The Limits of Human Progress: A Critical Study

📝 Summary

• Decentering of Man in Technological Concretization ★★★★★
  In the evolution of systems like language and religion, man becomes ex-centered and the systems mechanize themselves; this tendency might apply to technology if it turns solely into industry, thereby alienating man from technological processes.
  «The real center of systematization shifts... Man is ex-centered, the concretization mechanizes and automates itself; language becomes grammar and religion theology.»
  связи: tension:autonomy-vs-control
• Human Progress as Systemic Integration Beyond Saturation ★★★★★
  Human progress occurs only when man transcends the saturation of one domain and engages a new domain of development, increasing the internal resonance between man and the objective concretization system formed.
  «There is progress if the system man-religion is endowed with more internal resonance than the system man-language, and if the man-technology system is endowed with a greater internal resonance than the system man-religion.»
• Limitation of Assessing Progress by Production Volume ★★★★★
  Human progress should not be measured by the quantity of production but by the stages and quality of systemic development accompanied by internal resonance and integration.
  «Human progress cannot be studied with... measured by what people produce but by the stages of production.»
• Necessity of Human Involvement as Both Operator and Object for Non-Alienation ★★★★★
  To avoid alienation and decentering in technology, man must participate simultaneously as operator and as the direct object of technological operations, a state currently rare outside of destructive contexts.
  «The threshold of non-decentering, and thus of non-alienation, will only be crossed if man intervenes in technical activity in the dual role of operator and object of the operation.»
  связи: hypothesis:H2
• Network Structure of Technical Progress ★★★★★
  Technical progress must form a network system where each domain of human activity employing techniques is in normative communication with others, creating organic progress that is part of human evolution.
  «For technical progress to be self-regulating, it must be a progress of the whole; which means that each domain of human activity employing techniques must be in representative and normative communication with every other domain.»
  связи: hypothesis:H1, mode:modularity
• Objective Concretization of Human Activity ★★★★★
  The external, material manifestations of human activity such as language, religion, and technology, which constitute systems formed by man both as agent and subject.
  «Consideration of what man produces (language, technics) does not permit evaluation of human progress, nor prediction of its law of development as a function of time, because attention is then solely directed towards the objective concretization of human activity.»
• Progressive Saturation of Autonomous Objective Systems ★★★★★
  Each system of human objective concretization—language, religion, technology—undergoes a phase of high internal resonance followed by saturation, leading the system to become self-centered and decentered from man.
  «There comes a closure, a progressive saturation of the autonomous system of objective concretization, to the same degree reducing the system's internal resonance.»
  связи: hypothesis:H1
• Reciprocity between Man and Objective Concretizations ★★★★★
  True technical progress requires a reciprocal relationship between humans and the material embodiments of their activity, ensuring continuity and integration within human reality.
  «For technical progress to be considered as human progress, it will have to involve reciprocity between man and objective concretizations.»
  связи: hypothesis:H3
• Reflexive Consciousness as a Condition for Continuing Progress ★★★★★
  Progress depends on human consciousness of the development process itself, allowing transcendence of automatism and saturation to open new domains of development.
  «It is here that there appears the effective role of man taking consciousness of the development process... hypertrophy of automatism coincides with the end of evolution, and with the saturation that concludes each process of development.»
• Reflexive Thought as Continuity of Progress ★★★★★
  Philosophical reflexive thought is the conscious resonance between humans and objective concretizations; it ensures continuity between phases of progress across language, religion, and technology, preventing alienation and supporting human progress as a whole.
  «Only philosophical thought is common to progress in language, progress in religion and progress in technology. Reflexivity of thought is the conscious form of the internal resonance formed by man and the objective concretization.»
  связи: type:C
• Self-limiting Cycles of Progress ★★★★★
  Each domain of human development (language, religion, technology) forms internally consistent systems that tend toward saturation or completeness, after which further development in that domain stalls.
  «Each successive system represents a more primitive need... and each system tends towards a stifling completeness at its height.»
• Fragmentation Limits Explosive Technical Progress ★★★★
  Progress that occurs in fragmented, sharply separated domains lacks the character of human progress and does not reach an explosive and integrative growth pace.
  «Progress assumes an explosive pace when it is already in its origins a fragmented progress, fulfilling itself in sharply separate domains: the more fragmented its condition, the less it is human progress.»
  связи: mode:modularity
• Historical Evolution of Progress Domains: Language, Religion, Technology ★★★★
  The historical succession of dominant domains of human progress: classical language development, medieval religion, and post-Renaissance technical progress, each with phases of saturation and coexisting overlaps.
  «the shift from the development of language in the classical period to religion in the medieval and technical progress after the Renaissance... each domain forms an internally consistent system... with durable overlappings between these domains manifesting a pursuit of universality.»
• Lack of Unified Science of Human Measurement in Technology ★★★★
  Unlike techniques applied to things, techniques applied to humans lack a stable scientific metrology and human energetics, preventing a unified technological relation and continuing development between technologies for humans and for objects.
  «Such a science, foundational to a scientific measurement applicable to humans, does not yet exist in any stable fashion in the domain of living organisms.»
• Reciprocal Causality Between Man and Concretizations ★★★★
  A bidirectional relationship where human beings both shape and are shaped by the systems they concretize—language, religion, technology—forming inseparable systems vital for development.
  «Between the objective concretizations of each self-limiting cycle of progress and man there exists a bond of reciprocal causality.»
• Technical Progress Requires Integration Including Poorly Developed Domains ★★★★
  For progress to be truly human and profound, it must include all domains such as agriculture, fostering slower but more comprehensive transformation of human life.
  «Technological progress would be much more profoundly human progress if it was already progress of all technologies, including agriculture, which in terms of excellence is... the poor relation.»
• Technology as Fundamentally Universalizable and Primitive ★★★★
  Technology connects directly with fundamental biological desires, making it potentially more universally accessible and less localized than language or religion, thus offering a unique pathway for progress across diverse groups.
  «Technology alone is absolutely universalizable, because that part of man that resonates with it is so primitive, so close to the conditions for life, that every man possesses it in himself.»
• Limitations of Technical Progress Under Social Conditions ★★★
  Technical progress is constrained but not halted by existing social and regulatory conditions, energy and resource availabilities; thus, rapid explosive technological leaps are unlikely.
  «The inhibiting forces which could otherwise retard it are already operating, but they do not stop it... because regulatory conditions already exist, and the exploitable riches of energy and raw materials are considerable.»
  связи: tension:speed-vs-responsibility
• Slower Pace of Technological Progress in Everyday Life ★★★
  Despite spectacular advances in scientific technology, the adoption and impact of technological progress in everyday life contexts such as agriculture and furniture remain slow due to necessary transformations of milieus and conditions.
  «The pace is less than explosive: lighting, furniture, food, transport all change, but slowly... the introduction of an isolated machine... gives spectacular impression of the abstract notion of possible progress, whereas... this appearance of explosive pace is erased.»
  связи: mode:acceleration