> If you assume the rate of progress is fixed (which it isn't, as we know, it accelerates), you can get some sense of how farfetched this idea is. 1300 years ag

> If you assume the rate of progress is fixed (which it isn't, as we know, it accelerates), you can get some sense of how farfetched this idea is. 1300 years ago was the year 721 CE. There was no unified Japan then[1] (nor likely even a concept of "Japanese" identity as most imperial practices were modeled from China), nor was there a "Europe," a "Mexico," or a "South Africa." There certainly wasn't the notion of national identity in the modern sense, as such concepts would have been alien to village-dwellers living under feudal lords. The rate of progress can decrease, and even go negative! Consider the concepts of empire and identity from 700 years before your year 721 CE that were entirely replaced by smaller, less-advanced ones. Though I would also be surprised if anything like Japan, China, the US, or Europe as we know them today are recognizable in 1300 years, whether because of advance or collapse (or both!). But some traditions I expect to survive. They'd just be identified as part of whatever the new resulting cultures are that inherited them.