Economic indicators such as GDP have been a main indicator of human progress since the first half of last century. There is concern that continuing to measure our progress and / or wellbeing using measures that encourage consumption on a planet with limited resources, may not be ideal. Alternative measures of human progress, have a top down approach where the creators decide what the measure will contain. This work defines a 'bottom up' methodology an example of measuring human progress that doesn't require manual data reduction. The technique allows visual overlay of other 'factors' that users may feel are particularly important. I designed and wrote a genetic algorithm, which, in conjunction with regression analysis, was used to select the 'most important' variables from a large range of variables loosely associated with the topic. This approach could be applied in many areas where there are a lot of data from which an analyst must choose. Next I designed and wrote a genetic algorithm to explore the evolution of a spectral clustering solution over time. Additionally, I designed and wrote a genetic algorithm with a multi-faceted fitness function which I used to select the most appropriate clustering procedure from a range of hierarchical agglomerative methods. Evolving the algorithm over time was not successful in this instance, but the approach holds a lot of promise as an alternative to 'scoring' new data based on an original solution, and as a method for using alternate procedural options to those an analyst might normally select. The final solution allowed an evolution of the number of clusters with a fixed clustering method and variable selection over time. Profiling with various external data sources gave consistent and interesting interpretations to the clusters.

This study examines three important conceptions of social and human progress, evaluates them critically, and proposes an alternative conception of a rather different type. The first three conceptions are respectively found in, or at least based on, Condorcet’s theory of the historical progress of the sciences and the arts; Adam Smith’s conception of the progressive increase of national wealth; and Karl Marx’s ideal of the communist society. Despite their fundamental differences, these three theories have several common elements. Each one proposes a social project aimed at achieving an ideal society; each ultimately seeks the improvement of the human condition; each focuses however on social rather than human progress, so that its conception of the latter (and of humanness) must be constructed from a set of associated ideas about human nature, life, needs, worth, potential, or fulfilment, and about relations among these.