I don't know, Liam, what will be the "quality" of the coming decades' progress. Nor, do I think, does Bauerlein. That's why I asked, "How can he can plausibly say, utterly ignorant of how the world will look even ten years from now, whether this uncharted future of human cognition will improve or degrade our lives?"
Indeed, the very point of the little river metaphor that sparked your reservations is that, lacking much insight into the standards and mores of the future, we can't very well judge the quality of progress.
