[ WP ] Tales of Old Earth

I regularly consider how history books centuries in the future will present today's society, what institutions will dominate the stories and in what light they will be portrayed. Just over 400 years ago in Salem, Massachusetts, religious indoctrination led to the slaughter of many innocents in the name of protecting the community from evil. Fear incited by the dominant religious institution of the time blinded the Salem residents to the irrationality of their executions. What path will the story of turn-of-the-century America take? I hope my great-great-great... -grandchildren will read an astounding tale of a near-apocalyptic encounter with the power of Earth's climate, starring a young generation of activists. These heroes fight the church's attempt to suppress facts in favor of maintaining outdated social norms and, in a showing of unprecedented global cooperation, overcome the major challenges of climate change and save the world. Or will the story read closer to one of my many nightmares? The church's enormous reach was simply too much for the young activists, try as they might to fight for the survival of humanity. But realistically no story will be told, for the threat of 2012 was felt, simply centuries later with the greatest global species eradication since the dinosaurs. Perhaps in thousands of years evidence of our cataclysmic failure will be uncovered by a new or visiting highly evolved species and they will teach their youth lessons of respecting the gifts Earth bestows upon its inhabitants through The Legends of the Trials and Tribulations of the Homo sapiens.
