Contrary to popular belief, history is not the story of the past.  It is the study of the future. Also, contrary to general belief, the present does not exist.  The present is simply the razor’s edge of where the past meets the future. Humans are the same today as we were in the cave.  Every glitch and blessing of our personalities and world view is the same. All that was will return because it never went away. The key to our survival is understanding there are dead-end streets into which we should not blunder. If you want to predict the future, study the past. Quoting Winston Churchill, “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”