The Next Step: Summary and Conclusion

In many ways, global human civilization is developing in the right direction. Most of the nations of the world are experiencing significant economic growth in terms of the bottom line indicator: average living standards (or “per capita income,” as economists describe it). The human population of the Earth is growing briskly—probably too briskly—but at least this is unmistakable evidence of a basically healthy global economic system. Science and technology continue to provide to each new generation equipment and commodities the capabilities of which would have seemed veritably miraculous to earlier generations. Contemporary communications technology permits a person anywhere in the world to communicate instantaneously with another person thousands of miles away. Contemporary transportation technology permits a person anywhere in the world to go anywhere else in the world within a matter of hours. Uncounted thousands of works—literary, musical, artistic, cinematic—are being added to humanity’s cultural treasure trove each and every year. Space travel to other planets within the solar system is technologically feasible, and it seems only a matter of a relatively short time before it actually takes place.