Indiana’s Bicentennial

By now, if you live in Indiana, you have heard that 2016 is our state’s bicentennial. Indiana became a state in December 1816 and (Yay!) we should celebrate it 200 years later.
This sort of celebration makes me think about the rest of the world, where cities, states, and countries are significantly older than a mere 200 years.

A saying I have heard previously, but read recently in one of the Outlander books– an Englishman thinks 100 miles is a long way and an American thinks 100 years is a long time.

What about older countries, such as China or India?

Do they celebrate such anniversaries by the 100’s or by the 1000’s?

Will the USA one day celebrate a 1000-year anniversary?

What will we be like in 2776?

760 years from now, will things be radically different? I hope that some things will be different.

Seven hundred and sixty years ago (or thereabouts) major event of the time include the signing of the Magna Carta (1215), Genghis Kahn invading China (1211) and the Inquisition begins (1231). Marco Polo and Thomas Aquinas are also famous people from that time.
Education, transportation and communication have changed radically, but have we as a people changed that much? We have better nutrition and hygiene, lower infant mortality, but we could (in theory of course) take someone from that time period and bring them to today, or the reverse, send someone from today back to that time and see if they could blend in.

Are the people so radically different?
How different was 1215 from 1815?

I write stories where the future 100+ years from now shows us a changed world, but it is not radically different from our own. We still recognize most things and people are still people. I once joked that in my future world the BBC still exists!

Over time, even long spans of time, somethings change and some stay constant. How people receive news, sports and weather change a great deal over time but humanity’s interest in news, sports and weather has not. We are also interested in politics and gossip but what that means exactly varies with the times and governmental structure.

What do you think humans will look like in another hundred years? Will we change much? How about 500 years?

Will we experience a “dark ages” where we need to regain lost knowledge or will we continue to accrue our education in a linear fashion?