# Progress > Most people agree that life is better than death. Health is better than sickness. Sustenance is better than hunger. Wealth is better than poverty. Peace is better than war. Safety is better than danger. Freedom is better than tyranny. Equal rights are better than bigotry and discrimination. Literacy is better than illiteracy. Knowledge is better than ignorance. Intelligence is better than dull-wittedness. Happiness is better than misery. Opportunities to enjoy family, friends, culture, and nature are better than drudgery and monotony. > > All these things can be measured. If they have increased over time, that is progress. > > -Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress ## Links * [The Roots of Progress](https://rootsofprogress.org/) - the story of human progress—and how we can keep it going * [Our World in Data](https://ourworldindata.org/) - research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems * [Human Progress](https://humanprogress.org) - looking at worldwide long-term trends through data * [Histography](http://histography.io/) - an interactive timeline of historical events * [We Need a New Science of Progress](https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/594946/) by Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen * [Progress studies reading list](https://danielmay.io/progress) by Daniel May * [About the 'Progress' in Progress Studies](https://nintil.com/progress-in-progress/) by Artir * [On Progress and Historical Change](https://www.exurbe.com/on-progress-and-historical-change/) by Ada Palmer * [A Progress Studies Manifesto](https://www.progressstudies.org/2019/08/09/manifesto/) * [Is There a Science of Progress?](https://www.aier.org/article/is-there-a-science-of-progress/amp/) by Adam Thierer * [Progress Studies, Some Initial Thoughts](http://www.williamrinehart.com/2019/progress-studies-some-initial-thoughts/) by William Rinehart * [How do we move the needle on progress?](https://elidourado.com/blog/move-the-needle-on-progress/) by Eli Dourado * [Normative Progress Studies](https://jasminew.me/post/progress/) by Jasmine Wang * [A Simple Combinatorial Model of World Economic History](https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.04502) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://wiki.stojanow.com/progress.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.