I went to hear Michio Kaku speak at the Chan Centre at UBC. I was delighted to see that the place was sold out for a talk on science, which UBC President and scientist Santa Ono also commented on. Kaku indicated that the growth of wealth in the world is the result of successive waves of innovation related to physics. Steam, electricity, internet. The next big things are artificial intelligence, biotech, and nanotech. He was quite entertaining and was unashamedly optimistic about the future, and maybe that encourages people to make things happen, as opposed to focussing on the problems.