The 'Spectacular Progress' Series is influenced by the Stephen Pinker book 'Enlightenment Now' that presents a balanced, data driven perspective that counteracts the apocalyptic view of the world. He notes that the world has made spectacular progress in every measure of human well-being, but nobody know. War is down, violence is down, extreme poverty is down, disease is down. Although there are very serious problems that need to be solved, we have the tools as seen from our successes that can be applied to the future.
