Not lately, especially with cheeto in charge ruining the country and all the racist creeping out of their holes. But I have no children, by choice, thankfully. Maybe it’s selfish, but after I die it won’t bother me anymore lol

Trump's the president. So my answer is no. Thanks to him ruining my country, I can't escape this perpetual state of nihilistic depression I'm in.

Yes, and I'm equally optimistic about the future of nature. Humanity will constantly be at odds with itself over advancing technology, yet continue to produce amazing new developments and discoveries, like gene editing and particle accelerators. Meanwhile, nature will continue to develop its own fuck-yous like antibiotic resistant bacteria and dormant viruses that find refuge under ice shelves.

This question come up a lot, though it can be worded differently and with a different spin.
I generally shout at the screen "Nope - no hope!"
But the truth is, I do have hope, just not a lot of it.
I think there are very smart and enlightened people out there that have the foresight and ability to make the changes necessary for a happy and contented future for the human race.
Unfortunately, I also believe that there are far more unenlightened people with not enough sense to see the big picture and these are the masses who drive change (or the lack there of).
Hand-wavingly, the human race is it's own worst enemy.

Ironic that in the so-called "information-age" too many decisions are being made by people who value opinion over facts and who don't seem to care about anything outside of their own beliefs/existence... I'd like to think that cooler heads will prevail, and as a parent I want to think that my kids will be able to enjoy a better world, but mankind currently appears to be moving in the wrong direction and it actually frightens me... I remember when I first saw Idiocracy back in the 90's and the first 5 minutes scared the shit out of me... Now we're living it... :/

Always optimistic about our species and all species. We will continue to firstly fight for survival, and then find a way to be happy. All this junk we hear is just here and now. Hell we once did not even have language, WE once did not even have fire. We will survive but it may not be what you want, however it will be what mother nature delivers to us. We make it, break it and then reinstate it.

I am 100% positive that the human race will continue to exist, but it will look different than it does now.

I can't tell you how it will be different without a lot more data, but we'll still be around. The earth may be more fucked up but we are a species that survives and thrives, there is no reason to think that the future of our species will be different. Many things that we thought 50 years ago were irreversible we've found ways to reverse. Innovation has not slowed and although many people think we'll destroy the earth, I'm betting we'll make it pretty fucked up and then fix that too.

Optimism and pessimism are wastes of time, who cares how full the glass is if you're heading over with a full pitcher?

NO!!

On the one hand:

The biosphere and human society are complex systems, and complex systems tend to be remarkably resilient, self-healing and durable.

We are wired by natural selection to find it far easier to perceive existential threats that aren't really that severe, and to pretty much not even notice positive developments.

There are lenses through which to see the data that tell us that death from war and disease are at an all-time low, that extreme, grinding poverty is at an all time low, and so forth.

On the other hand:

We are beating the crap out of the biosphere and the institutions that preserve civil society. To the point of reaching some serious tipping-points.

As Trumpism and similar phenomena elsewhere in the world demonstrate, way too many people are so deeply in thrall to delusional, irrational thinking and immortality projects that you can readily game out some pretty dystopian outcomes.

In theory, life, including intelligent life, should be plentiful in the universe and there's no evidence of it. This may well be because there are certain evolutionary "brick walls" that many species encounter and never get past. One of which may well be the acquisition of technology before having the self-control to use it wisely. This may be us, right now, in this moment.

So ... "am I optimistic" is a question that gets answered differently on different days. I think that religion is inherently doomed over the long run, but may bring us down in its death throes. I don't know how it's going to turn out. Close call and whew, glad it missed us? Dystopian detour but ultimately works out? We manage to drive ourselves extinct after all? I really don't pretend to know.

Selfishly, whatever happens isn't likely to fully manifest in the 10 to 30 years I probably have left, particularly since I'm not racially or culturally or economically very vulnerable. I'm using the time I have left to argue for critical thinking, empathy, and compassion, and try to demonstrate it as best I can. Seems like the best contribution I can still make.

Nope. I hope Hawking was right and they are extinct within the next 100 years.

Nope. I think we're fucked. It's just a matter of time. We've done this to
ourselves. We are the architects of our own demise.
Or an asteroid.
Whichever comes first.

I hope not...