Should we fear progress ?

Before discussing about progress, we need to precise that the word "progress" can have two different meanings : the notion of progress, which will be defined here; and the word "progress" when used to qualify something (like in « what a progress ! ») which means a good improvement.

Therefore, the notion of progress is not an idea of a good improvement. It's simply an idea of improvement, negative or positive, of evolution, of moving forward. But we can even go further in the caracterisation of progress : we often talk about good or bad progress but I think it is never the case. Progress is rather a permanent equillibrium between more good and bad evolutions, simultaneously. In other words, with every improvement comes a bad thing. And exemples are numerous.

With the boat came the shipwreck. With the airplane came the plane crash. With the advertising on internet came ad blockers. And with ad blockers came the non-remuneration of the website makers, and sometimes their bankruptcy. Global surveillance helps intelligence agencies, but threatens privacy of users. The civil nuclear power produces electricity with a relatively low cost and greenhouse gases emission, but can also produce plutonium for military use and have terrible consequences when not fully controlled, as the Tchernoblyl, Fukushima or Three Miles Island nuclear accidents showed us. And with the birth of a true artificial intelligence will certainly come the nearly immediate destruction of the IA itself and, possibly, of humanity. In fact, science fiction, when not stereotyped, is often correct... because it reveals the real nature of the human.

So progress is nor bad, nor good. It's both. And the only sure thing is that progress is complexification. A progress is rarely a simplification. In scientific terms, progress is an increase of entropy, of organized disorder, of chaotic complexity. The "equation" of humanity is more and more complex. And this process is exponential and can't be reversed. Until one day. Furthermore, it's undeniable that Darwin's evolution of spices and human progress is the same thing. Progress is nature. Progress is our goal, and  we have to accept that.

In that way, fearing progress makes no sense. We have to go above that, and stop putting emotions (because fear is an emotion) on an unavoidable process. It's why people are voting for the UKIP... We must instead use our mind and ratio for deciding if a given progress would be an acceptable evolution, in total awareness.

In conclusion, Yes, future is scary, because future is unknown, but the only thing we have to do is to make the progress be ours.