FRANCIS HEYLIGHEN and JAN BERNHEIM GLOBAL PROGRESS II: EVOLUTIONARY MECHANISMS AND THEIR SIDE-EFFECTS (Received 1 April 2000; Accepted 15 June 2000) ABSTRACT. This paper attempts to update the 18th century concept of progress by an evolutionary theoretical framework, while replying to some of the contemporary critiques. Progress, understood as increase in fitness (or its proxy, quality of life) necessarily accompanies evolution by natural selection. In socio-cultural evolution, this mechanism is reinforced by growth of knowledge and virtuous cycles, but can be accompanied by negative side-effects such as overshooting and parasitism. The most pressing of the contemporary side-effects, such as pollution and the increased pace of life, are discussed, but it is concluded that they can be tackled without really endangering global progress. The anxiety that they engender is unfortunately ampli- fied by a “bad news” bias in the media, leading to an inappropriately pessimistic view of the situation by the public. KEY WORDS: progress, quality of life, optimism, pessimism, social indicators, world view, evolution, development, global change, information overload. 1. INTRODUCTION Whereas part I of this paper (Heylighen and Bernheim, 2000) argued on empirical grounds that global quality of life is progressing, the present part II wishes to explain this observation on the basis of a theoretical framework. The evolutionary world view (cf. Heylighen, 1992b; 1999) that underlies this framework is intended to transcend the in retrospect simplistic assumptions of 18th century rationalism and mechanicism, and to address their shortcomings. It is based on a number of insights developed in diverse scientific disciplines, both traditional, such as history, sociology, and the life sciences, and more novel, such as cyber- netics and the sciences of complexity. Thus, we wish to revive the progressive ideals of the Enlightenment, while criticizing its erroneous assumptions. Our philosophy departs from the Newtonian world view in three essential respects: 1. holism or emergentism: the idea that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. When different components are put together, they may interact either synergistically or antagonistically, but in general this interaction creates something new, an “emergent” system or property. Journal of Happiness Studies 1: 351–374, 2000. © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.