Dear @Yogesh, I'm worried and very scared about the development of new weapons for mass destruction, a global terrorism, religious fanaticism. I am happy to raise awareness for the preservation of nature and the environment, global approach to sustainable development and progress of human kind!

Dear Yogesh,

I agree with your statement and your explanations that science is fundamentally optimistic, Science has made it possible that people all around the world live longer, have more access to food, clean water and energy.

I do not call my self a very optimistic person and I really do not believe that science minded person are necessarily more optimistic than others.Optimism is a trait that should become more common. Winston Churchill has a nice quote:

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty”        

Many times knowledge works in reverse! and it is better to know less!. I am not optimistic about many major challenges including water crisis, food hunger, future energy crisis and possibility of peace all around the world among others.

This work is very interesting: 

Dolan, Paul, Tessa Peasgood, and Mathew White. "Do we really know what makes us happy? A review of the economic literature on the factors associated with subjective well-being." Journal of economic psychology 29.1 (2008): 94-122.

Dear @Yogesh, I'm worried and very scared about the development of new weapons for mass destruction, a global terrorism, religious fanaticism. I am happy to raise awareness for the preservation of nature and the environment, global approach to sustainable development and progress of human kind!

Friends, necessity is the Mother of Invention. We must meet up and face problems that may seem gloomy. And we remind ourselves that we have met worse problems in the past. So be cheerful, optimistic, we press on, we create and innovate solutions.

“I'd rather be an optimist and a fool than a pessimist and right.” ― Albert Einstein

Dear @Yogesh, I am very very optimistic, because with younger scientists acquainted with emerging technologies, future students can bring higher standards of living, will lead to the prevention or cure of diseases, will promote conservation of our limited national resources, ...

Let me quot this famous words:

"Advances in science when put to practical use mean more jobs, higher wages, shorter hours, more abundant crops, more leisure for recreation, for study, for learning how to live without the deadening drudgery which has been the burden of the common man for ages past. Advances in science will also bring higher standards of living, will lead to the prevention or cure of diseases, will promote conservation of our limited national resources, and will assure means of defense against aggression."

Vannevar Bush(Ed.), Science, The Endless Frontier, 1945

World political news always has a potential for making us pessimistic while at the same time the advances in science in general and in our research in particular constitute a cause for optimism.  If we did not harbor some hope for progressing in our respective sciences, we could not continue to research.

Ideally, science is neither optimistic nor pessimistic as either can bias an investigation. Science, like justice should be blind to opinion and speculation and derive answers to hypotheses based on data analysis. As responsible scientists, reporting results should not be optimistic nor pessimistic but only focus on results.

Pretty good answers from every one. It is not the science that makes us optimistic or pessimistic, I think so. A scientist is meant to explore, investigate, predict and add knowledge based on the facts. Therefore, I agree with  @Kurtis D. Reitsma. However, sometimes when I get stuck due to technological limitations then I optimize that the solution to the problem would be surfaced sooner or later.

Dear All,

The hope is our last chance? Is it?

Dear Ljubomir,

Are you not worried that all the troubles you listed above are consequences of the lack of ethical sense and the unlimited vanity and demand for power? I am worried that our species is not able to learn from its own mistakes and commits again and again the same errors. By the way I am absolutely optimistic!

The fact that open science is rapidly developing by means of RG, stackoverflow and other similar forums makes me happy. The fact that publishing industry is still working as 'closed door procedure' makes me worry.

I am have an optimistic disposition since long. I do not know if knowledge of science has made me like that.  Science is in any case a symbol of hope, as it has found solutions to a lot of problems. In the present world, a lot of money is being  invested in knowledge management and innovation. That also adds to my optimism. 

Progress of science makes me more optimistic. When more & more humans become enlightened by the glory of science, then the moment of defeating the "real"  evil forces on this earth becomes closer. These evil forces controlled the public by deceit, made politics a game of lies, manipulated the minds in a devious manner, exploited the brains & the muscles for their own benefit, and misled the masses to a degree in which the right is not well differentiated from the wrong.

When more & more individuals acquire the scientific way of thinking, then the evil forces will become sneakier & on a sure track of retreat. One day will come in which no state or race on earth will claim superiority above another state or race. The major aim of supremacy will be cancelled because this very aim is the real cause behind all sorts of terrorism, divide, hatred, devolutions, and enmity. As science advances, the simple human being will understand that an atom of hydrogen is not superior to an atom of nitrogen or vice versa. I believe that the future will be better than both "the past & the present".

An optimist looks for the light at the middle of the dark. If you've always had a pessimistic worldview, it can be difficult to shift your focus, but it is possible to start seeing the glass as half full, not half empty.

In fact you may come to realize that glasses are generally full - it's just that gravity attracts the more dense liquid material towards the bottom.

For more details, please check the following link

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Optimistic

From a personal point of view, a professional scientist cannot avoid to be optimist since: no optimism, no progress in our work.However, the story gives us many examples of bad use of the progress of science. Good and bad aspects of the same thing.  

Few of  the reasons a scientific mind is optimistic are:

1. The universe in general and our milky-way in particular are stable for a very long time to come. 

2. Problems that threatens humans will eventually be soluble through science and life will always be worth living.

3. Science always takes society  to a better, more understanding and stable state of existence.

4. Singularities of societies such as extremism and irrational acts of barbaric behaviors, irritant to the modern world, are temporal social perturbations in troubled regions whose effects are felt afar directly or indirectly, which by no means exist indefinitely, but are transient and will die out. Modern and civilized humans need the kind of existence in a society of no such disturbing and shocking singularities of no freedom of a reasonable type.

5. The world is becoming small conceptually, more and more closer with common and shared problems which seek collective solutions.

6. Political boundaries of countries will eventually be irrelevant and that offers humans  the freedom of mobility on earth and its collective scientific mission to search and navigate other outer galactic places for living and luxury.  

hello,

reason number 5 is to me more scary than hopeful..

despite the huge progress of sciences, the world is not turning round to my mind..

it looks to me that science is not looking at the right problems.  Is lacking behind the problems that matter:  war and hunger..

we have developed a 'modern' world: but how nice is it?

I think we scientist should have a much more closer look to sociology, psychology and politology, economy than mixing up in nano or DNA technology..

do not be blended by our western 'shiny' world..  it is eating you.. contaminating you by this universal conceptually poor doctrine of  'growth'.  We have had our 'siecle des lumieres', but this light is much less bright today..  we need to light a new one, no several ones..  to each 'volk' its own 'morality/ethics'.  may be this universality is a mistake after all.  leeds to this small conceptuality..  

we should agree one thing, religion is good for you, but can never be a reason to kill somebody else.

did the planet already got too small, that we can not share it together, in DIVERSITY ?

stabilities like in reason 1, have the disadvantages to let us forget who we are: just animals that need to care of mother nature.

We try to understand mother nature by science, that is fine..  but we should not forget to look after her.  

I am greatful to Researchgate to be able to communicate in this global circle, and my optimism goes into the diversity of cultures. Even I am afraid of the unity thinking: at least I see a lot of opinions that are to me to much influenced by the western world.

lukas

Science offers us hope and optimism, and raises as many new questions as it answers existing ones. The exponential growth of technology is both, a help and a hindrance, in various ways. While I will always respect the rationalist goals of science, let us also focus on things that are beyond the scope of science-- love, compassion, and spiritual awareness. Despite our growing intelligence, the world isn't necessarily becoming a better place to live in. We need to strike a balance between scientific growth and spiritual advancement in order to truly realize the deeper pursuits of our lives, and to make way for enduring, positive change. 

The answer to your depressing but good question @Yogesh, does not necessarily lie in Science. As a scientist we become aware of what is required to be achieved in areas of deficiency, be it green and unlimited energy sources or environment protection for food generation or health maintenance etc. Scientists do not work on inner happiness or optimism. They are dedicated to material happiness. The processes like optimism and happiness are subtle characteristics and require in depth philosophy. For nature whether a man lives happily or dies in an accident hungry, sick etc. is part of statistics. Our thinkers and philosophers, our Gurus will tell us how to be happy and optimist. It is the deeds you do to serve humanity that brings internal happiness. The world is full of all kinds of people. Those who are desperate need such Gurus and other thinkers who are good human beings to offer help in service, solace, guidance, money and material form. Scientists may be good human beings or may be selfish so they are not necessarily going to help- infact sometimes are helpless to serve their own self. Thus we need "mental scientists for society uplift" call it by any name.

Allow me a short introduction in my brief argument. I believe that a reasonable person, combining the quality of human and animal, it is important to be more human qualities. In some people dominated romance (poets, composers, painters, artists, ...). In other people dominated by rationalism (businessmen, lawyers, attorneys, military ....). There are people who show mostly animals feelings. From my point of view - every scientist has the romance and optimism. I am sure that every scientist has also irony and humor of course. I'm talking so much about it because the science is very frequent failures. And humor helps to overcome difficulties and to remain optimistic. So, the scientist is not alien to anything human. On the contrary, the scientist takes the best human qualities. He shows undisclosed possibilities of the human brain. This kind of life is the basis for optimism.

I looked at the responses of other scientists. Everyone has an opinion about optimism in science. As it should be.

Hi

http://edge.org/annual-question/what-are-you-optimistic-about

Regrds

Let me add a little more.

A powerful warning with an optimistic outlook.

Rudyard Kipling, The Secret of the Machines

We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,

We were melted in the furnace and the pit—

We were cast and wrought and hammered to design,

We were cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit.

Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask,

And a thousandth of an inch to give us play:

And now if you will set us to our task,

We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!

We can pull and haul and push and lift and drive,

We can print and plough and weave and heat and light,

We can run and jump and swim and fly and dive,

We can see and hear and count and read and write!

Would you call a friend from half across the world?

If you’ll let us have his name and town and state,

You shall see and hear your crackling question hurled

Across the arch of heaven while you wait.

Has he answered? Does he need you at his side?

You can start this very evening if you choose,

And take the Western Ocean in the stride

Of seventy thousand horses and some screws!

The boat-express is waiting your command!

You will find the Mauretania at the quay,

Till her captain turns the lever ‘neath his hand,

And the monstrous nine-decked city goes to sea.

Do you wish to make the mountains bare their head

And lay their new-cut forests at your feet?

Do you want to turn a river in its bed,

Or plant a barren wilderness with wheat?

Shall we pipe aloft and bring you water down

From the never-failing cisterns of the snows,

To work the mills and tramways in your town,

And irrigate your orchards as it flows?

It is easy! Give us dynamite and drills!

Watch the iron-shouldered rocks lie down and quake

As the thirsty desert-level floods and fills,

And the valley we have dammed becomes a lake.

But remember, please, the Law by which we live,

We are not built to comprehend a lie,

We can neither love nor pity nor forgive,

If you make a slip in handling us you die!

We are greater than the Peoples or the Kings—

Be humble, as you crawl beneath our rods!—

Our touch can alter all created things,

We are everything on earth—except The Gods!

Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes,

It will vanish and the stars will shine again,

Because, for all our power and weight and size,

We are nothing more than children of your brain!

Hard works, good deeds for others, self satisfaction after works, high achievements in team spirits - all gaining high, helping others in research and papers - makes me optimistic.

@Kamal, your answers are always wise and incisive

Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman (psychologist), illusion of control: the idea that we are in control of our lives. Bad things only happen to others....

“People tend to be overly optimistic about their relative standing on any activity in which they do moderately well.”

Some one has voted down... Can you Please be say the REASON.

Anonymity is the issue. You will not get the answer/reason for downvoting. Dear @Krishnan, keep on working good job! Maybe, I am the next, who knows!?

As a Mechanical Engineer by Profession, I believe in Science and I am confident within  the little sphere Knowledge-Skill-Experience. Which is what I meant as Illusion of Control, as referred by Daniel Kahneman.

More information on Illusion of Control, Please refer, Amanda N. Stephens, Keis Ohtsuka, "Cognitive biases in aggressive drivers: Does illusion of control drive us off the road?"

Everyone has positive and negative emotions. Scientists have periods of depression and periods of emotional inspiration. This is life. But the scientist who is genuinely passionate about the ideas of scientific creativity (small or large), he has the optimism that helps solve the problem. Confidence in their abilities is one of the pillars of optimism.

Scientific deductions are founded on established/proven/time tested knowledge that leads to the optimism for the future endeavors based on the previous successful endeavors. A person seasoned under such an environment inculcates an optimism in general.

A clear understanding of the scientific process builds optimism as there is always an experience gained even in situations when outcomes may not be as expected. Such experiences become springboard for further investigations and eventual breakthrough when number of trials will no longer count but the impact of the new discovery.

Thanks to all for their thoughtful comments. Science strives to make life better through revealing natural mystery, fulfilling material needs and bringing all comforts for living beings on this planet earth. Without scientific interventions, it would not have been possible to fulfill the fundamental need (food, cloth, shelter, healthcare, employment, etc.) of burgeoning world’s population and to deal with several associated problems. Of course scientific endevours including, exploration, investigation, knowledge generation, discoveries are devoted to material happiness as precisely said by Vijay Jindal. However, there are many examples of awful use of the scientific inventions. The amount of atomic energy today shattered in the form of nuclear weapons could have been constructively utilized to solve the energy problems of entire world. The inventor of atomic energy cannot be blamed for its utilization in development of weapons of mass destruction. Terrorism, misdemeanor in the name of racism/religious fanaticism, etc. are social and political problems and are not the offshoots of science. Science always offers hope and optimism. I endorse the view of Monica Bhattacharjee that we need to strike a balance between scientific growth and spiritual advancement in order to truly realize the deeper pursuits of our lives, and to make way for enduring, positive change.

I agree that every scientist, as well as each person must take responsibility for the products of his work. The joy of discovery sometimes overshadowed by the negative aspects of the application of scientific discovery. Good and evil in the world go their separate ways. It is a pity that sometimes the choice of the road depends not only on the scientist.

I am very much agree all the speakers. I believe, in science every small success need a celebration and every failure is the beginning of another research chapter. We are always attracted to the failure only so that we try for new experiments. And there the optimism lies. Every time we look for innovation. All weird thoughts are always welcome in science as they give a new beginning. 

In science, a very frequent failures. In science often lack funds for testing composite hypotheses. In science, often people working day and night. Such a life is not like children and wife, who are sad in these moments. Can a pessimist to overcome all these hardships and win? That's why science is dominated by optimism.

Thanks Dear Ali for the nice thread. Scientists just love the process of science - the unique synergy of control and freedom, of skepticism and innovation. They love to use all of the scientific methods and try to dodge their pitfalls. This fosters a willingness to face challenges and a constructive optimism for new ideas that are contagious and powerful in finding a solution by a problem-solving mentality and preparation for potential obstacles.

What makes me optimistic is that Science develops tools and solutions for almost all present  requirements, necessities and problems of the society in the very recent future itself. Medicines, machines, living aids etc. are some examples.

But at the same time it makes me pessimist too.. Inventions of weapons and other tools for massive destructions, pollution-creating industries,  changing environment conditions etc. are the reasons for me to become a pessimist

Well said Dear Sudev, accomplishments of science in the areas of healthcare, energy, communication, space and industrial development are indeed make us optimistic about its potential in effectively tackling pressing global problems like climate change, nutritional and energy security for all, etc. Indeed application of scientific  knowledge and outcomes should be used for welfare and not for destructive acts. 

Being optimistic is a key attribute in conducting any scientific endevours, we have to be able to explore new horizons in a responsible manner. We cannot hold back optimism as this drives science to progress and discoveries to be made.

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

Science at its best is an open-minded method of inquiry, not a belief system.

                                                                                ----  Rupert Sheldrake 

Great contributions!

Ask any successful person to divulge the secret to winning, to meeting and exceeding goals, to feeling fulfilled and accomplished, and he'll usually say that optimism is key. Optimism is what helps us deal with unexpected change, crushing stress, and inevitable disappointments. It's what prompts us to learn from mistakes rather than feel defeated by them.

Optimism doesn't just make us feel happier. It also makes us more confident. Optimism helps us believe in ourselves and our ability to bring about a solution...

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7949/7-ways-to-become-a-more-optimistic-person.html