What are you optimistic about?
What are you optimistic about? Really, amid all the gloomsters, what are you optimistic about?
It's the question I asked a load of scientists who work locally; i.e. within about 20 miles of this breakfast table of mine where I'm writing this blogpost.
Amazingly, over 80 of these brilliant people responded, and their 76 essays are in a book.
And last month on 14th September, the first day
of the British Science Festival here in Brum, we launched it. It's called The New Optimists: Scientists view tomorrow's world & what it means to us. You can read about it here, and buy it from Amazon -- and any profits from it will go back into supporting scientists and their work here.
They're doing exciting work on matters ranging from stem cells to fuel cells and a great deal in between.
Forgive my silence on this blog. Life has been a tad busy. With the help of a great team of people, we've now got the book, the blog, a YouTube channel featuring interviews with some of the scientist contributors, a facebook group, twitter . . . plus setting up Linus Publishing, a not-for-profit multimedia publishing outfit for this and future books, plus organising the launch and other events.
Over the next few weeks, I'll be writing here about how these scientists, these seemingly ordinary men and women as part of their daily routine engage with extraordinary matters and, to paraphrase the Warwick mathematician Ian Stewart, defend us from believing what we want to.
Before you find out more about all this and discover for yourself what Jenny Uglow describes in her Foreword as the most exhilarating of books . . . how about adding in the here and now, off the top of your head, what are you optimistic about?
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Shared intelligence makes me optimistic.
I am in awe of the problem solving power of collections of people, and think that is accelerating with every year.
I'm optimistic about our scientific advances, we're learning more and more about humanity and the universe. Hopefully it'll see the end of all this religious in-fighting.
I'm optimistic about Young Entrepreneurs Pioneering in this region, I having been working with and alongside a few through over the past few months since graduating and some fantastic ideas and concepts are coming up in the soon.
I'm optimistic about the inevitable economic upturn, as far away as this may be and the opportunities it will bring to the private and public sectors.
Great question Kate, I can think of lots of things to be gloomy about but just thinking about what you've asked sort of raises the spirit so cheers!
In the short term I'm optimistic about the new Library of Birmingham -- I can't wait for it -- it's a relief that something other than a lap dancing club is opening up on Broad Street.
In the longer term I'm optimistic about the high-speed link to London (peoples legitimate concerns notwithstanding) but 40 minutes to London .. beat that Manchester!
Thanks for all these optimistic views. What I'm optimistic about is the sheer variety of your responses â and of those at the Social Media Cafe last Friday:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-New-Optimists-a-popular-science-book/110766655648864#!/album.php?aid=17925&id=110766655648864
Great project.
I'm optimistic that we will learn to work with nature, rather than against, to make a better future for all of us.
And contrary to much popular green sentiment I'm optimistic that the sciences will prove invaluable in us realising why the above is necessary.
More immediately, I'm optimistic that the New Optimists will help people realise the strength of the sciences in the West Midlands, indeed, in the UK.