Hi, Michael! Thanks for your note. I don’t identify as a pessimist, so you’d have to let me know what definition of pessimist you’re using here. As is well-known in science and technology studies, science and technology aren’t changing exponentially if that’s what your line about “exponential growth” is about. Check out David Edgerton’s essay “Ever accelerating hype.” Usually the claim is that technology is changing exponentially — which is false, but it’s even more wrong to say that STEM is changing exponentially: mathematics and lots of fields in science and engineering are moving quite slowly. Don’t know much about marine biogeochemical engineering. Can you say how it’s related? Thanks.