Ask HN: What makes you optimistic about the future?

Given all the above, what makes you optimistic about the future? Why do you believe that the world of tomorrow will be better than the world of today? What do you look forward to in the world of the future?

Because the world of today is mostly better than the world of the past. OK, sure, you can find (or manufacture) counter-points to that by being extremely selective in what you consider "the past", but on balance, technological and social/cultural advancement have made the world a better place. So there are some peaks and valleys in a graph of some hypothetical "world happiness / goodness" index, but so what? If the long-term trend is "better", I'm not too bothered by the idea that "right now" is a local minima.

What do you look forward to in the world of the future?

* The continued advancement of mRNA technology, to enable rapid development of vaccines for new diseases, and new treatments for existing conditions

* Fusion power to provide nearly limitless, clean, cheap energy

* Improvements in desalinization technology to make clean fresh-water more readily available

* Nearly ubiquitous electric vehicles that use the clean energy from fusion (and solar) to provide transport without spewing carbon into the atmosphere

* Even better AI to develop new drugs, and newer, lighter, stronger building materials, and better battery chemistries, etc.

* More advances in genetic engineering to enable the creation of better crops that can, e.t. withstand drought conditions better, to stabilize food supplies, etc.

And so on. Generally, I'm bullish on what technology can do for us. What I'm less bullish on is human nature and our ability to use newer technologies wisely. But even there, I think that we, as a race, will eventually "grow up" and find ways to avoid some of our own self-destructive tendencies. Maybe that part is wishful thinking, but it's where I'm at right now.

Many species, and viruses too, have population-level boom-bust cycles. Maybe humans will self-destruct enough to wipe out a fair number of us and our impacts will dwindle for a few millennia. It'd be cool if other species took the reins for a bit.

What gives me hope is that we shouldn't be the end of evolution, just another step along the way. Maybe someday a better homo will replace us, or AI, or aliens, or just us, evolved more.

I don't think there's anything more we can do about homo sapiens in particular; we've reached our biological limits when it comes to ability to cooperate and think on a global scale. Either we improve the species at the biological level or we're just gonna keep having the same issues, amplified by new technologies but beholden to our primitive minds.

So hopefully we'll get replaced soon!

Life, uh, finds a way :D

However to the extent that any of us might, just might, be able to help steer this civilization out of the death spiral it seems currently locked into -- such a correction will, almost by definition, require a very strong degree of (the right kind of) optimism. If we just say "F it", and give into pessimism -- we won't have any chance at all.

Therefore, from rationalist first principles -- we might as well go with optimism. In fact if the current situation we're in can be thought of as an evolutionary test -- then it is one that is selecting for 3 traits: (1) intelligence, (2) ability to cooperate, and (3) optimism (again, of a certain "right kind" that I don't have time to go into at present).

I realize this argument sounds a bit pat (like Anselm's argument for the existence of God), but I do think there's a lot more substance to it.