Acceleration
Subtitle: the forces driving human progress
By: by Ronald G. Havelock
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Amherst, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 363
ISBN-13: 9781616142124
Subjects: Social aspects; Progress; Technological innovations; Economic aspects; Social change
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The fact of human progress; title: The idea of progress; title: Parables of progress : groundhog day & Xmas carol; title: Forward vs. backward function : who are we? where did we come from?; title: Measuring progress in human terms; title: Life, liberty, & happiness; levels & types of happiness & unhappiness; title: Calculating value : net H-u : summing value across lives; title: The case for progress; title: Population explosion and what it means : knowledge-know-how explosion; title: Positive mega trends : some negative trends; title: The six forces; title: Animal learning; title: Stimulus-response; language acquisition; evolutionary guessing;; title: Learning errors; learning dies with the learner; title: Externalizing learning; title: How it works; tools: using and making; behavior modeling; title: Ancient devices: poems, pictures; writing: the significance of the invention; title: Destruction of stored knowledge; title: Social connections; title: Networking; cooperative problem-solving; leadership, power, and labor division; title: Knowledge platforms; title: How knowledge platforms come into being; holy texts; tolerance and dualism; title: Know-how platforms; working across platforms; title: Scientific problem solving; title: Naming, connecting, quantifying; causal thinking; P-S cycle synthesis; title: The research project; know-how development process: evolution of R&D; title: Modern global diffusion; title: Accept, adopt, utilization; diffusion research; multi-step diffusion; title: Inter-group diffusion; diffusion in the 21st century; title: Where forces are taking us; title: Emergence ethical humanity; title: Paradigm for moral advancement; strange roots of morality; killing prehistoric norm; title: Proactive morality; warfare; liberty-democracy; morality & self-interest; title: Competing platforms; chronology of ethical progress; relevance of applied social science chapter eleven: fears for the future; title: Death & suffering; disparities: intra-societal, global; tribal thinking; title: Misuse of technology; ignorance of science & sci. method; pessimism; title: Pop, energy, natural resource depletion; climate change; title: What will the future bring?; title: 21st century progress in particular areas.