Progress...

[Cinjin]

I can't speak for Adrian, but quantifying progress is very easy in this case. Peaceful co-existence of the entire world - no matter your race, your sexual orientation, your nationality or anything else -- that is the goal. Anything that moves us closer to that goal is progress.

Why is peaceful co-existence the goal rather than some other state of affairs? It just seems like an arbitrary choice. That is really what my question is about. Of course, once you've decided what the goal is, it is easy to define a measure of progress. But my question is about how we come to choose that goal rather than some other one. Is it because it is a morally good state of affairs? That isn't consistent with moral nihilism*. Is it simply because some group of people would prefer it to any other state? Well, why should we take their opinions as the standard rather than some other group's?

*Moral nihilism as I understand it is the view that nothing is moral or immoral (good or bad, right or wrong, etc.). Please do correct me if I am mistaken so I can represent your view(s) accurately.

Doesn't matter if you agree with the goal or not. The goal in mind explains the progress.

And by the way - since we're asking stupid questions ... I'll go ahead and ask one. What do you think humanity's goal should be?

(If you're wondering what "stupid question" I'm referring to, this is it: "Why is peaceful co-existence the goal rather than some other state of affairs?" Right - war, poverty and bigotry has worked out SO WELL for the human race so far!)