Human Progress: The Vicious Circle Essay

The third part to the human dilemma is that all nonhuman species have evolved to survive their physical habitats, and the human species originally evolved to do this as well. However, human beings have altered the world more in the last ten thousand years, than the ancestors did in the first four million years. We have changed the environment to fit our needs, instead of changing our needs to fit the environment. Most importantly, humans have built entirely new environments, such as farms, villages, cities and towns. The cycling pattern of human expansion and creations has changed the human race from small groups of hunters and gatherers, into a very complex civilization.

We first started evolving when we worked with the enviorment by hearding animals, killing them, and mirgrating to new locations for example Africa to Europe and Asia. Because of our migration we spread out across the world which introduced us to knew enviorments which taught us new things. Instead of only knowing one area and being simple minded to that we’ve moved all around the world and became accustomed to many other areas and animals. Our patterns of settlement has also helped because slowly over a couple hundred years people began to realize that you can plant your own crops and they would come back every year, because of this e have learned to settle in one area, specifically by water, and stay. Being by water was another advancement from becoming simple minded to now because humans realized that being by water can attract animals, grow crops more, and provide a place to drink and bathe. Demography and disease taught us new things about different types of disease and how to treat them. For example in the Renaissance era a lot of people would throw their wastes in streets. It would get into their water and just litter the streets which cause bacteria to form and sickness to spread. Since then we realized how to control certain diseases and plagues by immunizations and to be more hygienic. Lastly our advancement in technology has

Chelsea Vowel's book "The Myth of Progress" (2016), explains that Canada has a long way to go to overcome the harmful and prevalent stereotypes about Indigenous people. The author supports this argument by discussing how the portrayal of Indigenous peoples in Canadian media has hardly changed over the last 200 years. Based on the language and subject matter, it's clear that the intended audience of this piece is Canadians both Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

In his article, “What are People For”, Wendell Berry muses that technological progress serves no purpose in the grand scheme of things, cynically notes that the “higher aims of ‘technological progress’ are money and ease”. By condoning this materialistic outlook of life that afflicts society with a “cultish faith in the future”, Berry urges his audience to consider taking part in a community that appreciates life in the present. Berry heralds truth in his argument that technological advancement, even ones made with good intentions, inevitably contaminates society because it enables twisted misuse of power and serves to strain human relationships.

Our world today has altered immensely since the days of Adam. It is a perfect example of the maxim "survival of the fittest.'' Due to the captivating

Adapting and creating will always be one of mankind’s greatest attributes. One of the main reasons why mankind may have the need to adapt and create would be the necessity of survival. Mankind has had to adapt to the environment over and over again in order to survive, whether it be creating a shelter to shield them from heavy rain or building transport vehicles to get from one place quicker than before. Through adaptation, mankind will create and build in order to assist in this progression. History has shown the different ways mankind has had to adapt and one the most important times in history that shows this is during the 20th century competition between two Cold War rivals.

In his book, “A Short History of Progress”, Ronald Wright argues that the way things are progressing in society today very closely mimics the progress of our ancient ancestors. If we keep this up, we too will fail just as they did. Much like ancient civilizations, we have become victims to the ideology that we are making progress and have turned a blind eye to certain flaws; the irreparable damage with which this mentality threatens us will prevail in the end. Wright states that “if we see clearly what we are and what we have done, we can recognize human behavior that persists through many times and cultures…this can tell us what we are likely to do, where we are likely to go from here” (pg. 2). In other words, although we cannot foresee the

To examine this possibility, Garreau interviewed Nick Bostrom, co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association. Bostrom shows his agreement with human transcendence by asserting that “Technological progress makes it harder for people to ignore the fact that we might actually change the human nature” (qtd. in Garreau, 242).

In chapter three, the author points out the weaknesses in advancement worldview. The epistemological problem in advancement, which is based on biological evolution and considers the mind as a “merely biological product” (37), is the first and perhaps the foremost problem for particular this view. “If naturalism is a proper description of reality, man’s mind could not be truly free to look at biological facts objectively” (38). The author compares the traditional and modern theories of knowledge and highlights the loss of freedom and the loss of truth. Bush strongly criticizes predetermination.

Humans are the results of the challenges that they have faced through the journey of life. During that journey, humans have learned and adapted to the changing and, sometimes, the harsh time periods. However, they have learned from their journey and brought new changes that greatly benefited the human society. For example, the civil rights movement, largely, was to convince the Caucasian-led society and government to end discrimination and racial segregation against African Americans. Eventually, their “destination” was reached which is the passing of the Civil Rights Act, but that could never happen if they had not gone through the journey. The experiences that they faced during the movement had changed them forever, while they were bringing

The term, progress, is synonymous with phrases that denote moving forward, growth, and advancement. It seems unorthodox then that Ronald Wright asserts the world has fallen into a progress trap, a paradox to how progress is typically portrayed as it contradicts the conventional way life is viewed: as being a natural progression from the outdated and tried towards the new and improved. Wright posits that it is the world’s relentless creation of innovative methods that ironically contributes to the progress trap rather than to progress itself, the intended objective. Wright’s coinage of the term “progress trap” refers to the phenomenon of innovations that create new complications that are typically left without resolve which exacerbate

social order. The Progressive movement, 1901 to 1917, was ultimately the triumph of conservatism rather than a

Mankind has limitless potential. However, we often are first forced to break down old barriers. In the past humans have broken free of gravity and traveled through the skies. Then came the invention of the computer. The idea of millions of calculations performed each minute may have seemed absurd a century ago, but society’s dependence on it today can never be overestimated. The future, I believe, will be an era of power and energy.

Since the beginning of the human race, the ocean has been a major source of food. People near the shores have been taking of advantage of the ocean’s rich and diverse source of nourishment for centuries, both as a source of food and a livelihood. However, since the dawn of the industrial age, humans have begun to take from the ocean more that it can give. As a result, the ocean can no longer provide the human race with the abundance that it once did. As technology rapidly advances, populations skyrocket, and global warming spreads havoc, the ocean’s biodiversity and once abundant supply of fish is dwindling, calling marine scientists and experts to race to find solutions that will restore the oceans health while battling world hunger.

The human race has advanced a great deal over the course of recent history, particularly so since the 18th century. Countless of these developments in society can be attributed to the achievements of engineers - however, despite this, many do not realise their contribution and importance. One of the fundamental bases behind these engineering feats is the harnessing of energy sources, such as electrical and heat energy. This has allowed for many innovations, for example power stations, transportation, communications and computers, which have all become critical to society and the modern world in which we live.