History is a description of what we have done, what happened. History is always tinged with peoples´ opinion, inclusions/exclusions, preferences, interpretation and must be seen in the light of present circumstances. History may change over time. What elements we include in history or see as important also determine the history we see.
So speculating about the future and what the endpoint of history will be is not easy, it could be part of an exercise in planning, of choosing a contemporary path to serve us well as regards our own future.
The driving forces are often strong and beyond our control. Part of it may be found in culture, technology, the environment, ethics, agendas of nations/organizations/people, religion and discoveries. Strong personal qualities and activities may also influence the course of history.
The basis for future developments is found in many places: science, politics, human needs, conflicts of various kinds and environmental change including natural catastrophes or trends. There may also be agendas unfolding as people put their thinking into practice, thus vastly influencing what others do.
Factors talked about now is local versus global, self-government versus global control. Will there be world domination by some force – by a nation – like the Mongols, the Romans etc. - or will a strand of thinking, an idea find its way into our lives? It could also be that China and India will emerge on the world stage and balance Western domination, even put the US in the shadows.
The future of ownership is another interesting topic – will ownership be distributed or will concentration increase? New political systems may arise – like the use of co-intelligence principles, or the opposite which could be a global government with wide powers, or will it be a mixture of many systems? Big corporations owned by financiers seeking profit is today a moving force in many areas, and if this is coupled with big government we could have a new situation developing affecting our lives.
Politics is the important method ruling our lives today, but this could change as politicians are are appearing more and more unreliable and unable, or if common pool resource management becomes common. Markets are the norm for most things today, but this could change if new practical solutions are found for production and distribution of things that today are sold in markets. Candidates could be medicines, limited resources of many kinds, commodities.
The rule of law is the basis for most sensible states today and this will probably continue in the future, even be strengthened. An individualistic culture is seen today and this could change too as people become socially more responsible.
New kinds of societies are hard to fathom today, but changes in the past have been big and new entrants may be found.
Technology will be important – the chemical world will grow, new understanding will be found about our minds and bodies, the digital world will continue to change our lives radically and make possible a host of technologies, including positive and negative activities.
The practice of foresight and planning should increase in many areas – but humans have always had a tendency to act after the fact. The biggest challenge is maybe increased distribution of knowledge and of science so that people can help themselves.
So – pure speculation is what this is – we all live in the present and do what we must do – we do not plan history´s development – or are there people out there with agendas that they work hard to carry through over the years? If this is so it is scary and it would have been nice to know!
