Optimism or techno-optimism is the idea that we can fix things with the right know-how. It's a psychological strategy to avoid noticing that there are dark forces which aim to control, destroy and sow despair, perhaps conveying temporary advantages to those who ally with them. Some take a religious or supernatural view of these things; others think they are facets of consciousness which spread virally from brain to brain.

Whatever you believe it seems clear that one's experience of life and the world is dominated by inner experience and mental well-being, not by luxuries or technological convenience. One could live in a palace, drive flying cars and so on but still suffer dreadfully.

Although my personal disposition is fairly sunny, verging on the manic, my model of how the world and how my life works is not one of optimism but rather a series of defeats occasionally punctuated by an unexpected victory. Sort of like the fall of the Berlin Wall or how Gollum accidentally destroyed the ring. Eucatastrophe was Tolkien's name for it.