The Future of the World: Humanity in the Planetary Civilization

Abstract

What does it mean to be human when the future is being engineered for us? Written from the northern tip of Sumatra rather than from Silicon Valley, The Future of the World is a bold, wide-ranging meditation on the civilization now taking shape around us—what the author calls the Planetary Civilization. Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, the study of the future, and a scholar's long engagement with geopolitics, security, and intelligence, Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad asks the question that artificial intelligence has made unavoidable: Will we enter the coming age as its authors or as its objects? Across six chapters, the book traces how human consciousness is reproduced, how the mind is engineered, how ideas clash, and how everyday behavior is being rewritten—from the filter bubble and the attention economy to surveillance, neurotechnology, autonomous machines, and the "religion of data." It places the great debates of our moment—Harari's Homo Deus, the rise of generative AI, and the contest between cognition and consciousness—alongside something the global bestsellers rarely offer: the view from the periphery and the spiritual dimension of human knowing. Originally published in Indonesian and now reconstructed, expanded, and updated to 2026 for international readers, this edition includes a chapter-by-chapter argument map so the reader can follow the flow of every chapter at a glance.