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Edge: What are you optimistic about? Why?
Loren Michael
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
[quote=The Edge Foundation]WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY?
As an activity, as a state of mind, science is fundamentally optimistic. Science figures out how things work and thus can make them work better. Much of the news is either good news or news that can be made good, thanks to ever deepening knowledge and ever more efficient and powerful tools and techniques. Science, on its frontiers, poses more and ever better questions, ever better put.
What are you optimistic about? Why? Surprise us! [/quote]
sort of in the vein of a new year thread, as it ideally considers our past experiences and achievements to consider the positives about the impending future. what are you optimistic about? the above links to a list of 160 contributors and their thoughts. i thought this thread might serve as a place to discuss your own spin on the question, along with those of some of the individuals on the list, like:
As an activity, as a state of mind, science is fundamentally optimistic. Science figures out how things work and thus can make them work better. Much of the news is either good news or news that can be made good, thanks to ever deepening knowledge and ever more efficient and powerful tools and techniques. Science, on its frontiers, poses more and ever better questions, ever better put.
What are you optimistic about? Why? Surprise us! [/quote]
sort of in the vein of a new year thread, as it ideally considers our past experiences and achievements to consider the positives about the impending future. what are you optimistic about? the above links to a list of 160 contributors and their thoughts. i thought this thread might serve as a place to discuss your own spin on the question, along with those of some of the individuals on the list, like:
I am optimistic about our ability as a species to respond to the challenge presented by peak oil, the end of the cheap energy era that has lasted about 200 years, and to enter a new cultural phase in our evolution. There are several key developments that, despite the unprecedented challenge of this transition, encourage me to believe that we can make it. These come from both our scientific and technological insights into ways of resolving some deep problems in present cultural habits, and from shifts of perception that are occurring in cultural values.
I'm optimistic about death. For the first time in the history of life on Earth, it is possible—not easy, but possible—for conscious animals like us to have a good death. A good death is a great triumph, and something to be sought, accepted, and cherished. Indeed, a good death should be recorded and broadcast as a moral example to us all.
Despite our perennial mischief, I believe that we have made unmistakable progress in our morality. Our powers of empathy appear to be growing. We seem to be more likely now than at any point in our history to act for the benefit of humanity as a whole.
I'm optimistic that, having been liberated from the myth of intrinsic meaning, human beings will gain the capacity to make meaning, instead. And that this unique ability will give us the opportunity to disobey biology's commands.
Loren Michael on
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Anyway, I guess I'm optimistic about ... uhhh ... my personal income and financial security moving forward. There's even a semi-realistic chance that I'll be able to own property within the next 3-5 years, which is comforting, maybe even sooner than that! That's all I can think of right now.
Oh and the GS Warriors are playing better basketball than they have in a long time, that feels good.
Oh and I'm also optimistic that I might be able to get involved in some editing and/or some publishing, which is obviously totally unrelated to financial income, but definitely related to my personal sense of well-being.
Other than that, not much...
i am optimistic that my next cell phone will be smaller than my current one, and that the next civilization game will be even better than the last.
i am optimistic that i will go to china next school year, for a school year, and that i will become that much more fluent in chinese.
I'm optimistic about cognitive behavioral psychology and finding solutions to the problems on the "last, greatest medical frontier" - the ones that society misunderstands, and that cause so much pain to the mentally ill and their families.
I'm optimistic about engineered grains, vegetables and artificially grown meats that can provide a more efficient means to effectively feed the world's population.
this one's optimistic
I'm optimistic about my lady friends next semester.
... Oh. and Frisbee. I think we'll do well this season.
That's pretty much it though.
This one went to market.
As opposed to most of the people on these boards, I'm not really very cynical at all - so I'm optomistic about pretty much anything.
Except Iraq.
Here's to hoping for some great advancements in the space technology field for an idea of how we will battle limited/scarce resources and the future of the human race.
And I'm optimistic that we'll see the first true Artificial Intelligence within our lifetime.
And I'm optimistic about my health and happiness improving. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm optimistic about life. Weird.
I'm working on that. That and world domination. I'm optimistic about achieving both.
I'm also optimistic that we'll see the beginnings of transcendence in our lifetime.