How the Past can Indicate the Future of Humanity

Technology by definition is hard. Computation in order to complete even the most simple tasks can take millions of calculations that occur instantaneously while the distances and speeds travelled across the web are almost inconceivable. Chances are wherever you are in the world reading this the information reached you at just below the speed of light having travelled thousands of kilometres reaching you quicker than you could blink. What humanity has achieved is astonishing.

The future is no different, envisioning it is as hard as creating the products that will become widespread. How can you imagine the future without first understanding the capabilities of technology or the historical precedent of evolution? To project and foresee developments you must first understand what is capable now and how we got here. Only by understanding what is possible can you understand where the road is heading and with luck contribute to its construction.

The future will be marked by change, which is the only thing that is ever certain. If you visualise human history as a linear 70,000 year graph it would look something like below with regards to the advance of technology. Slow progress followed by rapid development due to the accumulation of knowledge.