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Friday, September 23, 2011

Optimist and Pessimism

I often read, and sometimes understand, Tyler Cowen's and Alex Tabarrok's blog, Marginal Revolution. (It's kind of like Overweening Generalist, with more economics.)

Tyler recently published a list of "About what I am optimistic and pessimistic," and it inspired a similar list from libertarian economist Bryan Caplan, which I thought was interesting and might interest RAW fans. Some of them relate pretty directly to RAW's ideas.

Caplan's No. 4: "4. I am a pessimist about life extension. The only path to centuries of healthy life (as opposed to mere simulation) is probably genetically engineering embryos - and it's too late for me and everyone I care about."

On the other hand, he thinks that in 100 years poverty will be gone and a major war will be unthinkable.

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