From the Brown University web site:
Part 2 once the video is made available (assuming it will be).
After presenting his data, Pinker argued in favor of humanism and rationality, saying that progress is not inevitable. “There are alternatives to humanism, such as religious morality, authoritarian nationalism and populism,” which oppose progress as he defined it, he said.
Picking up where Pinker left off, Krugman said the broad question of whether humanity is progressing was actually a two-part inquiry. He asked the audience, “Have we progressed?” and “Will we continue to progress?”
While Krugman agreed with Pinker that humanity has been progressing over the course of history, the future still worries him. Citing “episodes of retrogression” in human progress, Krugman argued that such setbacks can recur. “The fact of our progress is real (as is) … the chance that it goes into reverse,” he said.
Krugman and Pinker both then expressed a sentiment that every decade people perceive humanity to be on “the edge of a precipice.”
Part 2 once the video is made available (assuming it will be).
