In this octave we combine the structural octave of humans organized in families, communities, and societies with a historical development octave tracing the successive stages of a potentially global civilization—a historical development not as yet completed, and that may in fact be aborted by planetary catastrophe.
About 500,000 years ago, in the Paleolithic era, homo erectus was making clothes of animal skins, dwelling in caves and huts, using fire and hand axes, hunting and gathering. Two hundred thousand years ago, homo sapiens were starting to create cave art and burying their dead, suggesting awareness of life after death.
The most ancient and universal human family unit encompasses five generations—self, siblings, and mates; parents; grandparents; children; grandchildren.
Eight thousand to 12,000 years ago, we see the first village settlements in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Americas. Domestication of dogs, sheep, goats, cattle. Painted pottery appears. Cultivation of corn, squash, rice, wheat, and barley. Gatherers become planters, hunters become herders.
Three thousand five hundred years ago, the first city-states arise, in Sumer, India, and Egypt, with human king-rulers and also ruling deities worshipped in temples by priestly castes. Nation-states and empires arise, compete, conflict, and develop languages and complex overlapping cultures. This phase has lasted for five millennia and continues in our time, in some areas.
At present there are nine such major clusters of societies on Earth, each with multiple alliances and competitive conflicts within each cluster, as well as with nations in other clusters: North American (United States—Canada), Central and South American, Northern/Central European, Mediterranean/Southern European, African, Russian, Chinese and Far Eastern, Southeast Asian, Australia/New Zealand/Pacific Islands. This stage, the previous, and the next are the present conditions of human social evolution, varying in level of development in different parts of the world.
This is also the stage where some peoples and societies are at the beginning of the twenty-first century. How long it will take the nations and peoples of Earth to progress to the next stage is unknown—could be centuries or could be millennia. The threat of worldwide environmental collapse may push nations and societies into the next phase in a matter of a century or two, amid major population reductions due to global famine and disease. There are many discouraging signs, but also some signs, less recognizable, that the next step is possible, even imminent, due to the challenges posed by ecosystem collapse.
The conditions for such a future planet-wide civilization are as follows:
When the above conditions for a worldwide peaceful, cooperative, nonviolent civilization are in process of being fulfilled and protected, then humans will meet the criteria for opening up intensive contact and communication with advanced extraterrestrial civilizations who are ready to assist with advanced technologies, but are bound by interplanetary agreements on noninterference in another planet’s conflicts.
It should be understood that there is nothing preordained about these potential stages of development. Any developmental octave can be derailed at any point and devolve into chaotic and catastrophic processes. This is, in fact, what is happening in the octave of human civilization at the present time. Basically, it all depends on us!