The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, wrapup and publishing announcement

Revised version to be published by MIT Press

My essay series The Techno-Humanist Manifesto concluded in October. You can read the whole thing here.

“Techno-humanism” is my philosophy of progress, and THM is my statement of it. It consolidates and restates material I’ve used in previous essays and talks, in a more unified and coherent form. Still, even for my biggest fans, almost every chapter should have something new, including:

• The culture of progress we once had (pre-WW1), and the decline of the idea of progress in the 20th century

• The story of progress as a story of the expansion of human agency (despite seeming counterexamples like the poor nutrition of early agriculturalists or the inadvertent creation of new health and environmental hazards)

• The nature of human well-being, including my response to the paradox of stagnant happiness metrics

• My argument for radical anthropocentrism, against romantic environmentalism and in particular against the idea of any intrinsic value in nature; and my take on stopping climate change, reframing the goal as creating climate control

• The pattern of accelerating progress and what drives it; related, my take on “ideas getting harder to find”

• Some stories of unsung heroes of health and safety

• My vision for the technological future

• The progress agenda—the cause areas of the progress movement today

• How progress can be a grand project for humanity, and how it can give us a heroic ideal to emulate

I’m pleased to announce that the series will be revised for publication as a book from MIT Press. The manuscript is out for comment now, and (given typical publishing schedules) I expect the book to be available in early 2027. Stay tuned!