There are of course great risks to human progress as well, such as natural disasters, nuclear arms proliferation, religious fanaticism, terrorism, catastrophic environmental changes, destructive uses of science and technology, and such societal follies as the growing indebtedness of many of the more mature democracies. But one can choose to be an optimist and try to do one's part to advance human progress.
While one can point to many instances of our becoming less inhumane and perhaps making the world safer for mankind, I cannot think of any way in which we humans have improved the world for other forms of life. Since our brains and intelligence grew to the point that we were able to subjugate all other forms of life and to exploit natural resources, and we emigrated out of Africa and populated the globe, we have unbalanced nature. We have exterminated species; depleted resources; and despoiled the earth, the bodies of water, and the air.
Although we can at best mitigate some of the damage that we have done to the world in which we live, our collective consciousness of the consequences of our activities is growing: Increasing prosperity gives us the luxury of worrying about such niceties. One reason that I devoted the last years of my career to investing in nanotechnology is nanotechnology's potential for enabling sustainable development. For me, such investment was a way of expressing optimism.
