Interview in L'actualité (French)

by Jason Crawford · February 3, 2022 · 1 min read

I was interviewed for the French-language Canadian magazine L’actualité. (We did the original interview in English and it was then written up in French.) An excerpt, run through Google Translate:

Why do we, who lead such comfortable lives in North America, need more progress? Shouldn’t we focus on redistributing what already exists?

The distribution or diffusion of a technology to all parts of the world is a form of progress. That said, you cannot redistribute what has not yet been produced or invented. 200 years ago, people already felt comfortable. Yet most lived in what is now considered extreme poverty. For a long time, only the rich could afford inventions such as running water, toilets or refrigerators. Nowadays, they seem to us basic necessities to which even the poorest must have access. But I don’t believe that a poor person’s standard of living is sufficient because he has a refrigerator, in the same way that I don’t believe that a rich person’s standard of living is sufficient because he can travel. in the space. I want everyone’s standard of living, rich and poor, to be better in the future. Otherwise, we will not have done for future generations what previous generations have done for us.

Read it here: “Le bien-être de l’humanité passe par le progrès.”

See all my interviews and talks here.

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