Fictional off-world adventures like the Star Trek stories in outer space -- and other "galactic pioneering tales", help us imagine a better tomorrow for humanity.
Although many of us do not have the time to wonder what our future world might look or feel like, some have spent considerable time and effort to ponder the possibilities of our future.
Like historians who study past events, there exist professional scholars that study possible events of the future. They are called futurologist and are hired by some corporations to study or forecast potential business developments.
Futurologist are also like meterologist -- they use past trends and current conditions to predict future events. They can help in planning a better future for the corporation.
Without a clear vision of the future, some corporations may experience "future shock" and suffer the inability to cope with rapid societal and technological change.
So, without a clear understanding of important past and present events, corporate institutions and governmental bodies alike may suffer the negative effects of change that comes with most any significant future event.
Any view of the future must be scaled to a time frame in which possible significant events relate to current events -- for example, how many more years in the future will the governmental body known as the United Nations still exist as a global governmental force? Another fifty years from now? A hundred years? A thousand years?
A futurologist would try to scale the question to a particular time frame wherein the odds of predictability make sense.
Because the U.N. has succeeded in surviving for over seventy years, the odds that it may still be around for another seventy years is really unknowable. Unless the U.N. is superseded by another global force -- like the global force it replaced once called the League of Nations, the chances that it could still exist a hundred years from now would be still unknowable.
A good futurologist would probably not even try to guess if the United Nations would still exist a thousand years from now because there exist too many chaotic environmental variables in nature that could skew the forecast data.
The art of forecasting has its limits because of the "Chaos factor" within nature. The factor in which unpredictable events exist within nature is based on chaotic forces beyond our control or knowledge. We are only mortal humans -- not supreme beings that know the future as a factual reality.
For example, according to the writings of Plato, the Atlantean maritime kingdom was an alliance of tribal kingdoms that once ruled the northern Atlantic and Mediterranean realms -- much like how the countries of the current entity called N.A.T.O. -- or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, does today.
Also according to Plato, this now lost maritime kingdom -- based in the New World at a site in what is now Central America, was destroyed by a chaotic event that was apparently unpredictable. The event -- now believed by some historians, was perhaps caused by an astrophysical situation when, long ago, a rogue comet crashed into the Sun and resulted in the Biblical Flood story here on Earth.
This theoretical event from up in space is an example of how the "Chaos factor" within nature can significantly change the living environment down here on Earth. Did the Atlanteans predict or plan to survive such a catastrophic incident? We may never know.
So, although it is possible that the United Nations could still exist a thousand years from now, natural chaotic forces would suggest it may not survive that long into the future. Again, we are only mortal humans -- and no human today -- or at any time, can see the real future as fact.
We can only make good guesswork of what might happen in the future -- and anybody that believes in prophetic events written by other humans should realize the politics involved. Following someone's illusion of the future can get you into trouble -- so, be careful of who you follow -- if you have to follow anybody.
Anyway -- many would believe that the governmental body of the far future would be entitled something like the "United Federation of Planets" of the fictional Star Trek TV series -- because it assumed that humans will either colonize other planets or other beings from other planets will invite humans to join "the union".
Many astronomers will agree that other extraterrestrial life forms could exist because the numerical odds of other earth-like planets within our own galaxy seem to favor the idea. Whether they exist and have evolved beyond the human-like primate stage is the big question that may or may not be answered in the future.
However, consider the lonely idea for a moment that, because humanity is so unique in the universe, we are just beginning an era of space exploration that could last far into the future.
There was a great action adventure computer simulation program that appeared in the 1990's called FRONTIER ELITE -- where a fictional futuristic scenario exist that allows for a possible reality in which the player can choose most any role of a future citizen. Unlike the Star Trek view of the future, this program has no non-human beings like Vulcans or Klingons to share space with.
Perhaps our world of the far future may be like this program. Or perhaps space exploration as we know it may be limited to traveling only within our own solar system. The fictional idea of the "warp-drive" engine within futuristic spaceships that allows faster than light speed travel is only a scientific theory.
And then again, perhaps future spacecraft will use some sort of transportable electromagnetic generating force-field device on board to "squeeze" the elemental and molecular makeup of the spacecraft into a very long "super-string" charged particle-beam which is capable of traveling faster than the speed of light.
Whatever the case, our future will be exciting because technology will make it exciting.
The power of our technology is almost exploding beyond our control. We have apparently only just recently managed to keep from blowing our world apart by redirecting much of the nuclear weapons once aimed at ourselves -- however, until -- or if, all this nuclear energy is somehow converted into as a usable fuel source, we still run the risk of still causing a chaotic event that will forever change humanity -- and most all other life on this planet.
The world of our future needs the right level of management -- not too much, just the right level. Too much management -- and you have the "big brother" syndrome, and not enough government, you have unruly gangs take over our world -- and anarchy rules. Anarchy is not fun. Neither is absolute political authoritative power of too much government -- particularly any tyrannical global superpower.
In fact, the freedom to have reasonable fun is what any governmental body of the future should recognize. Without it, we, as a tribe of indepentent humans -- who need the spirit of individualism to survive, will not live long on this planet -- or any other.
There seems to be a phenomenon that the older a governmental body exist -- and the bigger it gets, the more it becomes politically corrupt. The people who control "the powers to be" want to keep their control at any cost -- including destroying other people who challenge their control. Much like good food that spoils over time, good governmental organizations spoil overtime by the bad process of political decay.
Bad political actors get involved and hijack the process of government -- and demand more control over citizens -- which leads to bad government.
So -- again, like anarchy -- or no government, big bad government, is not fun either. Humans need a fun way to live without some tyrant taking away their freedoms.
One of the most interesting ways to have physical fun are the sport games we invent. The first recorded human sporting event was a foot race at the first Olympiad.
Based on the length of one stadia -- or 1/20 th of a nautical mile -- which is about 100 yards, the original Olympiad was held once a year to mark an annual event. The 1-day event evolved overtime into other sporting events that later became a five-day event on the 77th Olympiad when the "government" changed from a 7-day weekly count of time to a 10-day weekly count of time.
By the way -- the conventional belief that the original 292 Olympiads were held every 4-years is wrong because new historical data now suggest that they were annual events.
Apparently, some historical scholars made some dating mistakes while compiling the event dates of human history some five centuries ago -- and nobody noticed until recently.
Moreover, the true length of one stadia was also calculated incorrectly by historical scholars some time ago. Instead of what our textbooks say at 609 feet -- the true value of the ancient stadia measurement is about half that value at 304 feet.
One may ask -- why such a major mathematical mistake in translating an important ancient measurement value? It's a long story -- and the answer can be found elsewhere at this website. There are other major historical numerical mistakes regarding conventional human history also found and explained in detail at this website.
Anyway -- back to fun sporting events of long ago. According to Plato, the Atlanteans once had a racecourse for horses that encircled the central islet of their capital seaport. This racecourse was called the Hippodrome and was one stadia wide -- or about 100 yards wide.
And by the way again, although conventional Western History implies the view that horses did not exist in the New World at the time when the first Europeans arrived about five centuries ago because New World natives never rode horses -- a new historical overview of the conventional B.C. / A.D. time-line of Western History now suggest that view is incorrect.
Because Western History was incorrectly created by Judaic scholars in a book called the "Nuremberg Chronicle" about five centuries ago -- which has caused many historical misconceptions of when real dated events happened in human history, the conventional story that all horses in the New World were imported from the Old World, is also not correct -- therefore, horses were never absent from the New World.
Perhaps the Europeans of five centuries ago imported some new species of horses -- the kind human riders with weapons could use to conquer the natives of the New World with -- but again, new historical data suggest that all horses originated in the New World and never left.
In other words, just because New World natives apparently never mastered the art of controlling horses by riding them like when the first Europeans did five centuries ago, does not mean Western History should record the idea that horses did not exist in the New World until five centuries ago.
So, perhaps the first documented sport for fun was a horse race that was held occasionally at the seaport city of Atlantis in what is now a sunken place located at the bottom of a Guatemalan lake in Central America.
Unlike horse racing -- which can be stressful or harmful to the animal, or car racing -- in which one driver is driving the team, sailing water craft include a working crew that can race in a healthy environment.
Now that spectators can experience the action by way of portable cameras, this growing sport offers a world in which many people can experience the technological and physical challenge of true competition between other nations.
And lately, the technology of sailing water craft has accelerated to very high speed out of the water itself. The design of the latest racing "sailboats" are incredible -- they are truely unique flying machines. Perhaps, someday, they will actually fly without touching the water with foils like they do now.
The byproducts of such races are not only a better understanding of water craft design technology, but also a better understanding of ourselves because the more non-violent ways we can physically communicate, the safer the human race and our future will be.