How Beliefs Influence the Future

As a futurist, I spend a lot of time studying history.  Why?  As Aerosmith frontman, Steven Tyler sings, "We are all somebody from somewhere."  And that somewhere is often revealing.  We can see patterns in history.  Patterns that just might extend from the past to the future.  

One of the surprises of history is what historians refer to as the, "Special Century."  From 1870-1970 massive improvements in the standard of living were achieved across many regions of the world all at the same time.  These levels of improvements had never been seen before. During this period, we went from riding horses to landing on the moon!

A look at the history of technology and we see that during one 5 year period during the Special Century, 1875-1880, telephones, internal combustion engines, electric light bulbs and phonographs were all created.  During another 5 year span, 1900-1905, we invented the radio, air conditioning, vacuums and airplane flight!  Huge inventions that are still in our lives today.