In 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, which has guided economists and political thinkers ever since. It marks the start of the Industrial Revolution, which began in England and then spread throughout most of the world. That was 250 years ago.

It is not that long ago—only four life spans or so, the time of your great, great, great grandparents. Where will we be 250 years hence?

Presumably, just as today we listen to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born 270 years ago, and watch or read William Shakespeare, born more than 400 years ago—artists whose works have survived changing tastes and spread far beyond their European origins to countries as varied as Japan, China, Argentina, Tanzania and South Korea—we can be sure that generations to come will have much the same cultural interests.

In all likelihood, in the twenty-third century, we will still enjoy tastes picked up from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—perhaps The Beatles, Pablo Picasso, some of the outstanding Nigerian and Indian novelists writing today, or the pristine recordings of the magnificent Chinese classical violinists and pianists now emerging.

We won’t necessarily have better artists who could rival Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,........

© Eurasia Review