The optimist in the debate suggested the compounding effect of geometric technological progress is daunting in its effects.
The optimist may argue that pressure is building up behind the dam, and that at some point there will be radical change.
Of course, a civilization of optimists might believe that nothing could possibly go wrong with their probes.
As this review has attempted to show, when looked at closely, even optimists did not hold out much hope for tsarism as it existed.
But such progress has been remarkable in the last two centuries and the optimist might hope that it could continue indefinitely.
But at the moment such optimists are distinctly unwelcome among environmentalists.
The classical utilitarians are often thought of as optimists who regarded everything as malleable or plastic in the name of human progress.
Although the above remarks may appeal to pessimists, this volume will offer further hope to optimists.
