Perhaps, the greatest contemplation one can consider is how one might create the world of the future. What follows is my personal and surely incomplete imagining so I welcome your proposed additions to round out what an amazing future Earth would be that we can work toward. Also, I'll leave the peaceful path of "how we get there" to future articles.
I am limiting myself to an imagined future Earth, and the constructions within its orbit. Though a sci-fi fan at heart, I don't think significant colonization will be feasible for millennia to come. I believe scientific exploration of outer space by robots and telescopes is well worth the investment; however, I think a human exploration beyond orbit is by and large a monumental waste of effort and funding.
In the far future, at a global level I imagine a world that is generally stable environmentally. Ideally, our planet should returns to the nominal state we had before humans had a planetary impact say 50,000 years ago. In this imagined world, all the biodiversity of the world would be left to thrive in their appropriate biomes as we return 99% of the landscape and seascape to its wild, pre-civilization form. The challenge would be to restore those biomes and to leave them be.
As a future civilization we can still flourish culturally, though we must unify as a single tribe. This tribe might consist of a hundred concentrated urban centers of a million persons each, connected by virtual and minimal physical transport infrastructure. Getting from the current 7.5 billion to 100 million will be a work of patient attrition.
Alongside this reduction in human population, a reduction in energy production, goods production and food production will ensure the planet has the minimum impact from its most powerful species. Food production could consist of hydroponics and community gardens to provide plant-based nourishment, eliminating the billions of animals abused, slaughtered, and contributing indirectly to waste.
As communities, humans will focus on the development of relationships, the arts and the sciences. Perhaps automation can reduce the per human workload, but a modicum physical labor will ensure we don't lose touch with the material world and the sensations of enjoying it. Occasional forays into semi-wilderness rings around our relatively small urban areas will also allow humanity to stay in touch with the other living things that comprise Earth's ecosystems.
In this distant future, we will have left behind lethal weaponry, and all but the most essential machinery. With ample free time we can develop close human relationships with our families and piers. No enslaved animal breeds (horse, dog, nor cat) will be necessary as humans step up to be the true companions we require.
As individuals, we will embrace integrity of thought. Our skills of science and compassion will still work toward monitoring health, preventing disease, and rationally opposing illness, but death itself will be accepted as bittersweet reality. In addition, we shall support the dying with pain relief and if necessary speed the final moment with dignity.
Our future leadership will in earnest represent their constituents. Artificial, intelligent representatives of ecological stability, beautiful places, factual knowledge and psychological well-being, etc, could have standing to protect non-human interests in that leadership consortium.
Finally, magical thinking will be relegated to their place in fiction books, and shared knowledge will be continually monitored and rated for its factual nature. This will gradually lead to the elimination of irrational religious belief, tribal cults, and even fake news.
And the Earth will be beautiful for all Earthlings where together we will celebrate compassion, reason, and joyful exploration.
Heaven can be on Earth if we desire it!
