Are you optimists or pessimists for the future of humanity?

@Demetris, I consider myself as pessimist! I think that small subset of mankind will prevail the majority! Here is a reading on the future of humanity, good paper!

Hello sir, i would like to tell u one thing that, there would not be even a single person on this big round earth who would be an optimist for the society! Even though they proclaim themselves as optimists, there would be expecting something in some form or the other. So i would say that all are pessimists in this world , so am I !

Dear Demetris, I guess you already know this (real, historical) anecdote:

One the stoic philosopher Epictetus was saying or teaching: "There is no difference between life and death". Then somebody else replied to him: "If there is no difference between life and death, then why don't you kill yourself?". Epictetus answered: "Well, precisely, because there is no difference between life and death".

So there!

Dear Demetris

Always optimistic and doing my part to help build, increasingly, a better world. It is our responsibility as a researcher, through actions and attitudes, creating mechanisms, increasingly efficient for the welfare and peace of the community

When it comes to meeting the needs of humanity, I'm Optimistic. Because necessity is the Mother of Invention. So technology will continue to advance, that translates as quality of life.

But when it come to the nature of human society, I'm Not so optimistic. Where humans are, corruption/nepotism is present and may persist despite efforts by Transparency bodies or political will to eradicate this.

Recently I have started to think in more convergence-like way: I try not to see the current situation but, instead of just it, I want to examine the dynamics that has already been emerged.

For example we are now facing the concentration of wealth at less and less hands, the so called 1% of richest persons, somethin which is really threatening for human evolution. But is this viable? I will not comment with details, but think about:

*Let's say that all people except from a very very small subset has become poor, homeless and without any hope. Then who will be able to buy the products that companies, which belong to the richest, will produce?

*You can see that there exist limits at every process.

Demetris,

Ask the bacteria, plants, fish, and other animals about the future. Life is an emergent system that is extremely adept at survival. While individuals are born and die, life continues on. Asking an individual about pessimism or optimism is like asking a drop of water in the ocean if it will evaporate or freeze --- regardless of what happens to the individual, the whole will survive.

I think that human is always able to do good, to push boundaries of the imagination and creativity and to develop/improve the life quality through mastering more science, knowledge and his milieu. When we look to the past history, humanity has experienced many terrible experiences from wars, colonialism, slavery, famine... etc.. and has been able in each period to emerge from this darkness to development and freedom. Unfortunately there is in the human kind the good and the bad, the smart and the ignorant, the brave and the corrupt ...and hopefully always the good, the smart and the brave conduct humanity to the best. So we must be optimist with future, by our daily good actions, good work, good responsibility, good ideas,...good sharing and good consciousness about the bad that we must daily denounce bravely. The bad, the ignorant, the corrupt, the despot ...etc evolve when the area is free for them, and escape/shirk their obligations and fall back when they are confused/blamed

I am optimistic. I believe that if at all any catastrophe happens to Earth our successors

would find a way to escape to an hospitable planet out there in the universe!

Great question Demetris, but I fear it's the wrong question. Being either an optimist or pessimist is not what we need. What I believe both humanity and the earth needs are realists. Only when we understand what we are doing to the earth, human beings and other life forms, can we take appropriate actions, actions that are not political, religious or sectarian in their nature.

As to the dignity and the ontological worth and value of human beings: I am an optimist about the future. Humans are amazing creatures with amazing abilities.

As to the ethical/moral behaviors of human beings toward each other and their planet: I am a realist, which necessarily means that I have a fair degree of pessimism. The history of the race is not one which warrants optimism in this regard. The future promises to show us more of humankind's inhumanity to one another and more disregard for the planet. The latter behavior (failure to care for the planet) is often not intentional, so much as it is an outgrowth of our individual and corporate egocentrism.

Being an optimist optimizes the chances for survival. Pessimists become or are prone to have selective disadvantages.

Moreover, it has been proved that even believers - in whatever you want! - have stronger capabilities that enhance their survival capacities.

In other words, pessimism or optimism become truly relevant already as inputs for adaptation, rather than as outputs.

"Being an optimist optimizes the chances for survival. Pessimists become or are prone to have selective disadvantages."

I would love to see a citation backing that particular contention. Seems awfully broad, and different traits provide different outcomes under different conditions. One could craft a hypothetical scenario where an "optimist" organism forages too openly for high-value resources and gets eaten by predators, whereas a "pessimist" avoids exposing itself to predators and focuses only on low-value but low-risk rewards. If predator abundance and encounter rate scales with the number of captures, this model even provides for a scenario wherein balancing selection allows for oscillation between the two behavioral traits.

@Andrew, could that model be further worked out by a Lotka-Volterra system of differential equations? Have you tried it?

No, I haven't plotted it - but similar density-dependent models have been plotted and empirically observed in stickleback fish using different strategies to obtain mates ("fighter" and "sneak"), and in "wanderers" and "homebodies" in English butterflies.

Remember that you are placing anthropocentric and very subjective judgments upon an organism or its behavioral strategy when you label them an "optimist" or a "pessimist".

Always optimistic, but we live in troubled times. It's certainly a better season than previous seasons, but it's still a difficult time.

But we should be optimistic, after all, science is making great strides and have good prospects for the future.

If we work with devotion and build with sincere efforts we as human being will be OK!!

In fact, I am always optimistic towards all issues of life. Recession and Expansion, are,to some degree, a stylistic fluctuations. Recession follows recovery, then recession, and so on.

Optimistic view needs to be backed by hard work

Optimist, pessimist and realist!? Good primer!

Nice scetch dear Ljubomir,

whats now, pessimist, optimist, don´t matter or realist?

I´ll give you my impression:

For your personal life you may not be a pessimist, because then your life ends.

For the matter of mankind I think we should be pessimists, just remember all the wars, all the economics which takes the money iinto one place, just all the crime...

My resume is: Try to change the "mankinds" pessimism and hope, you will improve. Here in RG are a lot of thinking people, they may help.

Dear Hanno,

Your realism is reasonable. To my life stoic ups and mostly downs - I must be a pessimist!But I love children and intelligent persons a lot and I hate my pessimism. You see, heart is against, reason is for. Every human being is created for happiness. My heart believes only in wonder and that truth will win... anytime anywhere.

Dear Irina,

please go on, it would be a great pity, if you disapear.

Dear Hanno,

I share your irony- "All is the dust in the wind"

Dear Irina, it´s more humor and love to life than irony.

Well,"Gaudeamus igitur"To Frost, "the best outcome is always through!"

HI

i am absolutely pessimist and skeptical of human future,  man's  idiocy, prejudice, aggression, savagery, brutality to nature will render this species pathetic .  Man has embarked on a heinous act of self destruction through insatiable thirst for power at the cost of wreaking havoc on other human beings and nature. 

Every cloud does NOT have a silver lining , and there is NO  light at the end of the tunnel.

it's high time we called a spade a spade !

I could not agree with you more Rahimi. I do not understand how anyone can look at human beings either historically or at present and not be realistically pessimistic. indeed, civilisation, humanity,  compassion, etc, are thin veneers on our generally ig norant, self-serving behaviour.

Pessimism seems to me to be rather like nihilism: both ring true but take us nowhere. It is not exactly a useful doctrine to believe that there is little meaning to anything and that most things are negative. However, to believe anything else is irrational. 

Our test utilizes the very well researched Life Orientation Test to measure overall optimism and pessimism by evaluating your outlook on the future. To see whether your optimistic or pessimistic your outlook is compared to others that have taken the test. You'll see how your levels of optimism and pessimism compared to people in your age group from your part of the world. To date this is the largest and most accurate online optimism test in the world...

Dear Ljubomir:

It's Good test - from the link you gave.

HOWEVER, if this test was anonymous - I think the answers would be very different

- it seems to me with a strong bias towards pessimism.

Leonid

Pessiment.

Sorry, that should have been "pessimist" of course (not "pessiment").

When we see the population explosion worldwide (e.g. Nigeria, Indonesia etc.), it's difficult not to be pessimistic IMO.

If population growth can be stopped, the milieu crisis can be controlled I hope: scientific progress, changing custums etc. But can the population explosion be stopped? I doubt it. It's often assumed that when the developing countries become more developed, population growth will stop (contraception), but even if that is the case (not sure at all IMO), it's wishful thinking, perhaps not in the first generations, but, according Darwin-Wallace's theory, soon there will evitably be a selection of women where contraceptives fail to work, who forget to take their pill, who don't want to use contraceptives, who are not allowed to take the pill (religion), who get twins etc. How to stop this?? International (is that possible!?) laws or financial stimuli for women birthing maximally 2 children??

📷

“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Optimism is a kind of stupidity, and pessimism is a kind of weakness. I try to be realistic when I think about the future of mankind. Much in this supposed future depends on the strength of our mind, on our will and on our ethical principles. See more details

Not much place for optimism.

In principle, I am optimistic. We all have to be. However, there is a real state of events around the world that sometimes makes you feel not very optimistic: overpopulation, social inequality, famine, war, government corruption and lack of access to education and housing for the great majority of people. But the most worrying of all is the environmental impact of human activity on our planet, that is, global warming, deforestation, the pollution of our atmosphere that contains the air we breath, the pollution of rivers, lakes, and world oceans that contain a great part of the food we eat and the water we drink. If humanity is to survive, democratic governments around the world that are the ones who are in charge of the proper management of natural resources and their people have to change in a very short amount of time radically their approach so that a more prosperous future for this planet and its inhabitants can take place.

The future is in our hands - and we as individuals can create a new tomorrow for ourselves by changing our habits, ways of thinking and setting an intention which is directed at doing what is in our highest good and the highest good of all. When sufficient of us do this, we can create a new way forward for all beings including the planet. It is up to each of us and I feel we can do it!

Warm regards Tina

Only after the next thirty years, you are in a position to tell we are optimists or pessimists for the future of humanity.

Dr Kamath Madhusudhana

Dear sister Irina Mikhailovna Pechonkina , you do like Great Epicurean .

Why not, dear brother Ljubomir? Non multa, sed multum. Aponia+ataraxia= pleasure in simple life. To E.E.Cummings, "a man who had fallen among thieves lay by the roadside on his back dressed in fifteenthrate ideas wearing a round jeer for a hat " that's why

" nothing except the impossible shall occur " https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._E._Cummings?fbclid=IwAR1yOrlu0bam2XvjwaLgrncv1FeRbHWulckgpaWqc9yU2quqfsvqM6BTmIw

I am a strong optimist. I believe humanity will extinct itself.

I am more of a pessimist than optimist. One feels helpless at times when world leaders behave in the most stupid manner for the sake of politics, greed and their own agenda. Therefore I do not see humanity changing a whole lot in the positive direction sort of a world disaster such as a meteor hit where practically all the people are destroyed and we start again from scratch and use our common sense once again

رغم التقدم العلمي والتكنولوجي الكبير الذي نحن فيه ومازلنا في تقدم الا اننا فقدنا الكثير من المشاعر الإنسانية والمبادئ الاجتماعية .لذا انا أيضا من المتشائمين في النظرة لمستقبل البشرية

Despite the great scientific and technological progress that we are in and still in progress, we have lost many human feelings and social principles. So I am also pessimistic about the outlook for humanity's future.

I believe growth and recessions are pulsatile, & this is probably expected. Advancement of humanity has also a sine wave. So, I'm not a pessemist... the repercussions of rains is there in the drought! Thanks for the brainstorming question.

I'm sorry to observe my respected & beloved researchers' comments... why have they become pessimist! Is it their permanent view?

I am not optimistic because the world is heading towards material gain at the expense of the spiritual and moral side

The biggest witness is environmental degradation and wars

Optimist, whenever everything goes wrong logic wins at the end.

This is fine article, speaking about inteligent optimism.

There is nothing to be gained from blind optimism. But an optimistic mindset can be grounded in rationality and evidence. It may be hard to believe, but we are living in the most exciting time in human history. Despite all of our ongoing global challenges, humanity has never been better off. Not only are we living healthier, happier, and safer lives than ever before, but new technological tools are also opening up a universe of opportunities.

In order to continue to launch moonshot ideas, tackle global challenges, and push humanity forward, it’s important to be intelligently optimistic about the future...

https://singularityhub.com/2017/12/11/why-intelligent-optimism-is-crucial-to-human-progress/

Yes, we want to be intelligently optimistic. Thanks dear Prof Ljubomir Jacić for this nice thread!

Evil can never prevail over good. It might seem like all is lost, everything is going wrong, but in the end, good will triumph. I am optimistic for the future of humanity.

I agree with Fairouz Bettayeb Completely

Fifty fifty

Dear Demetris Christopoulos

I am an optimist - if I have been able to change myself, I know others are also able to change! I also know it is only the inner journey of Self-discovery that changes people, and you cannot make people undertake it. But you can inspire others; in the same way, others inspired me.

Warm regards Tina

Natural rights of people with respect to 'Law of Nature' may have Objectivity therefore equal punishment for inverse human action absolutely protect humanity at large.

In the long run, I'm rather pessimistic: human population growth will be very difficult to control (Darwin-Wallace): limiting laws or financial incentives and worldwide control will be necessary IMO. China's one-child policy arguably explains why this country is so wealthy today.

“All human plans [are] subject to ruthless revision by Nature, or Fate, or whatever one preferred to call the powers behind the Universe.” Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: Odyssey Two . Mr. Lerner wrote: "I have believed in love and work, and their linkage. I have believed that we are neither angels nor devils, but humans, with clusters of potentials in both directions. I am neither an optimist nor pessimist, but a possibilist." ( (philosophy) Someone who neither hopes without reason, nor fears without reason. Someone who uses analysis of data to understand the relative probability of future possibilities, instead of relying on intuition, emotions, personal experience, dogma, superstition, mainstream thought, or mental models (e.g., pessimism or optimism)

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/06/arts/max-lerner-writer-89-is-dead-humanist-on-political-barricades.html?fbclid=IwAR0DruQVDJVjg3eU3tqon8rpf_3JsKqPnuPprD7-o1Nr7zf7QshlvgPDuK0

I am a cynic but also a possibilist in the sense mentioned by Irina Mikhailovna Pechonkina above. There will always be winners and losers. But there will nonetheless be awe-inspiring technological and artistic achievements as well.

"Optimist and Pessimist" by Makovsky V.E.

Optimist!

Dear Irina Mikhailovna Pechonkina

Your picture of the two men captures it well - one is open and looks to be contented (he also travels light) and the other is closed to life ... and has some really weighty books he is carrying around.

Warm regards Tina

While I am a staunch optimist, I must salute Ljubomir Jacić for his brave and frank admission to be a pessimist with an apt one-sentence explanation. The present world is passing through a similar phase where the bulk of the wealth is concentrated in a few hands. Having said that, I must admit that with optimisim we become faithful. With faith comes an internal sense of purpose which drives our behaviour towards the beautiful things in our life. With pessimism, we acquire an attitude of blaming others whereas, with optimism, we acquire the attitude of standing up and taking responsibility.

Situation don't require my attitude. In this case I'm realist. Future undoubtly will be, but without me, so this will be not my future, let those who will live in it decide. I live in the present, all my efforts are directed at it. (Apres moi...).

As inspired by previous answer by .

Realism is another mentality alongside optimism and pessimism, however it is not as easily defined as the other two. Realism is a tendency to view things as they are. A very common use of the word realist is in the phrase “I’m not a pessimist. I’m a realist.” The reason for this is that most people will not admit that they are a pessimist because they believe pessimism to be akin to a personality defect. This leads them to claim that their pessimism is realism although in most cases it is not. Realism can be described as the middle ground between optimism and pessimism while also including optimism and pessimism...

https://medium.com/@shendosstx/optimistic-pessimistic-or-realistic-b28716f7234d

Ljubomir Jacić

I understand that being a realist is not easy. But I'm trying. The main thing, in my opinion, is to understand what in our attitude to the world is a property of our personality, or ideas (theories) that we accept, and what exists independently of us.

Of course pessimistic

I am optimistic for humanity future with God help.

obviously we ought to look to the future in a positive way.

It is our duty to remain optimists. The future is open.

Optimistic, God willing

Neither of them!

Human values and moral duties are separable. Every person is born independent and enjoining inherent rights with respect to social, economical and political parameters. Democracy of India protects inherent rights via Part-III of Constitution of India and safeguard 'Citizen' from authoritive and legislative actions.

1. Human dignity

2. Liberty of thought and expression

3. Tolerance

4. Integrity

5. Solidarity

All five may secure human values with people and reinforce responsibility on the shoulders of humans.

"For sake of personal benefits if anyone raise of slogan of humanity may not be human values"

Not to scale...

Despite the fact that humanity does a lot of harm to the world around us, people are aware of the consequences of their actions and seek to correct their consequences. This allows us to look to the future with optimism.

I am always optimistic

I am optimist, may be!

"Others read the circular growth and recession times by a pessimistic mood while others believe that humanity after having tried different systems finally will converge to a stable and viable status for all of us and not for a small subset of us. "

***

I think it's gonna happen someday. But we will have to wait a long time. So far, the "system" in the world has been arranged in such a way that in order for 10% of the population to live well, 90% of the population must be in poverty. Somewhere better, somewhere worse... It should be noted that the most "rigid" type of capitalism appeared in the countries that built communism: the USSR (the states that were part of the USSR and, of course, Russia, the some former socialist countries of Europe ...

It depends on specific nature of human . But towards humanity we should be optimistics view .

The highest optimistic view towards humanity is PEACE .

Suggested Link :

This is a part of e-mail that I have got from science-warning. I was writing recenly about climate emergency!

"Dear Colleague, Our paper “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency” was recently published in BioScience, and you are one of more than 11,000 scientist signatories on the paper. Here is a link to the published paper, which is open access and free to everyone: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz088

When published, the paper was widely reported on by the mass media. We are now in the process of collecting more signatories on the paper. Therefore, please contact your colleagues about signing the paper. These additional scientists can sign the paper at https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/

Thank you for being an official signatory on this paper...

Let us help the future of humanity! We should be optimist in this regard.

“If we scan all the life-forms that have ever existed on the Earth, from microscopic bacteria to towering forests, lumbering dinosaurs, and enterprising humans, we find that more than 99.9 percent of them eventually became extinct. This means that extinction is the norm, that the odds are already stacked heavily against us. When we dig beneath our feet into the soil to unearth the fossil record, we see evidence of many ancient life-forms. Yet only the smallest handful survive today. Millions of species have appeared before us; they had their day in the sun, and then they withered and died. That is the story of life.” ― Michio Kaku, The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny BeyondEarth

We got so many beautiful things in our life. So I love to be optimistic every single moment!

When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world;and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.

Jane Austen (1775-1817).

I am basically an optimistic human being.

Life is wonderful and the nature and earth as well...

But we must take care about the earth as our basis of livelihood...

And here I am not optimistic - the global population is growing, and we are openly destroyng the global climate and natuaral habitats...

I am observing the state of the world since 1985 and nearly nothing has changed yet... It is up to us. Now. But it may already be too late... Our Kids are now asking us - what did you do, why do you not change the situation/things? What is your answer?

My little 6 year old daughter now in the first year at school say: dad, something terrible is happening, the ice melts, climate changes...

Well, and what can I say, answer, do? I go to work on a dayly basis by bike...

Many do so here in Bremen/Germany, but many also bring their Kids to school with their SUV...

As human beings, we have to live our life under happy surroundings which may create our family along with our friends & social surroundings to offer our presence in a smiling & dignified manner. This creates our basic nature within us under optimist outlook which creates our social standing with our movement & our footsteps & in this line pessimist has no sign & no place.

This is my personal opinion

This makes my belief on the future mankind is that there would come a time causing major destruction for man made and natural reasons but after that intelligence would grow resulting improve of science and technology in one step ahead we can’t think today so the growth of saints to help and heal to stabilize the mankind in a different higher level.

Usually I am optimistic however only GOD AlMIghty (ALLAH) knows what would happen for the future of humanity?

I am always optimistic .

To be optimistic remember the following:

1. Recognize and Reflect on a Positive Event Each Day

2. Identify a Personal Strength

3. Set an Attainable Goal and Note Your Progress

4. Reframe Stressful Situations into Opportunities to be Positive.

5. Practice Mind fulness