As I. F. Clarke noted at the start of this series, new technologies and the growth of populations were the primary factors that encouraged the first speculations about 'the progress of society' in the 19th century. In the 20th century an ever-growing body of trend analysts and forecasters has sought to keep pace with the accelerating speed of technological development and the consequent increasing complexity of life throughout the industrialized nations. So, I. F. Clarke will seek to show in the next two articles that war and the possibilities of warfare have been most potent factors in the growth of future-thinking ever since the end of World War I. His narrative follows the classic lines of Greek tragedy-from the hubris that grows out of the dream of power to the nemesis-to-come in anticipations of burning cities and a world inherited by the insects and bacteria.
