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Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: BBC Future longform article on Progress Studies (including connection between progress and risk), published by Garrison on June 16, 2022 on The Effective Altruism Forum. I wrote a 4k word feature on Progress Studies for BBC Future that just went up. (Tweet here). I explore: the stagnation hypothesis the origins of progress studies what PS believes will economic growth make us happier frontier vs. catch-up growth, and how PS’s focus on the former reveals its biases progress and existential risk the future of the community I think of PS as like EA circa ~2012. They have billionaire support and are quickly professionalizing. The community seems very interested in learning from EA and has responded to critiques that they are not focused enough on x-risk. But they are different in important ways. Compared to EA, I think PS is: more entrepreneurial, with a strong bias to action less academic more American, tech-y, and rooted in the Bay Area less defined - PS is not nearly as rigorous or philosophically oriented less demanding - PS doesn't really ask much, if anything, from its followers. I think this may be a huge force multiplier for the community, as it will better appeal to wealthy tech people, but probably makes any individual member less effective more neoliberal and libertarian (though, compared to these groups PS is quicker to recognize market failures and call for govt intervention) more speciesist - the focus is just on human progress, and tech has clearly been net-bad for farmed animals IMO more growth-oriented For an interesting look at what the intersection of PS and EA looks like, check out the Institute for Progress, a new think tank funded by PS co-founder Patrick Collison, Open Phil, SBF, and others. Timeline March 2017 - Roots of Progress blog starts July 2018 - Stripe Press launches July 2019 - “We Need a New Science of Progress” essay published in Atlantic August 2019 - PS Slack channel launches Oct 2019 - Roots of Progress becomes a nonprofit Aug 2020 - Works in Progress online magazine starts January 2022 - Institute for Progress think tank launches Feb 2022 - Works in Progress acquired by Stripe Press April 2022 - Progress Forum launches (sponsored by Roots of Progress) May 2022 - The Atlantic Progress series launches Thanks for listening. To help us out with The Nonlinear Library or to learn more, please visit nonlinear.org.