Well, this presumes that there is progress in human affairs, and eventually we will reach the highest state of consciousness. I see it in a different way: I see a rise and fall of rationality (and consciousness) throughout history, with each civilization experiencing its own 'spiral' upward, until physical and ecological reality takes over and resets the entire experiment - predictably resulting in a dark age. This time however, with the advent of fossil fuels, we have kicked the ball a bit too high and used up all easy to access resources in the process - leaving very little for later civilizations to build their world from. If there will be generations after ours - surviving the climate change - their societies will be less material and more spiritual - they will have no other choice.