Acceleration: The Forces Driving Human Progress

In this positive yet realistic appraisal of the human condition, social psychologist Ronald G. Havelock examines "the forward function," a cluster of six forces that has driven human progress from the Stone Age to the present. The author explains that the key to humanity’s past and future success is our ability to pass on what has been learned from one generation to the next, resulting in an ever larger and more widely shared knowledge platform. This has been especially evident in the last two hundred years, when the scientific revolution has produced an explosive growth of knowledge building and the application of that knowledge to human needs. Today, the most exciting and hopeful development is that the transfer of knowledge is increasingly not just from generation to generation but within generations and across cultures. And it extends from the rich to the middle class and even to the poor. The primary consequence of knowledge expansion is thus the empowerment of those who can understand and use it and a better life for more and more people. The author argues that, despite periodic setbacks, progress is actually accelerating on many dimensions of human existence. In his view, fears for the human future are wildly exaggerated and overlook both the knowledge resources at hand to solve problems and the ingenuity of succeeding generations in using those resources for both individual and planetary well-being. Grounded in a wealth of solid research, this optimistic outlook on human destiny offers a realistic hope that we human beings are fully capable of solving even our most challenging problems.