SECTION III: Predicting the Future (Chapters 25-39)

Section III provides concepts (such as the Law of Diminishing Returns) and extensive statistical data that are intended to provide the reader with sufficient information from which to make informed judgments and predictions about the future. In Section III, a chapter is devoted to each of six overarching trends that will likely have great impact on the foreseeable future. The data used to support each of these is presented and discussed in some detail. Lastly, Section III contains a number of chapters devoted to speculation about what the foreseeable future likely holds for humankind.