Great commentary. The idea that insights on history, society, future and humanity can be obtained by studying existing history and extrapolating it, is called

Great commentary. The idea that insights on history, society, future and humanity can be obtained by studying existing history and extrapolating it, is called historicism. Unfortunately, we don't actually know whether it works or it's a completely misguided school(s) of thought. It's simply impossible to do any controlled experiment on the history and society. From time to time, I'll imagine how many of our serious social problems can be completely solved if it's possible to simulate the past and future accurately using a sandbox, allowing hypothesis and policies to be tested. And it's not a new idea in SciFi, for example, Isaac Asimov's Psychohistory is one.