A Short History Of Progress, By Ronald Wright

Long since the first civilizations formed in this world, the power of progression has been changing the humanity. The revolution of technology, change of society structure, lots of progress has been made, and with the progress we have been through ups and downs in the history, and thanks to that we gets to live in a considerable “better life” compare to few centuries ago. However, the progress we have made are not always beneficial. Obsessed about making progress, humanity may just end up making way too much progress, and creates a problem that cannot be solved by either humanity or the nature itself. From making too much progress without considering the consequences, civilizations faces a risk of collapsing, or even extinct. Ronald Wright names this kind of misstep in the progression “progress trap”, a trap that appears in the way of humanity’s unstoppable pursuing of progress. …show more content…
While the progress is eventually one of the biggest “characteristic” of humanity, from what Wright sees, it is also important to learn what kind of “traps” it will encounter. This essay is going to introduce the concept of progress trap and real progress based on the Wright’s book: “A Short history of Progress” and showcase the difference between both. Starts from the effects on the ecosystem, this essay will break down the progress trap in different areas, while also shows the relatively constructive progress that has been made, drawing a rather clear line between “just enough progress” and “unfixable mistake” in human history. In the second part, the impact of progress trap to a rather complex civilization with “pyramid scheme” structure will be discussed, along with progress trap’s impact over the