About Progress
On our drive home from school, my daughter Ruby asked me whether computers would still need us after they are smarter than we are.
She’s nine, and skipped right past “will they be smarter” and “will they take our jobs” and landed on an idea that society is far from facing.
I didn’t have a good answer, and I’m not sure anyone does. Unfortunately, the people building the future are heads-down and mostly talk to each other. The same is true of people who make policy, lead congregations, and write our news. What we all share is an absorbing feeling that something enormous is underway without a clear picture of what it is or what to do about it.
I spend most of my time on the frontiers, and the gap between what builders know and what enters mainstream discourse is widening. Meanwhile, the world order that held for eighty years is coming apart. The algorithms in your feed are engineered to make you furious at some other group, because fury is engagement and engagement is revenue. The institutions we need to absorb a shock like this are fraying at the exact moment it arrives.
I wanted a place to bridge that gap through mutual understanding and exploration with the people who can see the farthest. “Farthest” means different things depending on where you’re standing. Engineers building at the frontier can see things the rest of us can’t, but they’re working inside a set of assumptions others might not share. Same with philosophers and spiritual leaders, academics, political leaders, and everyday people. This podcast is for combining those perspectives and to help people see through each other’s eyes.
I think we’re standing at a fork, and which path we take depends on whether we can hold together through the transition.
Historical transformations have often followed the same pattern: technology arrives, the disruption hits, and the outcome is determined by whether the society on the receiving end can stay coherent long enough to reach the benefits on the other side.
We are approaching a moment that will demand more of that coherence than any previous generation has had to muster. In contrast, coherence is being actively dissolved by polarization, dislocation, and the sheer velocity of change. The conversations we have now, while we still have leverage and time, will shape what this transformation becomes.
I don’t have the answers to my daughter’s question. But I know the people who might, and I want you to hear from them.
If you’ve felt the gap between what’s actually happening and what anyone seems willing to say out loud, this is for you. Subscribe and you’ll get every conversation and transcript as we publish them. If you know someone else wrestling with the same questions, send this their way. The more people thinking honestly about what’s in front of us, the better.
— Scott Phoenix
