An Optimistic Day

Came out this morning from the hotel to see something I've not seen in Jakarta for some time: blue skies. The sun was warm and caressing, making me feel enormously happy and bouyant. As I walked past the Spanish Embassy towards Sarinah, I almost stepped on a teenage boy who was sleeping on the streets, blissful and oblivious to the passers-by.

I'm looking forward to a fruitful and productive day. I have some presentation slides to build and lots of reading to do. Haven't watched a movie since The Matrix Reloaded but I'm not sure if I'll have the time to catch one this weekend. I also have some unwatched VCDs back in my hotel room. I'm never short of things to do on a weekend.

I was watching Talk Show on BBC last night. Sir Martin Rees, a cosmologist was interviewed on his book Our Final Century: The 50/50 Threat to Humanity's Survival. I haven't read the book before but it is interesting to find out that an eminent scientist has a rather pessimistic view about the future of science and its impact on human society. According to him, the advance of science has created unprecendented risks for the human species with the possibility of small errors leading to global catastrophes. He's not just referring to the nuclear terror but things like biotechnology and nanotechnology. He is even putting a 1.000 dollar wager that there will be a major setback to human civilisation, with massive loss of life, by 2020.

That was food for thought for a Friday night. Maybe the human race will not survive this century, but I woke up today feeling very optimistic. Well, even the sky in Jakarta is blue.