On Progress

We hear a lot about progress. From technological progress, to social progress, to medical progress,  to ahem... financial progress... but what does it mean?

The late Stanford professor and founder of artificial intelligence, John McCarthy describes a few things representative of progress:1

• Increased access to material goods.
• Safe water supply
• Increased life span.(3)
• Reduced childhood death.
• Increased opportunities for education.
• Societies that people choose to migrate to.
• More individual choice of occupation, lifestyle and avocations.
• More opportunity to enjoy both culture and nature.
• Cleaner environment.
• Increased consideration for the values in nature, e.g. for the preservation of biological diversity.
• Increased concern for less advanced people and their cultures.
• More and more new goods and services available to more and more people.

Each are noble pursuits, however a number of these ideas could conflict with each other.  This is especially evident when you introduce a limited resource and a few self-interested individuals or groups. Commonly called the tragedy of the commons, this dilemma can ultimately deplete a shared resource. For example, Henry Ford ushered in one of the most significant cultural shifts in history with the advent of the assembly line. Ford provided jobs, income, and a better life out of poverty. However, after decades of this economic model of accumulation, the once heralded model of progress has contributed to significant impacts on the environment.  Through technology, tools, and techniques we are able to do more things efficiently.  However unintended consequences of technological advancements could be unemployment and labor shortage due to limited work skills.

Progress is not just about accumulation, extending oneself and society beyond its current limitations ...to achieve, to conquer.  It is also about understanding the balance of an ecosystem where unchecked progress could potentially drive interior and exterior environments to tipping points. Whether its opening access to material goods to emerging economies or transitioning to clean energy, the forward momentum of change has implications that must be considered or the remedy of progress could eventually be worse than disease of status quo.

For future discussions on progress please visit www.theunreasonablegardener.com


1 McCarthy,John “Progress and Its Sustainability” retrieved from http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/index.html

Call Me a Trim Tab

I've encountered two types of people in this world, those who believe they can make a difference regardless of the environment and those who believe the outside world dictates that for them. Those who tend to believe they are in control of their actions and environment tend to be more on the positive side, proactively working to change their environment.  They are the first who say we can, instead of solely looking on what we cannot do. These optimists are intent on facing problems head-on, taking active and constructive steps to solve their problems; while the “pessimists” are more likely to abandon their effort to attain their goals. One of my favorite engineers, Buckminster Fuller, explained it this way…

“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab.

It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it's going right by you, that it's left you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.

So I said, call me Trim Tab.”

Regardless of position or authority we all can make a positive difference in our community and organizations…  We are all “Trim Tabs” !   Please share your stories.