Quite true. Which also means that the opportunity to educate ourselves just increases with time, so the future could be very positive if humanity gets it together.
I'm actually also hoping that globalisation does the job. Whatever peoples' issues with the globalisation of politics and economics, it does make war less likely. For example, China would never really dump the US dollar (as it has threatened too recently) since although this would maim the US economy, it would also sink its own economy. China needs the US consumer. So it's all rhetoric. Same with Russia. It may excite Russia to fly 'Bears' down the Norwegian coast to meet British fighter jets, but if Russia started a war with the US and UK it would lose untold billions of investment, and even more billions of gas revenues from other Western European countries, who would no doubt also honour their transatlantic alliance when push came to shove.
In the new, fast changing global economy, there's a
very strong correlation between freedom (to buy capital/shares, educate oneself, choose career etc) and prosperity. Any country that chooses to rule by military dictatorship or opressive regime gets left behind in the rat race. On a macro scale, that's a form of justice. On a micro scale, some peoples are already campaigning for change (e.g. Burma). Call me an optimist, but I'm actually a cautious optimist. With a little perseverance, the world just may edge towards that Starfleet utopia that us nerds have wished for all along.
