In the nineteenth century various degenerationist theories began to circulate that maintained that civilization or Western culture had entered a period of decline or even that mankind had entered a biological decline. These theories were often prompted by the discovery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the earth was seen as winding down. However, these theories were really a secularized and scientized version of traditional religious notions of a decline from a previous Edenic golden age.
In the twentieth century, these theories were played out in the reactions of socialism, fascism, and communism to the Industrial revolution forecast in the nineteenth century. And in the twenty-first century various environmenal predictions were made concerning the future of human history.
Among the predictions of the past which have proven correct were those of Huxley concerning the rise of a vast pharmaceutical industry to alleviate all human complaints and even depression and those of Wells concerning the creation of a global government and global memory device as seen with the advent of the internet.
In the twentieth century, these theories were played out in the reactions of socialism, fascism, and communism to the Industrial revolution forecast in the nineteenth century. And in the twenty-first century various environmenal predictions were made concerning the future of human history.
Among the predictions of the past which have proven correct were those of Huxley concerning the rise of a vast pharmaceutical industry to alleviate all human complaints and even depression and those of Wells concerning the creation of a global government and global memory device as seen with the advent of the internet.
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