Introduction to Part III

Summary

How will the third phase of the transition to modernity unfold? One way of approaching this question is through the five possible pathways for the human species set up in Chapter 1. From that perspective, there is an emerging dialectic between the ongoing push for species empowerment that has defined humankind’s path for thousands of years, and the danger that path raises of species suicide, replacement or regression. There is not much point in dwelling on the options and scenarios for species suicide, extinction or replacement. The first two simply end the story. The third might well divide opinion on whether species replacement is part of the problem or part of the solution. Replacement could come in various forms, with no way of predicting which. It is anyway beyond my capacities to work out what the material capabilities and social sensibilities of a superior intelligence to ours might be. That leaves the option of exploring how humankind might try to stay on the path of empowerment, while adapting to the mounting environmental constraints it now faces.