I am hopeful that step by step the world will move towards being a better place, whether in terms of physical or mental health and wellbeing, the environment, interaction between individual people or at a societal level, or, for example, regarding how economies are arranged. Many intellectual, emotional and cultural developmental processes take decades and centuries, so it would be unrealistic to assume that wars, poverty, famine, loneliness, environmental catastrophes, contempt, cynicism etc. could pass into history in a matter of years. But a path that leads to this kind of a future is my dream.

Human understanding is growing with universities being the main cradle of progress. Human beings have an inherent ability for empathy, which can only be broken under extreme circumstances. The time of intelligent machines that work to help us is drawing near and gives further cause for optimism. Of course, the palette of the world holds all the colours, and the entire spectrum of human emotions will therefore still continue to be necessary in the future.