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Is life better than ever for the human race?

September 25, 2023
GZERO Staff
Is life better than ever? Measuring human progress today | GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

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Was the Beatles' Paul McCartney right - is it getting better all the time? On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer and Harvard psychologist Stephen Pinker talk about human progress and how we define it. Sure, it's great that we're not currently being chased by saber-toothed tigers. Life is better than death. Health is preferable to sickness. Freedom? We'll take it over tyranny any day of the week. In short, we know life is better today than it was for most of our ancestors, but how do we measure that progress? And at what point does the technology that has improved our lives come back to bite us? We're looking at you, AI.

Pinker shares his counterintuitive take on the state of the world. How does his optimism (as welcome as it might be) stack up against the undeniable sorry state of the world today? From war in Ukraine to a persistent pandemic to a resurgence of extreme global poverty, things feel...bad. And yet, Pinker remains relatively positive.

Watch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld and on US public television. Check local listings.
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