The reading list below is based on a reading list originally used for an internal GPI reading group. These reading groups are used as a way of doing an early-stage exploration of new areas that seem promising from an academic global priorities research perspective. Each topic is often used as the theme for one or two weekly discussions, and in most cases those attending the discussion will have read or skimmed the suggested materials beforehand.
As I thought that it could be a valuable resource for those interested in academic global priorities research, I’m sharing it here, with permission from the authors. All the credit for the list below goes to them.
Disclaimer: The views presented in the readings suggested below do not necessarily represent views held by me, GPI, or any GPI staff member.
Overview
This list aims to explore technological, scientific, and economic progress from an EA perspective. The first two topics make the broad case for promoting progress. Topics 3 and 4 deal with some concerns about progress; namely, whether it promotes wellbeing, and whether it increases existential risks. The last two topics consider some other important questions: the causes of the industrial revolution, and the connection between progress and morality.
Progress Studies Reading List
The reading list below is based on a reading list originally used for an internal GPI reading group. These reading groups are used as a way of doing an early-stage exploration of new areas that seem promising from an academic global priorities research perspective. Each topic is often used as the theme for one or two weekly discussions, and in most cases those attending the discussion will have read or skimmed the suggested materials beforehand.
As I thought that it could be a valuable resource for those interested in academic global priorities research, I’m sharing it here, with permission from the authors. All the credit for the list below goes to them.
Disclaimer: The views presented in the readings suggested below do not necessarily represent views held by me, GPI, or any GPI staff member.
Overview
This list aims to explore technological, scientific, and economic progress from an EA perspective. The first two topics make the broad case for promoting progress. Topics 3 and 4 deal with some concerns about progress; namely, whether it promotes wellbeing, and whether it increases existential risks. The last two topics consider some other important questions: the causes of the industrial revolution, and the connection between progress and morality.
1. Foundations
Cowen, 2018, Stubborn Attachments
Applied Divinity Studies, 2021, The Moral Foundations of Progress
Section 1
Collison and Cowen 2019, We Need a New Science of Progress
Piper, 2021, How Does Progress Happen?
A Conversation with Mark Zuckerberg, Patrick Collison, and Tyler Cowen
2. Stagnation
Cowen, 2011, The Great Stagnation
Chapter 1
Chapter 6
Alternative: Econtalk interview on the book
Bloom et al., 2020, Are Ideas Getting Harder to Find?
Bhaskar, 2022, Human Frontiers
Alternative: Hear This Idea podcast
Hall, 2021, Where is My Flying Car?
Jones, 2009, The Burden of Knowledge and the “Death of the Renaissance Man”
Gordon, 2016, The Rise and Fall of American Growth
3. Progress, Happiness, and Mental Health
Pinker, 2018, Enlightenment Now
Ch. 18
Plant, 2022, Will Faster Economic Growth Make Us Happier?
Hidaka, 2012, Depression as a Disease of Modernity
Stevenson and Wolfers, 2008, Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being
Easterlin & O’Connor, 2020, The Easterlin Paradox
4. Progress and X-Risk
PS: some readings in this topic overlap with the growth theory reading list
Aschenbrenner, 2020, Securing Posterity
Applied Divinity Studies, 2021, The Moral Foundations of Progress
Section 2
Greaves, 2021, Longtermism and Economic Growth
Bostrom, 2003, Astronomical Waste
Aschenbrenner, 2020, Existential Risk and Growth
Trammell, 2021, Existential Risk and Exogenous Growth
Altman, 2013, Growth and Government
5. Causes of the Industrial Revolution
Allen, 2011, Why the Industrial Revolution Was British
Mokyr, 2005, The Intellectual Origins of Modern Economic Growth
Vries, 2010, The California School and Beyond
Mokyr, 2016, A Culture of Growth
Howes, 2017, The Spread of Improvement: Why Innovation Accelerated
in Britain 1547-1851
Pomeranz, 2021, The Great Divergence
Allen, 2009, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective
Crafts, 2011, Explaining the First Industrial Revolution: Two Views
6. Progress and Morality
Friedman, 2005, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth
Ch. 4
Enke et al., 2022, Morals as Luxury Goods and Political Polarization
Sections 1-4