As a long time Science Fiction fan I have read a lot of Asimov and Heinlein, Arthur Clarke. Most of them dealt with the far distant future, as the near term is a crapshoot.
Reading about the Cuban Missile crisis, and looking back on the situation through history, we had two chances right then to have had WW3. The great news is JFK was the perfect president at the time, and ignored the advice of the military to strike. We know now what he did not, the Russians were ready on the island for an invasion.
Even scarier was a Russian submarine was underwater with no communications to Moscow. The captain ordered the launch of a nuke, but the political officer, and the other man with the second key both said no, risking court marshal, and life in prison or execution to defy the captain. They demanded they surface and get confirmation from Moscow. When they surfaced an American destroyer had guns aimed at them, but did not fire. They called Moscow and were told to stand down, and return home.
We were literally just seconds away from WW3. With luck, we will never get that close again, but China and Russia and North Korea are all just unpredictable. Hopefully all of them understand just one of our nuclear submarines can lay waist to their major cities, and we have lots of subs.
I honestly hope for a Start Trek future, where technology has solved most problems. Imagine a future where a replicator can make you any meal, diamonds, gold or component. Money is no longer really needed as everyone has access to resources. Pop into a transporter and travel to any place on Earth instantly. Medicine can fix and cure about anything.
All we need is some Dilithium Chrystals.
