“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present” - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Getty Images
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present” - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Getty Images
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present” - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Getty Images
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present” - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Getty Images

There are plenty of reasons to be hopeful, despite what the pessimists say


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Optimism is out of fashion. Since the global economic crash in 2008, there has been a corrosive and growing sense that the world is getting worse. For many, 2016 was proof of this: the relentless carnage in Syria, America's retreat from reason, climate change, terrorism, the return of polarised politics and leadership on the basis of fear, not hope. Extremists have always claimed that they can deliver a return to a mythical time when the world was somehow better. In much of the world, people are no longer taking for granted that our children's lives will inevitably be better than those of our parents.

Inevitably, it is technology that most divides the optimists and the pessimists. The pessimists worry that technological advances will harm our security, our society and our humanity. It will do to 21st-century weaponry what it did to the musket, bayonet and pikestaff. The North Pole will melt by 2100. Harvests will decline in the least stable parts of the world. Tens of millions of the angriest and hungriest people will migrate. Automation will strip huge parts of the population of their dignity and livelihoods. An age of pandemics, conflict over resources and terrorists equipped with increasingly deadly weapons of mass devastation.

All sound overblown? Most experts in the 1910s, on the eve of the devastating conflict that Europe is remembering again this week, said that a massive war was impossible – the interconnected webs of trade and finance prevented it. Now, as the United Sates retreats from global leadership, the risk of conflict increases. The power vacuum in the Middle Ages in Europe created space for religious fundamentalists, pirates and vandals. Communities fell back on protecting themselves in smaller and smaller units. Einstein suggested that we don't know how the Third World War will be fought. But the Fourth World War would, he predicted, be fought with rocks.

Pessimists also predict that the internet will increase, rather than decrease, inequality. We will have a world in which we prioritise consumer experience over jobs, wages, dignity and rights, with victims yet unseen. The cult of the amateur prevails, culture is dumbed down, trust in authority evaporates. Imagination, idealism and creativity are replaced by economic calculation. Our ability to think is decayed rather than built by the way in which we interact with the internet.

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Yet I feel more hopeful. It is sometimes said that a pessimist is an optimist armed with facts. But in fact, it turns out that an optimist is a pessimist armed with facts. The average human lives twice as long and grows six inches taller than our great, great grandparents. We have access to a life that they could never have imagined. As 19th-century English historian Thomas Macaulay, seeing pessimism spreading among his peers, wondered: “On what principle is it, that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?”

Extreme poverty has halved in the past 15 years. We are becoming collectively richer, living longer, understanding the world better and dying less of disease, poverty or violence. Sadly, barbarism is all too visible in a 24/7 news cycle that surrounds us with a sense of doom, terror and violence. But in fact it is receding. Before states emerged, war killed more than 500 out of every 100,000 people. In the 20th century, including genocides, it fell to 60. Today it is 0.3. So we are 200 times less likely to die in war than a century ago. This is little consolation to a civilian in Syria, Gaza or Chad, but it is remarkable. We are living in the most peaceful year since records began.

We should also be optimistic because new technology can, in fact, reinvigorate our creativity and politics. The internet brings us greater diversity, choice and opportunities for genuine citizen engagement. Our desire to network and connect is not just a fad or blip, a short-term response to a surge in connectivity. Instead, networking is a natural way to order the world.

Another reason for optimism - we have been here before. Humanity has in the past responded to waves of change and it can do so again. Resilience is in our DNA. We have genuine form, honed over millennia, in solving problems. At key moments, we face a race between transformation and collapse. So far, we have always managed to respond: hunter gatherers turned to domestication; farmers created cities; states created empires. When millions lost their agricultural jobs, nobody knew that they would find industrial work. At some point, my Fletcher ancestors stopped making arrows and adapted to new economic conditions.

Of course, technology will change us, and we will change technology, as we always have. It won’t always be empowering and enlightening. But it can often be if we hold our nerve. Even as we become phono sapiens, we can change the way we communicate without changing what it means to be human.

The countries that can navigate these trends will be those that do three things well. They must innovate relentlessly. They must ensure that policy makers prioritise overall wellbeing rather than just economic statistics. And they must find a way to protect those who lose from technological progress as well as creating space for those who win from it. Easy to say, hard to deliver. The key is to build a programme based not on blind, naive optimism, but on an optimism grounded in the ingenuity and endeavour of the human spirit at its best, and a society that judges its progress by the condition of the most vulnerable not the most successful.

At a similar moment of uncertainty and pessimism, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus urged the population to look forward with hope rather than fear. “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present”.

If we can weaponise reason, we have every reason to be optimistic.

Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23

UAE fixtures:
Men

Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final

Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

Jetour T1 specs

Engine: 2-litre turbocharged

Power: 254hp

Torque: 390Nm

Price: From Dh126,000

Available: Now

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed

Based: Muscat

Launch year: 2018

Number of employees: 40

Sector: Online food delivery

Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception 

Sunday:
GP3 race: 12:10pm
Formula 2 race: 1:35pm
Formula 1 race: 5:10pm
Performance: Guns N' Roses

Indoor cricket in a nutshell

Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai

16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership

Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.

Zones

A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full

While you're here

'Manmarziyaan' (Colour Yellow Productions, Phantom Films)
Director: Anurag Kashyap​​​​​​​
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal​​​​​​​
Rating: 3.5/5

Factfile on Garbine Muguruza:

Name: Garbine Muguruza (ESP)

World ranking: 15 (will rise to 5 on Monday)

Date of birth: October 8, 1993

Place of birth: Caracas, Venezuela

Place of residence: Geneva, Switzerland

Height: 6ft (1.82m)

Career singles titles: 4

Grand Slam titles: 2 (French Open 2016, Wimbledon 2017)

Career prize money: $13,928,719

RESULTS

5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Raghida, Szczepan Mazur (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: AF Alareeq, Connor Beasley, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
6pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-2 Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 2,200m 
Winner: Basmah, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
6.30pm: Liwa Oasis Group 2 (PA) Dh300,000 1,400m
Winner: AF Alwajel, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: SS Jalmod, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 1,600m
Winner: Trolius, Ryan Powell, Simon Crisford