Human Progress

A @CatoInstitute project.

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[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

https://t.co/8lpLGQVoba

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Explore the data: https://t.co/myWAbp2hDs

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Over the last few decades, life expectancy has risen across all country income levels. Note that the gap between the richest and poorest places is narrowing.

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

AI risk arguments often assume that pursuing any goal implies wanting to stay alive. As the AI scholar Stuart Russell put it: “You can’t fetch coffee if you’re dead.”

While that’s true for evolved agents, it's not a general law of intelligence.
https://t.co/6OTJiczYO8

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

"Scientists are now able to study these signals written in animal panic thanks to a new satellite system, named Icarus...

By monitoring how animals react to the presence of human intruders, conservationists hope to pinpoint and crack down on poachers."
https://t.co/gfJ8jTRV6u

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

The work of H.P. Lovecraft reflects an anti-Enlightenment anxiety—a general pessimism about the consequences of the growth of knowledge—that is strikingly similar to the fears of modern AI critics.
https://t.co/MWsRvGRSAH

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Read more about the Grim Old Days: https://t.co/rui6nniKdi

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

In pre-industrial times, famines were frequent and severe.

Regular periods of widespread hunger and deprivation were simply facts of life.

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

While fairness is widely regarded as a moral good, it is also one of the most context-dependent traits.

A society that rewards merit inevitably produces inequality, while one that enforces equality of outcome risks punishing productivity and innovation.
https://t.co/NT4lNg9vLF

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

"US robotics company Figure AI has completed a 200-hour autonomous livestream using its Figure 03 robots.

During the run, the robots processed nearly 250,000 packages without experiencing a single hardware failure."
https://t.co/zKfitsxz3U

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

The AI debate reflects a deeper philosophical conflict about the value and risks of knowledge itself.
https://t.co/MWsRvGRSAH

[Saul Zimet @SaulZimet]

Intelligence is a virtue, whether organic or artificial.

In this new article I explain why anti-AI prejudice is irrational:

https://t.co/a3BQL8OzVi

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Explore the data: https://t.co/qBlAZzaXPj

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Before vaccines, polio filled iron lungs and emptied playgrounds. Today, wild polio has been driven from nearly every country on Earth.

We have nearly done to polio what we did to smallpox.

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Many common economic misconceptions stem from evolved psychological instincts shaped in zero-sum environments.

These “folk-economic beliefs” lead people to misinterpret trade, immigration, profit, and regulation, often resulting in counterproductive policies.
https://t.co/4oeSJt3jcj

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

"A new AI weather forecasting tool released today by the startup WindBorne Systems offers more frequent and accurate predictions on key variables than the world-leading system developed by European governments."
https://t.co/o7VVJv1Qsh

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

If autism were truly increasing because of environmental toxins, we would expect to see growth across all levels of severity—not just on the low end.

In fact, between 2000 and 2016, there was a 20% drop in the prevalence of moderate or severe autism.
https://t.co/kmzDR4jbN3

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Learn more about Volta and other Heroes of Progress in our book: https://t.co/6n1EKQBO0u

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Like many innovators, Alessandro Volta dropped out of school at a young age, only to transform the scientific community later in life.

[Noah Smith 🐇🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 @Noahpinion]

This is fake. It compares U.S. poverty WITHOUT government transfers to Chinese poverty WITH government transfers.

But I guess Chinamaxxing, or whatever. 🙄

[Human Progress @HumanProgress]

Intelligence, artificial or otherwise, poses serious threats to humanity.

But it may also be our salvation.

AI of the sort powerful enough to wipe out humanity is likely also a panacea for virtually infinite other existential threats.
https://t.co/MWsRvGRSAH