This raises an interesting point
My personal belief is that Humankind in general is set to follow a certain path, whether by neccessity of survival or by a higher being, i'm not certain. However, how we choose to get there is by our own choice (i.e. a giant maze. there are infinite possibillities of reaching the goal, including backtracking).
Something i'm not too ready to believe in but is the one that i do trust right now is that this only holds true until we reach the stage where we are able to easily settle other planets. At this point, humankind will split up according to their own beliefs and traditions, and raise a planet to a culture's own way.
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