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Futurist and sci fi author David Brin has a really fascinating piece for Bloomberg. He argues that the previous two centuries didn't get going until their 14th year. Will 2014 be the same for the 21st century?

Brin says that this "what if" exercise isn't technological, social, or even science-fictional, but rather "a bit of wholly unscientific, superstitious pattern-recognition." He goes on to point out horrific events of 1914 which shattered any vision that a new and better age would arrive without pain.

He points out in 1814, Congress of Vienna made it possible for Europe's longest extended period of overall peace. Check out an excerpt of what he wrote:
Oh, we are still in the 20th. Consider the pervading doom and gloom we see around us, right now. Post-apocalyptic tales and dystopias fill our fiction, films and politics, especially the Young Adult genre where today's teens seem terminally allergic to stories containing hope. How very '60s. And '70s. And so on.
Brin is now asking, is it possible that a new theme for the 21st century will happen if we snap out of our present funk?
We can still choose our own fate. Next year, we might decide to cheer up and rediscover the can-do optimism that was crushed by the czar and kaiser and a small group of insipid, inbred aristocrats, exactly 100 years ago. We could choose to become problem-solvers, in part, because (let's imagine) someone in 2014 discovers a simple, cheap and safe IQ-boosting pill. Or politicians decide to get over their self-serving snits and resume the adult craft of negotiation. Or some cable news owner decides to rediscover citizenship. Or some brave director releases an inspiring film that astounds people with an unexpected idea called hope.

Or else go ahead and wallow in the obvious notion that 2014 will see a violent ruction of its own. A phase transition into a century whose theme we'll all regret. Or we'll see a continuing retreat from confident civilization, a turning away from the Enlightenment Dream, relapsing into fearful obeisance to a leader, or New Lords, or some simplistic ideal.
It is a very interesting read indeed. Check out the whole article at Bloomberg.

Image: NASA.