Survivng Process is a crucial and compelling examination of global society, questioning our blind faith in progress, and the ‘progress traps’ which have led to the demise of past civilisations.

Does growth always mean the same as improvement? Does more equal better? Is the technological advancement on which we rely cementing our destruction?

A host of modern luminaries – including Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking, Margaret Atwood and David Suzuki – as well as scientists, financiers and activists, take on prevalent issues from untenable economic structures to deforestation, not shying away from controversial domains like political corruption and synthetic biology.

Inspired by Ronald Wright’s bestseller A Short History of Progress, with Martin Scorsese as an executive producer, this is a cinematic wake up call, asking critical questions about technology, economics and consumption, making for a massive taking stock.

Panel Discussion

Dr Marius Kwint is Senior Lecture of Visual Culture at Portsmouth University and was commissioned by the Wellcome Collection to curate their current exhibition Brains, exploring what humans have done to brains in the name of medical intervention, scientific enquiry, cultural meaning and technological change. Marius’ research, teaching and curatorial interests include materiality, form and cultural modernity such as the history of collecting.

Dr Jonathan Aldred is a lecturer in Economics at Cambridge University. His book The Skeptical Economist: Revealing the Ethics in Economics challenges the assumptions behind the economics of our current way of life asking how we ought to live, what we value and why.