Most Progress Is Incremental, But Mach 5 Travel Could Rewrite the Map
jasoncrawford · x · 2026-08-20
Jason Crawford responds to Timothy B. Lee's point that past progress was more impressive: railroads went 60–100 mph and jets 500–600 mph, a bigger leap than Mach 0.85 to Mach 1.7. But he argues most progress is incremental, and poses a vision: a Mach 5 aircraft could take you anywhere in the world in 24 minutes instead of 24 hours—a change as transformative as historical transport revolutions.
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