A number of factors will influence the future evolution of humanity, including how people view and deal with change in general as well as the different models of the processes of evolution and change transforming our world and different substantive stages of evolution—in physical, biological, cultural, technological and consciousness areas. Additional factors will include “wild cards”; the emergence of increasingly diverse and complex system levels over time; the movement of humanity into space; military interests in space; the extinction of species and dangers to ecological systems; future energy sources; interspecies interaction; the eventual birth of “hybrid” offspring from humans and “alien” species; and the contributions of different cultural–religious traditions. Longer-term factors include the evolution of our solar system; the evolution and fate of the Universe itself and the possible evolution of consciousness to other dimensions of reality.
