The Future of Humanity: Do We Have a Chance?

Where is humanity going from here? We should have been building homes on Mars by the end of the 20th century, right? What hope is there for the longevity of the Human race? There is reason to be optimistic…

It was thought — after we landed the first people on the moon — that we would surely be colonizing the solar system by the end of the twentieth century. Still, we find ourselves lashed to the ground, with the furthest humans in a soberingly near, low-earth orbit on the ISS. It can sometimes feel as if no progress is being made towards a better future.

On the other side of the coin, we survived the cold war. Nuclear weapons are still a threat, but not a quite so immediate, civilization-ending one. So no, steps are not drastically being taken in destroying our species, but we also have not spread out beyond the Earth. What odds does humanity have? Where does our future lie without ambition? What decisions must we make now to determine where we will be tomorrow?