A real optimist would hope for things to get better and might even look for ways in which we could make them better ourselves. We cannot stop earthquakes from happening, but we can study them and build safer buildings that don’t collapse so easily. Later generations would extend such achievements: seismologists have now learned to predict the patterns of earthquakes and tsunamis with ever greater accuracy. Experts in other fields can also break up kidney stones with lithotripsy, and design antibiotics to prevent infections, and put sonar on ships, and track weather patterns to see storms
...more
