1. Over the years, I have written quite a bit about the future of the human species, but my approach has always been piecemeal. In fact, I have avoided any systematic treatment of the subject throughout. After all, I am not a futurologist (“Michio Kaku and I,” October 1, 2012). Anyhow, what do I have to say now about this tempting if treacherous subject? The best I can do at present is to survey my writings for pieces about the species’ future. There are quite a few of this ilk, which means that I must select the best among them as foundation stones for this unexpected review. Well, if not the best, at least the ones I find to my exacting taste at this particular moment in time.

2. In my mind, the end of history is nigh (“The End of History,” January 15, 2015). And posthistory will eventually be very like a return to heaven (“Posthistory Beckons,” January 8, 2014). Marx never wrote a word about how communism would work, and thus I, too, feel uneasy about delving into posthistory in any detail (“The Future of Mankind,” June 10, 2007). In this connection, I am rather disappointed with fiction writers, who have failed to come up with credible descriptions of our civilization’s inevitable demise (”The Not-So-Happy End,” August 7, 2014). A sorry bunch, today’s writers. And this includes those who provide scripts for movies, one of the favorite cultural forms of this day and age (“On Disaster Movies,” May 28, 2015). In spite of their numbers, they all fail to hit the nail on the head.

3. The trouble is in the imminent future, I reckon. Say, a few decades or a century at most. To begin with, liberal capitalism is already shifting toward state capitalism, and this tendency is most obvious in ex-socialist countries such as Russia and China (“Whither State Capitalism?” March 26, 2012; and “The New Cold War for Beginners,” November 9, 2014). Capitalism as we know it is heading toward national capitalism, and democracy is descending into ochlocracy crowned by dictatorship (“On So-Called Populism,” January 23, 2018). Ardent nationalisms of every description are just behind the corner. Humans are territorial animals, and this cannot possibly change in the foreseeable future (“Territorial Animals,” October 22, 2016). Genes are destiny, as it were.

The collapse of capitalism cannot but usher the return to feudalism (“New Feudalism,” September 1, 2011; “Capitalism, Feudalism,” May 22, 2013; “The Twenty-First Century for Beginners,” April 23, 2014; and “Screw World War IV,” October 9, 2015). In due time, feudalism will usher the return to slavery, which has never disappeared from the face of the earth, either (“Future Slavery,” November 18, 2014). To be sure, slavery is at the very foundations of this bloody civilization (“The Slave Road,” September 15, 2019). All attempts to sweep it under the rug are doomed to failure.

Triggered by climate change and environmental degradation, intercontinental migrations will only speed up the civilization’s collapse (“The Hungry Hordes,” August 28, 2015; “Ubi bene, ibi patria: A Note on Migration,” April 27, 2018). Even national capitalism will be in trouble under the pressure of millions from far-off lands (“The Rise and Fall of National Capitalism,” November 10, 2018). Which will inevitably lead to an ever-greater number of wars concluding in a global conflagration, one of my favorite subjects as of late (“Content Analysis: World War III,” January 21, 2019). One way or another, there is nothing to be done about any of this (“What is to Be Done?” July 25, 2014; “A Joke on Lenin,” October 29, 2014; and “Humans are Too Stupid to Prevent Climate Change,” November 16, 2014). The human species is stuck, and it will remain stuck for quite a while, if not forever. Following global conflagration and massive loss of life, feudalism and slavery will return without any glitch.

4. Returning to posthistory, it can be expected to follow social development leading up to history, albeit in reverse (“Prehistory, Posthistory,” February 14, 2012). Domesticated by civilization, humans are sure to be dedomesticated after its disintegration (“Dedomestication,” October 1, 2014). In the end, primitive communism will return at long last (“On Primitive Communism,” May 7, 2013). Tribal communities of no more than a few hundred humans are deeply ingrained in the human species (“Dunbar’s Number,” July 7, 2014). As the common expression goes, they are in its blood and bones.

Most important, posthistory is hardly a punishment for the human species. Actually, it is much closer to reward for climate slaves that humans happen to be since their appearance on earth (“Climate Slaves,” February 9, 2015; and “Dating the Anthropocene,” September 21, 2015). The tribal mode of existence is a boon, no less (“Tribal Instinct to the Rescue,” October 23, 2014). One more time, humans will cheerfully cooperate to provide for their basic needs (“The Root of Communism,” August 13, 2008; and “On Reciprocal Altruism,” February 12, 2015). For the tribe is at the root of all communities known to humans (“The Mother of All Communities,” November 21, 2015). And this cannot possibly change in the conceivable future.

5. In the very long run, though, everything ultimately depends on evolution. For all of its meanderings, and all its faults, it is the only hope for the species, as well as a lasting one (“On Evolution: A Note on Science Turned Ideology,” September 28, 2018). Most important, human intelligence needs to increase by leaps and bounds to ensure the species’ long-term survival (“On Intelligence and Evolution,” August 27, 2019). To this end, space colonization is the only viable path to follow in the fullness of time, and I have written a great deal on this subject (“Content Analysis: Space Colonization,” October 1, 2016; “Stephen Hawking and I,” November 9, 2018; and “Fifty Years after Apollo 11,” August 15, 2019). But millions upon millions of years may well be required for such a happy end. In the meanwhile, the human species will face many an opportunity to obliterate itself. Alas, as its intelligence grows, such opportunities will only blossom, too (Addendum II of September 1, 2018, to “The Real Homo Sapiens,” October 5, 2017). But enough on the future of the human species. Come to think of it, who says I am not a futurologist?