Review: What Are You Optimistic About? edited by John Brockman

JOHN Brockman has made a career out of getting scientists to say in public what they think. The most notable thing about this collection is just how bullish they are – in particular, about the power of science and technology to change things for the better. Their answers to the question in the title range from the predictable (the Large Hadron Collider will teach us astonishing things about the universe) to the strange (human intelligence will dramatically increase), and the surprising (a global decline in violence and increase in tolerance). My favourite: the invention of a new language for more…