yet many indigenous cultures have long understood that not all knowledge is beneficial. As Brian Yazzie Burkhart notes:

In Western thought, the assumption prevails that more knowledge is always preferable. However, this assumption is not universally held, particularly in many non-Western philosophies where the idea of limited knowledge is not problematic.

The drive for more—be it knowledge or resources—fuels both consumption and eventual collapse. Technology alone cannot redeem us; the very scientific practices that led us into this predicament cannot provide a way out.

The arrogance of believing that we can manipulate our environment without consequence is misleading. We’ve charted our progress on two-dimensional graphs while neglecting the complex, three-dimensional reality of our world. In our quest for renewable energy, we often ignore the multitude of other ecological crises we face. This lack of holistic understanding stems from a science that grants us the power of gods without the accompanying reverence for the natural world.

The fundamental error lies in our misunderstanding of progress versus adaptation. Like the dinosaurs, we may be thriving in a complex world, yet we ignore the environmental damage we inflict upon ourselves. While we ridicule the dinosaurs, we overlook the fact that they did not lead to their own extinction. The microbes that first harnessed solar energy—now fossil fuels—learned to adapt, while we dismiss them as primitive, calling our exploitation of their remains progress.

In our relentless pursuit of advancement, we miss the essence of survival: adaptation. Instead, we risk becoming mere asteroids, hurtling through the cosmos, unaware of the impending doom we have crafted for ourselves.

Chapter 2: The Consequences of Ignorance

In this thought-provoking episode of The Human Progress Podcast, John Mueller delves into the intricate relationship between war and human progress, challenging conventional beliefs about our advancements.

In Stupidity In Progress: Man of the Future, the discussion revolves around humanity's misguided perceptions of progress and the dire implications of our actions.