The collapse of western civilization a view from the future the year is 2393 and a senior scholar of the second peoples republic of china presents a gripping and deeply disturbing account of how the children of the enlightenment the political and economic elites of the so called advanced industrial societies entered into a penumbral period in . The collapse of western civilization a view from the future is a pertinent quick to digest distopic analysis in which the narrator a historian living in the fictitious second peoples republic of china 2393 accounts for the catastrophic far reaching consequences of the denial of anthropogenic climate change. Collapse of western civilization a view from the future daedalus the journal ofthe american academy of arts sciences governance to protect the planet and its denizens a year later the montreal pro tocol to control substances that deplete the ozone layer became a model for an international framework to control green house gases. Authors note science fiction writers construct an imaginary future historians attempt to reconstruct the past ultimately both are seeking to understand the present in this essay we blend the two genres to imagine a future historian looking back on a past that is our present and possible future the occasion is the tercentenary of the end of western culture 1540 2073 the dilemma