About

The Roots of Progress is a nonprofit dedicated to establishing a new philosophy of progress for the 21st century.

Activities

Our President writes essays on the history of technology and the philosophy of progress, and gives talks and interviews on the same. He is working on a book about the discoveries and inventions that created the modern world and our standard of living, and the philosophy we need to keep progress going.

We are developing a “career accelerator” for progress writers: a fellowship for anyone who demonstrates strong writing talent and has an ambitious career goal in progress studies. The fellowship will help them take their careers to the next level by providing money, coaching, marketing and PR support, and connection to a network.

We host the Progress Forum for long-form discussion of progress studies and the philosophy of progress. We also sponsor occasional events for the progress community.

People

Founder & President: Jason Crawford

CEO: Heike Larson

Executive assistant: Yel Alonzo

Board of directors: Jason Crawford, Ray Girn, Anil Varanasi

Advisers: Tyler Cowen, Patrick Collison

History

A brief timeline of the evolution of this project:

• March 2017: The Roots of Progress begins as a blog; Jason writes it part-time
• October 2019: Jason goes full-time
• August 2021: the blog becomes a one-man research nonprofit
• July 2022: major expansion is announced
• January 2023: new CEO starts

Support

We have been funded by donors including Patrick and John Collison, Anil and Sunil Varanasi, and Adam Wiggins. In the past, support has also come from Jed McCaleb and Jaan Tallinn (via the Survival and Flourishing Fund), the Long-Term Future Fund, Open Philanthropy, and Emergent Ventures.

We also have a Patreon. Thanks to our supporters at the “Edison” level and above (for June 2023):

Adam Wiggins, Andrej Karpathy, Andrew Coyle, Andrew Zey, Arno Vel, Axel Ericsson, B Srinivasan, Ben Springwater, Benjamin Bernard, Brad Hakes, Coleman Foley, Daniel Golliher, Daniel Horowitz, David Samuelson, Edmund Zagorin, Edward Pierzchalski, Emerson Spartz, Fabrice Grinda, Frederic Bastiat, Glenn Willen, Grady Simon, Greg Salmieri, Hayato Kumagai, Jared, Jason Gritman, Jeff Ridpath, Jeremy, John Beatty, Kerry L Vaughan, Konstantin Levinski, Leo Polovets, Luke Therien, Matheus Carvalho, Matt Bateman, Matt Monihan, Matthew Zuck, Mauricio Coen, Michael McCormick, Michael Williams, Randal Vegter, Sang Uh Han, Scott Alexander, Sean Linehan, Sean Saito, streydand, Susan Crawford, Susan Stucky, Tim Disney, Tom Walczak, Trevor Blackwell, Trey Causey, Trey Knighton, Tristan Homsi, Vignan Velivela, Wai Keen Vong, Yedidya Feldblum, Zachary Pinto.

You can add your name to the list via PayPal or on Patreon:

We are a 501(c)(3) public educational charity; in the US, donations to such organizations are tax-deductible.

Our EIN: 86-3502300

Contact

Questions or feedback? Email Jason: jason@rootsofprogress.org

Mailing address:

9450 SW Gemini Dr
PMB 74328
Beaverton, OR 97008-7105