The future will implicate many predictable things, many hard-to-predict things, and even more unpredictable, never-could-have-thought-in-a-million-years, bolt-from-the-blue, well-huh?-whaddya-know things.
We can plan for the predictable things. Some of those touch on the following:
- Living off the Land in Space: Green Roads to the Cosmos, Gregory L. Matloff, Less Johnson
- A Discussion by Ray Kurzweil of the Law of Accelerating Returns as it relates to SETI
- A list of resources regarding settlement of the next and most immediate frontier
- The Minor Planet Center
And the European Space Agency, in collaboration with Platige Image, made this wonderful 6-minute short film, Ambition, sharing an inspiring vision of the future in which amazing technology exists, humanity has retained its spirit, and the achievements of the past (our present) are remembered.
That is a really good one. But generally, I love short films. I grew up on a steady diet of One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits, and The Twilight Zone.
… ROBOTS:
Since that video has been made and distributed, we can safely assume that greater strides have been made since then.
… and a glance at the past, present, and future, geologically speaking:
J. C. Conway 