Behind Countdown

I never planned to write a book about humanity's future—I just wanted to ask why we're failing to heed obvious warnings. Countdown to 2100 started as a blog post.

Initially, I planned to write a thought piece on how humans needed to take more accountability for our impact to the planet. The climate change, pollution, displacement of wildlife, and - ultimately - the mass extinction.

As a species we seem to be predisposed to short term self interest over longer term impact and costs. It’s one thing to consider the cost to future generations—that’s at least still about us—but what about the planet itself, and the countless species we’re dragging down with us?

Then the more I thought about it, the more the blog post became about cause and effect, and where it was all heading.

Also... I found myself struggling with my own feelings about the issues. A mix of embarrassment, frustration, anger and feeling powerless to do anything about any of it.

Embarrassment at how we as a species had done so much damage in such a tiny amount of time... really only in a couple of decades. Frustration, that most people intellectually know this, but don't make meaningful changes. Anger, that we don't really want to do anything - we're too locked into our short term ways of thinking. And, ultimately, the reality of just how powerless we are to change anything... and instead, focus on what we're going to end up living with.

Impact of humans on our world

A blog post became an essay, where I identified some of the main threads and how they connected, with a multiplying effect. These included a combination of economic, cultural, political and technological strands.

I broke it down into a number of pillars, and set a timeline through to the end of the century.

The Pillars of the Next 75 Years

In considering the future, we focus on the most dominant and inescapable forces of the coming decades:

1. The Transformation (and Self-Destruction) of Capitalism

Capitalism, as it currently exists, is unsustainable—not because of ideology, but because it is fundamentally a system that demands perpetual growth in a world with finite resources. As the middle class erodes, consumer spending collapses, and AI and automation reduce the need for human labour, capitalism does not disappear—it mutates. The result is an economic order that serves a shrinking elite while redefining the role of work, ownership, and survival for everyone else.

2. The Rise of AI and Post-Human Economics

AI is not a trend—it is a fundamental economic shift that alters the nature of decision-making, governance, and resource allocation. It does not simply replace human workers; it replaces human oversight, human judgement, and human economic participation in ways that are unprecedented. AI is not just a tool of capitalism; it becomes the enforcer of its final stage, determining who works, who earns, and who is simply an irrelevant data point.

3. Climate Collapse, Resource Scarcity, and Energy as the New Currency

The damage to the Earth’s climate is not a future crisis—it is an ongoing process that is accelerating toward thresholds that cannot be undone. Rising sea levels, uninhabitable heat zones, water shortages, and food instability will force mass migration, political upheaval, and the death of global supply chains as we know them. In this world, access to reliable energy will become the new form of geopolitical and economic dominance, replacing traditional currency-based economies with systems that function on kilowatts, stored power, and AI-managed resource distribution.

4. The End of Globalism and the Rise of Self-Preservation

Globalisation, once thought to be the inevitable destiny of human civilisation, is already in retreat. The myth of collective international progress is eroding under the weight of nationalist policies, border militarisation, and the growing realisation that nations—and more importantly, the ultra-wealthy and corporate entities that truly wield power—must look after their own first. The coming decades will see the rise of economic blocs, corporate-controlled city-states, and AI-managed economic zones that function independently of nation-states.

5. The Fragmentation of Human Society

Different parts of the world will move at different speeds. Hyper-automated, AI-governed megacities will exist alongside regions falling into permanent climate disaster, while others deliberately resist AI adoption in favour of human-centric governance models, alternative economic systems, or religious fundamentalism. The future is not a singular path—it is a series of increasingly divergent realities coexisting uneasily on the same planet.

6. The Shifting Meaning of Identity, Culture, and Belief

As capitalism breaks down, work disappears, and AI systems dictate economic outcomes, what does it mean to be human? The structures that once provided meaning—work, ownership, nationalism, family, religion—are rapidly evolving. New ideologies will emerge, some embracing technological transcendence, others retreating into religious conservatism, while others redefine human purpose outside of economic participation entirely.

7. Resistance, Rebellion, and the Search for Meaning

Not everyone will accept these changes passively. Underground economies, AI-resistant communities, and political movements will attempt to push back against the dominance of AI-driven capitalism and economic exclusion. The question is not whether rebellion will occur—but whether it will be effective, or if the mechanisms of control will be too deeply entrenched to dislodge.

Essay with more to say

After going past 30 pages with the essay, I realised I still had more to say.

Frankly... I didn't know who I was saying it to... and still don't necessarily have a clear answer to that. Perhaps it's just a cathartic release... perhaps it's a confession. I don't know. I just felt like I needed to get it out.

The essay got me going into more details, learning about how big the gap between the top 0.1% of the population and the bottom 50% was in terms of a countries wealth, about how our fishing stock in the ocean has fallen by 50% since the mid-century, and just how quickly AI is growing and improving and what it must mean for the future.

And so, I decided to try write a book.

The book writing process

It was actually pretty easy to write the book, insofar as the content just flowed... not neatly, it needed a fair amount of rework... 3 or 4 rewrites per chapter... but it was easy to get that first draft down on paper.

I had excellent support in a pair of AI researchers - specifically Gemini and Grok, which seemed better at fact finding and sourcing articles than GPT. GPT, however was better at helping me refine the flow of the document, and was quick to point out that my initial draft was too dystopian.

That was a tough compromise though, as I did - and do - worry that people want happy endings and hope filled futures... but that thinking seems like a big reason why things are where they are.

The book took about 8 weeks to draft, with another 4 weeks or so to work through editing.

The result is around 78,000 words, an exploration I'm both proud of and humbled by. I don’t know exactly what comes next, but I do know this conversation needs many voices—including yours. Let's talk about what kind of future we’re heading towards, and whether we still have a say in shaping it.

Keep an eye out for the book launch in April.