In the beginning, there was the Big Bang... 13.75 billion years ago. Humans first developed as long as 100,000 years ago. In a 24-hour clock, this is like we appeared with less than one second (0.63 seconds, actually) left until midnight.
To gain some perspective, do you know how fast light travels? The answer is slightly more than 186,000 miles in one second. Yet, a beam of light would take 100,000 years to travel just from one end of our Milky Way galaxy (of which our Sun is but one of around 300 billion stars) to the other end, and there could well be 500 billion or so other galaxies in our Universe. Forget parallel universes and black energy for now.
Thus, while the nearly 7 billion of us are infinitesimal in the immensity of space and time, it remains possible that we could well be the only intelligent life, period. Thus, until flying saucers invade Planet Earth or we can confirm real signals from somewhere out there, Humanity, us, could well be all there is in our Universe.
Where am I going with this? We are crucially important, but could well be reaching the limits of our current existence. While developing nations will incrementally improve, and the USA will remain supreme for some time to come, our children's children will almost surely suffer a lifestyle decline. Some of us probably lived during a period when humanity reached our peak. Even though this mini-doomsday future landscape seems almost un-American, I think this is a reasonably good case scenario in view of pending events.
For one, democracy itself, at least in America and Europe, is flawed. Countries of Africa and the Middle East yearn for our form of government, and many will take that step, because any democracy is better than a suppressive dictatorship. The clash of generations and the Sunni-Shiite dilemma will for sure re-create that portion of the world, especially for those countries with despised rulers, Colonel Gaddafi being just another.
A particularly telling statistic is one reported by the United Nations. The three countries with the most improved Human Development Index over the past three decades were: #1 Tunisia, #2 China and #3 Egypt. This is disquieting because the masses might interpret humanitarian action as a kind of leadership weakness, and gain confidence to rebel. China, with growing anxiety among their educated youth familiar with the world wide web, could well be in trouble.
The swift fall of the Iron Curtain twenty years ago and the quicker transition through revolution now facing a growing number of countries unfortunately will mostly switch lives from oppressive poverty to merely uncomfortable existence, particularly when resources begin to run out. The Club of Rome was mostly right, albeit their timing might have been premature.
All this leads to the matter of Peak Oil, which can be dealt with if not for Global Warming, because our planet still has a lot of coal, oil shale, tar sands and range of fossil fuels. Now faced with Fukushima, the fission option can be discarded, even if there is something about thorium. As all stars run on hydrogen fusion, certainly we should be able to someday harness hydrogen isotopes, if not hydrogen itself. However, all technical signs point to commercialization long into the future. Our problem, in addition to everything else, is the lack of time, the result of imperfect societal planning.
Thus, the only option is renewable energy, which will not be able to effectively maintain the current form of Western lifestyle for the World. When Peak Oil is attained, petroleum could well reach and exceed $150/barrel, and there is good reason to believe that the world economy will enter into a prolonged depression. I would not be surprised if we actually suffer a population decline.
All this will not necessarily be terrible for Planet Earth and Humanity as a long term ultimate. By 2100, with a population of, say, 5 billion, decentralized and sustainable energy will mean fewer wars, solar desert facilities could return the Sahara and Middle East to energy exportation (click on "Can Qatar Lead the World Toward Sustainability?"), the blue revolution utilizing the seas in harmony with the marine environment can provide cleaner options for food, protein and green products, and there should finally be control over global warming.
How can we minimize the transition agony? I keep saying this, but click on "The 10% Simple Solution to Peace." Anyone got a better idea?
We can be lucky. Perhaps global climate change was a fallacy. We have enough fossil fuels to power our growing world for a century, which can be enhanced by cold fusion. So dream on if you wish to fantasize.
Ultimately, though, I remain somewhat hopeful about our planet and society. Perhaps fusion can be this silver bullet, or we will be saved by extraterrestrial signals showing us the way, not unlike the movie CONTACT...truthfully, I don't know what. But I can dream, too, for I have worked on laser fusion for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA on SETI. Anyone got a better idea?