The point could well be made that they're two kinds of optimism about anything. The first is dismissive of individual influence ("no matter what I do, things w

The point could well be made that they're two kinds of optimism about anything. The first is dismissive of individual influence ("no matter what I do, things will get better over time"). The second is self-aware ("I can make a difference when ..."). In technology, the "hope for the best" (_future_ tech will solve ...) is rather common. It scares me a little, because of the implied waiving of individual responsibility. The retrospective look, learning from mistakes, or even investigating how to apply tech to fix bad results or damage from applying tech in the past, would do us well, ethically. It's very comforting, society-wise, if someone admits to, and makes amends over, mistakes they made that hurt others. It's at least better than that person pointing out no amends needed because future-here-tech-there will do fix it anyway.