As a practising material physicist, I am very enthusiastic about the progress of knowledge in my field and human curiosity and ingenuity, and also very pessimistic about the outlook for our various civilisations and appalled by human carelessness, shortsightedness, and selfishness.

My long term pessimism comes partly from the fact that I know what is behind the magical technologies that are supposed to save us, which is why I am very skeptical about them. I am also very doubtful about our ability to make the right decisions in difficult times and under severe constraints. But hey, I do have a cool, interesting, and enjoyable job.