- This is how Bill Gates stays optimistic despite the harmful effects of technology
There have been multiple studies about how social media has been linked to depression. And many people have been vocal about the riskiness of artificial intelligence advancements. However, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has always kept an optimistic outlook on the benefits of technology.
“Look at how long people are living, the reduction of under-five mortality, the reduction in how poorly women are treated. Globally, inequity is down: poorer countries are getting richer faster than the richer countries are getting richer. The bulk of humanity lives in middle-income countries today. Fifty years ago, there were very few middle-income countries. Then there’s the ability of science to solve problems. In heart disease and cancer we’ve made a lot of progress; in some of the more chronic diseases like depression and diabetes … Even in obesity, we’re gaining some fundamental understandings of the microbiome and the signaling mechanisms involved,” said Bill Gates in an interview with MIT Technology Review Editor-in-chief Gideon Lichfield. “So, yes, I am optimistic. It does bother me that most people aren’t.”
Gates’ optimism is also driven by data. In a Time article, Gates pointed out that the number of children who die before their fifth birthday since 1990 has dropped in half. “That means 122 million children have been saved in a quarter-century, and countless families have been spared the heartbreak of losing a child,” wrote Gates in the Time article.
And in 1990, over a third of the global population lived in extreme poverty Gates pointed out. That figure is one-tenth of what it was back then.
“A century ago, it was legal to be gay in about 20 countries; today it’s legal in over 100 countries. Women are gaining political power and now make up more than a fifth of members of national parliaments—and the world is finally starting to listen when women speak up about sexual assault. More than 90% of all children in the world attend primary school. In the U.S., you are far less likely to die on the job or in a car than your grandparents were. And so on,” added Gates in the Time article.
Being an optimist does not mean that you should ignore injustice. What it means is that you should be inspired to look for people who are making progress and help spread it further.
Through his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates has traveled to remote villages to learn how to solve problems certain problems. This is how he came up with the idea of reinventing the toilet, helped eradicate polio, and pushed for reductions in malaria cases.
Gates’ viewpoint has resonated with me. Whenever I see something on social media that makes me feel upset. I will be sure to take a more optimistic approach of looking at society.
