What is "progress" anyway?

Ask different people, and you'll surely get different responses. Ultimately, there is no definite answer but the answer we make for ourselves. Yet it is important that, as a world civilization, we have some sort of consensus about ways in which we wish to advance ourselves.

You have probably envisioned to yourselves how the world will be in twenty.. fifty.. even a hundred years. What technological breakthroughs will have occurred? Flying cars? Teleportation? What things we currently practice will be abolished and considered atrocities of the past? Alternatively, what will be commonplace or legalized that we consider atrocities now? What new values will we hold dear, and what others will we have abandoned?

In order to answer these questions, we must be able to learn from our past as well as constantly look towards our future. We must be forward thinkers.

A doctor once told me, during a talk on stem cell research, that he does not approve of the research not because of the "baby-killing" argument, but because he feared what the future would hold for further "advances" in that area. He noted that the past has taught us that humans will use use technology unchecked, which have led to disasters such as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Chernobyl and the Challenger accidents. Global warming. So what's to stop scientists from cloning humans soon, if they haven't already in some underground lab? The CIA LSD experiments were kept secret for decades, as was their infusion of crack cocaine into Black communities. All it takes is for someone to justify it.

During this talk, the doctor said one thing that will probably stick with me forever. And that was:

"Our technology is evolving much faster than our morality."

Deep, right?

Think about it. Slavery in the United States was abolished only 150 years ago, yet institutionalized discrimination still exists. Blacks received the right to vote shortly after, but women were excluded until 1920. Are you kidding me? Guns, cars, and lightbulbs were well established by then. In 1960, the television or radio was a staple in many U.S. homes, but women were confined to the kitchen. It seems that while science is advancing exponentially, morality is doing so logarithmically... (Calculus, anyone?)

Well, this is a HUGE problem.

But what is the difference between science and morality? What is holding morality back?

A large part of it must be that science is vastly more objective. Certainly, as is taught by history, evolving morality is hindered by tradition, stubbornness, and special interests. Why else hasn't the U.S. already adopted universal healthcare?

This blog is an attempt to combat this sluggish trend of improving human rights by promoting foward thinking about moral issues we face today. It will discuss the past, present, and future in order to provoke thought on a deep level about where we have come from, where we are, and where we are going as a civilization and human race. Perhaps you, the readers, will be inspired to think more about what exactly is "progress" and to work together to identify a true greater good.

The world needs forward thinkers because, after all, the future is now.