Tweet [1]
I stumbled on The Edge [2] today (HT: Ego Food [3]), a site on science and knowledge. They ask a question every year of a bunch of smart people. This year’s question is: What are you optimistic about? Why? (OK, two questions. Sort of.)
They have 160 responses. A few of them (Dennett [4] and Dawkins [5] for starters and maybe more than a few more) are optimistic that religion will die out in the very near future. This strikes me as remarkably unlikely [6]. (I think it equally unlikely that were religion to die out that its death would result in a world of peace and harmony.)
But some of the others I found very interesting, including Chris DiBona [7], Max Tegmark [8] and Geoffrey Carr [9]. The latter is the science editor of the Economist and he speaks rather cheerfully about population growth and why Malthus was wrong.
BTW, Morgan Rose in this essay [10] and its sequel [11], defends Malthus against many unfair attacks.
My quick scan of the list of contributors reveals no economists. Yet I think many economists (this one for example) are very optimistic about many things, including a rising worldwide standard of living and increases in life expectancy.
One thing I am not particularly optimistic or pessimistic about is human nature.