Lists graphed from leading sources account for events only so far back as our civilization has the power to rationalize. In order to appreciate the grander scheme of things, reason must be flexed. If there is an asymptotic relationship between the end and the extreme beginning of the greater trend, this may infer two separate possibilities: our relative destruction of and departure from this planet, after which a seed sample of genetic material will prevail to begin a new era of biological evolution; or an ascension of another kind in which our solar system has its reset button pressed.

By the time Al Gore released his Oscar winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth“, few skeptics were left that the world’s climate was changing. Now, Ray Kurzweil — one of the most prolific inventors of the 20th century -  is releasing an eminent documentary of his own. Many futurists, including a growing band of leading scientists, predict that by 2045 we will have multiplied the intelligence of the human-machine civilization a billion-fold and reached the Singularity. Whereas personal computers, videogames and cellphones were the emerging technologies of the 1970′s and 1980′s, today’s include mind-reading headsets, organic computing and nanotechnology. When I . . . . . .