Summary: The timeline of The Long Journey Home traces humanity’s arc from our deep past in indigenous partnership cultures through the rise of domination systems and into a regenerative future. It begins with egalitarian, ecologically rooted societies and moves through the agricultural revolution, the empires of antiquity, the mechanized extraction of the modern age, and the overshoot of the industrial and digital era. As global systems unravel in the 21st and 22nd centuries, new cultural seeds emerge amid collapse, gradually giving rise to regenerative civilizations grounded in reciprocity, biocentrism, and systemic wisdom. The Age of Regeneration is envisioned to take root around 2150 CE, unfolding over the following centuries as the new cultural center of gravity.
This is an article about the Long Journey Home project – a collection of writings from centuries in the future, at a time when humanity has gone through a great crisis and found a more life-centered way of life. It’s meant to inspire and encourage further exploration. See the index for the chapters and articles.
The articles are written by AI with prompts from me. For these articles about the project, I have left the prompt open and general to see what comes out.
Note: I did not prompt the AI for a specific timeline. When it comes to the Age of Regeneration, it may not happen at all if we create a planet inhospitable for creatures such as us. If we survive, it also may not happen at all. The ones of us who survives may not have learned. If it comes, it may also come later than the relatively optimistic (?) estimate of the AI.
I asked the AI a follow-up question on this. See Is the Timeframe for the Age of Regeneration Realistic?
Please share your thoughts below. What did this bring up for you?
The Ages of the Long Journey Home Project
In The Long Journey Home, we trace the long arc of human civilization—from our earliest roots in partnership cultures to the emergence of regenerative societies in the far future. Each age reflects a shift in our relationship with nature, one another, and the sacred. Below is an outline of these ages, organized by historical era and cultural orientation, from the deep past to the regenerative future.
Indigenous Partnership Cultures (The Deep Past / The Age of Belonging)
Timeframe: From human origins (~300,000 BCE) to the Neolithic transition (~10,000 BCE), though in many places lasting much longer
Key features: Forager-hunter societies, high ecological attunement, egalitarianism, animist worldviews, cyclical time, deep connection to place
Notes: Partnership with nature and each other as a lived, embodied reality
Agricultural Revolution and the Emergence of Domination (The Age of Separation Begins)
Timeframe: Roughly 10,000 BCE – 3,000 BCE (with agriculture beginning independently in different places during this span)
Key features: Domestication of plants and animals, permanent settlements, surplus accumulation, early hierarchies, gender roles solidifying, the beginnings of property and institutional religion
Domination Systems Consolidated (The Age of Empire)
Timeframe: ~3,000 BCE – 1500 CE
Key features: Rise of large-scale civilizations, centralized authority, patriarchy, warfare, slavery, monumental religion, hierarchical cosmologies
Examples: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, China, Maya, Inca, Greco-Roman empires, medieval feudal systems
The Age of Expansion and Mechanization (The Age of Extraction and Control)
Timeframe: ~1500 CE – 1945 CE
Key features: European colonialism, capitalism, Enlightenment rationalism, mechanistic science, industrial revolution, massive ecological and cultural displacement
Notes: Enclosure of commons, rise of the modern state, commodification of labor, acceleration of resource extraction
The Age of Overshoot (The Great Acceleration and Unraveling)
Timeframe: ~1945 CE – 2100 CE (approximate span)
Key features: Globalization, mass consumerism, digital technologies, planetary-scale environmental destruction, climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, social disintegration
Turning point: Increasing recognition of ecological limits and systemic collapse
Notes: Also known as the “Anthropocene” by many scholars
The Age of Collapse and Transformation (The Threshold Era)
Timeframe: ~2025 – 2150 CE (approximate span)
Key features: Societal fragmentation, collapse of major systems (economic, ecological, political), experimentation with alternatives, return of place-based and relational worldviews
Notes: A period of both breakdown and breakthrough; the crucible from which the Age of Regeneration begins to emerge
The Age of Regeneration (The Emergence of Partnership Civilizations)
Estimated timeframe: ~2150 – 2500+ CE (beginning in pockets earlier, spreading through centuries)
Key features: Biocentric worldviews, decentralized governance, ecological restoration, intergenerational and interspecies justice, integration of ancient wisdom and appropriate technologies
Notes: Not a utopia, but a mature culture of humility, reciprocity, and systemic wisdom. The new cultural center of gravity.