The link below is something to cheer us all up. Pinker is a smart cookie, if there ever was one. Cognitive psychologist at Harvard who always surprises with a new turn in his research topic choices. The Language Instinct” (1994) was one of his earlier books that was fun. These days he writes about aggression, The Better Angels of our Nature, (2011) and how the mind works in general. Books that can be understood and are certainly of value to a general audience.

Here is a quote from the interview below:

“I’ve never been “optimistic” in the sense of just seeing the glass as half-full — only in the sense of looking at trend lines rather than headlines. It’s irrational both to ignore good developments and to put a happy face on bad ones. 

As it happens, most global, long-term trends have been positive. As for the future, I like the distinction drawn by the economist Paul Romer between complacent optimism, the feeling of a child waiting for presents, and conditional optimism, the feeling of a child who wants a treehouse and realizes that if he gets some wood and nails and persuades other kids to help him, he can build one. I am not complacently optimistic about the future; I am conditionally optimistic.”

http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/12/22/14042506/steven-pinker-optimistic-future-2016

So folk, let’s congregate to figure out how to build the equivalent of a treehouse starting 1/20/2017.

 

Maybe these are still ahead, after all.