The Sceptical Optimist, Why technology isn't the answer to everything by Agar, Nicholas -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication page Acknowledgements Contents List of figures Introduction

An outline of the book

1. Radical optimism and the technology bias

Does technological progress increase subjective well-being? Radically optimistic forecasts How should we prioritize technological progress? Concluding comments

2. Is there a law of technological progress?

3. Does technological progress make us happier?

The traditional paradox of progress How we hedonically adapt to new well-being technologies Complete or incomplete hedonic adaptation? Concluding comments

4. The new paradox of progress

Gibbon versus Ridley on historical happiness The perils of attitudinal time travel Hedonic normalization How to make comparisons that best reveal the effects of technological progress Complete or incomplete hedonic normalization Why hedonic normalization is probably incomplete The new paradox of technological progress Concluding comments

5. We need technological progress experiments

Technological progress traps Two ideals of technological progress The fear of falling behind How is progress dangerous? Rehabilitating the idea of technology experiments Jared Diamond on the natural experiments of traditional societies Creating and nurturing variation in technological progress A nuclear power progress experiment Why should the winners share with the losers? A progress experiment on genetically modified crops The future of technological progress Concluding comments

6. Why technological progress won’t end poverty

Poverty and well-being Ordinary and emergency circumstances of poverty Radically optimistic solutions to poverty Were there poor people in the Pleistocene? How poverty affects life satisfaction Misunderstanding the happiness of the Sun King Evidence from status competitions for the relevance of social context Economic and technological trickledown Concluding comments

7. Choosing a tempo of technological progress

Comparing different tempos of progress Technological progress makes diminishing marginal contributions to well-being Mobile phones and cancer therapies The importance of subjectively positive technological progress Concluding comments

Afterword Don’t turn well-being technologies into Procrustean beds Endnotes Index AHA! Elegance in Science Free Happiness The Fourth Revolution