Essay: «What is techno-optimism and techno-pessimism?

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Automation has the potential to change nearly half of all current jobs as
people learn to work alongside artificial intelligence and robots. This could spell
the end of the 9-to-5 workday and eliminate the conception of work in the near
future.
The techno-optimist believes that future innovations will indeed drive a
resurgence of growth – albeit at the expense of jobs. The pessimist sees no return
to growth and believes our best innovations are behind us. Let’s use these
definitions for the purpose of this essay:
Techno-optimism – the belief that technology can continually be improved
and can improve the lives of people, making the world a better place. If the person
is a techno-optimist, he thinks technology has consistently improved lives for the
better and is likely to do so in the future. In considering societal problems, he
thinks that the solution lies in technological innovation1.
Techno-pessimism – a pessimist is likely to believe that modern technology
has created as many problems for humanity as it has solved.  The pessimist
believes that seeking more technology is likely to bring about new problems and
unforeseen consequences and dangers. Given that the pessimist sees technology
creating its own problems, the answer to human progress often lies in a reduction
of technological dependence, rather than an expansion of it2.
Many are likely to fall somewhere on the spectrum between the two
extremes. The experts outline potential solutions for adapting to this reality, like
changing traditional education into a life-long pursuit of skills and how politicians
can create a better safety net to help the displaced who are not able to transition to
the new possibilities.
Though some of the people portend a scary future where automation
technology replaces the need for a large workforce altogether, they also say there is

1
Chang, E. C., Maydeu-Olivares, A., & D’Zurilla, T. J. (1997). Optimism and pessimism as partially
independent constructs: Relations to positive and negative affectivity and psychological well-being. Personality and
Individual Differences, 23, 433-440.
2
Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1992). Effects of optimism on psychological and physical well-being:
Theoretical overview and empirical update. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 16, 201-228.
enough optimism that this latest industrial revolution will not have painful long-
term consequences if we act now to mitigate them.
Going forward, people are going to see more of these technologies which
involve robotics or artificial intelligence, again, working side by side with human
beings. There are all sorts of things that are being designed right now to facilitate
this transition from a world where everybody needs to be in the same office and
everybody’s constrained by a traditional 9-to-5 job, to a world where people can
live closer to their communities. They can live in a place where the cost of living
and the public school system, or whatever other considerations, allow them to live
where they want to be.
There most certainly is a role for policy makers to facilitate the transition.
But in my experience, policy makers tend to deal with problems after they reach
crisis levels, not anticipate the problem and head it off. The social implications of
what’s happening in information technology, communication technology, artificial
intelligence, robotics, while many of them are very positive, many of them are
highly deleterious.
Unfortunately, most people remain «blind to the wisdom of limitations» and
indifferent to the necessity of «scaling down and pulling back.» When every
province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where
they are nor remove elsewhere, every region being equally crowded and over-
peopled» and when «human craft and wickedness have reached their highest pitch»
the world will purge itself through floods, plagues and famines so that men,
«becoming few and contrite, may amend their lives and live with more
convenience.»3
Conclusion: the means of subsistence wouldn’t keep up with population
growth, with the unavoidable results of starvation, war, disease and a population
collapse. The more sophisticated eco-pessimist narratives have revolved around a
few key arguments: 1) in a finite world, continued demographic and economic
expansion is impossible; 2) everything else being equal, a reduced population will
3
Carver, C. S., & Gaines, J. G. (1987). Optimism, pessimism, and postpartum depression. Cognitive
Therapy and Research, 11, 449-462.
enjoy a higher standard of living; 3) in a world where resources are finite,
economic growth will become increasingly expensive and environmentally
damaging over time; 4) the risks inherent to new technologies make it preferable to
restrict population growth and to live within limits than to rely on human
ingenuity.
Reference
1. Bromberger JT, Matthews KA. (1996). A longitudinal study of the
effects of pessimism, trait anxiety, and life stress on depressive symptoms in
middle-aged women. Psychology & Aging, 11, 001–007.
2. Carver, C. S., & Gaines, J. G. (1987). Optimism, pessimism, and
postpartum depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 11, 449-462.
3. Chang, E. C. (1998b). Distinguishing between optimism and
pessimism: A second look at the «optimism-neuroticism hypothesis.» In R. R.
Hoffman, M. F. Sherrik, & J. S. Warm (Eds.), Viewing psychology as a whole:
The integrative science of William N. Dember (pp. 415-432). Washington, DC:
American Psychological Association.
4. Chang, E. C., Maydeu-Olivares, A., & D’Zurilla, T. J. (1997).
Optimism and pessimism as partially independent constructs: Relations to positive
and negative affectivity and psychological well-being. Personality and Individual
Differences, 23, 433-440.
5. Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1992). Effects of optimism on
psychological and physical well-being: Theoretical overview and empirical update.
Cognitive Therapy and Research, 16, 201-228.