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Flypaper

Re: Progress toward what?

Coby Loup
6.11.2008

I don't know, Liam, what will be the "quality" of the coming decades' progress. Nor, do I think, does Bauerlein. That's why I asked, "How can he can plausibly say, utterly ignorant of how the world will look even ten years from now, whether this uncharted future of human cognition will improve or degrade our lives?"

Indeed, the very point of the little river metaphor that sparked your reservations is that, lacking much insight into the standards and mores of the future, we can't very well judge the quality of progress.

Tags: Mark Bauerlein

Coby is a policy analyst for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He also maintains the Institute's website. By a happy turn of events, Coby landed at Fordham via the Institute for Humane Studies, where he was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in political science.A Colorado native, Coby enjoys hiking and running outdoors. He also enjoys the indoors--especially bookstores,…

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