It's more important to be optimistic based on reason, and by facing facts.
The last thing we need is blind, lazy and uninformed optimism. Intelligent Optimism is all about being thrilled, excited and optimistic about the future in an informed and rational way, based on statistics, data, evidence, facts and science.
Through think tanks, workshops, debates, newsletters and an active social media outreach, our hope is to encourage people to be more proactive about making the world a better place. The idea is to get everyone excited about the future by highlighting the rapid progress we have made, and recognising the tremendous potential humans have to find solutions and solve problems.
There are remarkable people out there achieving remarkable things. Intelligent Optimism asks us to pay more attention to the well-deserved good news. The future is what we make of it, and through science, technology, reason and rationality, we have the potential to make extraordinary things happen.
followers of the Intelligent Optimism movement on Facebook.
Intelligent Optimism is a global community initiative of SciFest Dubai.
Intelligent Optimism is part of The HUMAN Project curriculum.
In the last 100 years: a 90% drop in infant mortality, a 99% drop in maternal mortality, and a 100% increase in the average human lifespan.
We now have vaccines for a host of diseases, including measles, mumps, rubella, rabies, tetanus, ebola, whooping cough and much more.
We have massively increased our access to goods and services, information, education, transportation and means of communication.
Colonial wars have disappeared. Civil wars are at their lowest. Interstate wars have reduced. The average number of deaths per war is at its lowest ever.
In past centuries, over 100 murders per 100,000 people. Today, in many countries, 1 per 100,000. A 100-fold decrease.
World literacy is higher than it has ever been. Anyone with a smartphone and the internet has access to colossal amounts of free online courses.
Massive strides in the rights revolution: rights for women, children, civil rights, LGBT rights, animal rights, and rights for criminals.
The longest period that has passed without the world powers going to war.
Exponential growth in genetics, nanotechnology, robotics, computing, and brain-mapping and brain-scanning.
The poorest of the poor are now coming online, joining the global discourse, and becoming an emerging market force.
In every country, IQ has been rising by three points a decade. This is known as the Flynn Effect.
More philanthropists alive today, who've pledged more money for charity, than ever before in the history of our species.
The number of people living in extreme poverty has been halved.
Small groups of motivated DIY'ers can now accomplish what was once the sole province of large corporations and governments.
The global democracy index is at an all-time high. More than 60% of the world's people live in open societies, the highest share ever.
“Imagine a world of nine billion people with clean water, nutritious food, affordable housing, personalized education, top-tier medical care, and non-polluting, ubiquitous energy. Building this better world is humanity's grandest challenge.”Peter Diamandis