If only I were equipped with better organs! Weren’t we supposed to be getting deep bio-upgrades by the time I hit fifty? Why is the future always … i… - David Brin

Why is the future always … in the future?

Where is it written that one should only care about big things?

there are rumors and worried models predicting a coming conflagration — one between classes, rather than nation states. But who really yearns for such a thing to happen? What if the optimists are right? Suppose we in this generation are — on average — growing both smarter and more sane at a decent clip. That average still leaves a billion human beings, out of almost ten billion, who are steeped in rage, or dogmatic rigidity, or delusional repetition of discredited mistakes. You know such people. Do you recognize those traits in some of your neighbors? Or perhaps that face in the mirror?

He wasn’t afraid of dying, only of having not done all he could, and not properly spitting in the eye of death when it came for him. That final gesture was important.