In the early 19th century, the British Empire's Royal Navy planted a quarter million of the finest Oak Trees on Planet Earth; enough to supply them with timber for the next 300 years.
Little did they know that less than 50 years later, wooden sailing ships would be rendered completely obsolete by the Industrial Age. To this day the massive forest of perfectly spaced trees still stands, as a silent warning to humanity that the world to come is a future mere mortals can neither fathom nor prepare for.
The modern world is faced by many similar such problems: International Terrorism, Nuclear Proliferation, and Climate Change but to name a few. And there are many who, like our ancestors, have either given up hope in humanity's future, or proposed the most radical of solutions to ensure our continued survival.
I would remind them all that our species has stared down a proverbial gun barrel many times before, and not only survived, but also thrived, often times in ways we never before could have imagined. To the extent that we lack courage, our doom will become self-fulfilling. But where there is a will to embrace life, there will always with time be a way.
So I would encourage my fellow mortals to lift their gaze toward the future not with the weight of despair, but rather with the levity of hope, just as one looks to the horizon in anticipation of the coming dawn.
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