The 16 Axes of the Progress Spectrum

The ultimate model, adding the final dimensions of existential and metaphysical significance. Building on the 12 Axes, we add: Axis 13: Human-Posthuman (progress for humans as we are vs. progress that transforms us into something else). Axis 14: Immanent-Transcendent (progress within history vs. progress toward something beyond it). Axis 15: Cumulative-Transformative (adding to what came before vs. replacing it entirely). Axis 16: Meaningful-Meaningless (progress that matters vs. progress that is empty). These sixteen axes generate 65,536 potential positions—enough to capture every vision of progress, every critique, every hope. The 16 Axes reveal that progress isn't a single direction but a multidimensional space of possibilities. AI progress is material, collective (and individual), fast, concentrated, deep (transforming cognition), possibly incompatible with human nature as we know it, measurable, possibly untenable, posthuman (changing what "human" means), immanent (within history), transformative (replacing previous modes), and profoundly contested on the meaningfulness axis. The 16 Axes don't tell you what progress is—they give you language to ask.

The 16 Axes of the Progress Spectrum "You want to know if we're making progress? First, answer the 16 Axes: material or moral? Individual or collective? Fast or slow? Concentrated or diffuse? Deep or shallow? Compatible with human nature or transforming it? Immanent or transcendent? Meaningful or meaningless? And that's just half the list. Progress isn't a simple story—it's 16 questions, and your answers determine everything. Most people haven't even asked one."

by Dumu The Void February 25, 2026