One powerful factor might partly put humanity’s mind at ease about the future. That factor is the inspiring innovation, resilience, and adaptability that has been demonstrated time and again by human beings throughout history. This will likely continue to be displayed well into the future. Remember: this is the civilization that invented chocolate. That is enough to earn credit points just in itself.

Added to that is the wheel, the needle, the printing press, penicillin, the telephone, the lightbulb, the internet, batteries, planes, refrigerators, vaccines, and X-rays. Every one of these inventions resulted from an issue needing to be resolved. We are the solution masters of the universe.

The world has also created the most astonishing works of art, and music, and literature. We have created the Olympic Games, and in spite of the occasional boycotts, most countries on the planet join together in celebrating the event. Humanity has placed people on the moon, and is likely to send humans to Mars before 2040 AD. We built the Egyptian pyramids long before giant engineering machinery could lighten the workload.

We created the United Nations in 1945, and although it is subjected to periodic transgressions and politicking, it at least is a global body supported by nearly all nations. Where would we be without the genius of these contributions to our culture? You can reasonably predict that the collective desire and determination to create new contributions will continue unabated.

Humanity has equally demonstrated its capacity to recover from adversity. At the personal level, most of us have faced debilitating illness, or the loss of loved ones, or tragic accidents, or a breakdown in long-term relationships. Collectively, we have been subjected to major crises that required significant global resilience. World wars, pandemics, and major natural disasters have tested our physical, mental, and financial limits. The inspiring feature of nearly all disasters on this planet is the willingness of other countries to offer support.

In his heartening book called Humankind: A Hopeful History, Rutger Bregman wrote that “It’s when crisis hits – when the bombs fall or the floodwaters rise – that we humans become our best selves.” Yet we do not just exhibit our best selves during such disasters. It is becoming more evident in our lowered incidence of global violence.

In The Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker wrote of a measurable decline in violence – evidenced by a humanitarian revolution – through the past few hundred years. In the 17th and 18th centuries, we experienced lower trends in the use of judicial torture, slavery, sadistic punishments, and even superstitious killings. Referring to them as ‘better angels’, Pinker outlines four motives that have led us away from violence and towards altruism and cooperation. One of these motives is empathy, which is the ability to identify with the feelings of another person. This ‘better angel’ has every chance of continuing to fly, and was evidenced by the extraordinary support given worldwide to countries that were ravaged by COVID-19.

Millions engage in crowdsourcing initiatives, and support each other with positive political movements. The X-Prize is a global platform for leveraging the positive power of world-wide competition, and is supported by wealthy individuals who donate money as prizes for resolving massive issues. Its specific domains include biodiversity and conservation, climate and energy, health, education and deep space.

Their largest ever competition, worth US$101 million and launched in November 2023, will span seven years and incentivise medical teams to test and develop therapeutics that enhance healthy aging. Exciting projects such as these are the narrative we need to share with each other about the planet’s possible future. When we predict and create what is up ahead, it is worth accounting for the success stories that humanity has already demonstrated, and will continue to do so.