Progress is when you can appease your thirst with the glass of water, after research and development; and retrogression is when, out of involution, you left the water in the glass evaporate, you dehydrate and die a little.
The mirror is an inappropriate counsellor, just as time is.
Once time was invented, next came the mirror. Once the mirror was invented, next came your reflection in the mirror. Once you admired your reflection, you fell in love with yourself to such an extent, that you lost your mind, your reason, you regressed and got to the instant where you could no longer look in mirror, because you became a little dead.