Project Vision 21

Years, centuries, and millennia pass, and it becomes clear that humanity has neither learned the lessons of the past nor grasped the opportunities of the future. Instead, we insist on returning to —or remaining in— an irrecoverable past, while narrowing the horizon of the future by forgetting (intentionally or not) the futures that are possible.

Over the past two decades, I have often repeated that the future has changed and that, for that very reason, the new future (or emerging future) can only be known from the future. But this does not mean detaching ourselves from the past or attempting to live solely in the infinitesimal and elusive present moment, even though that seems to be the prevailing attitude of our time.

Two recent publications suggest that over the past 2,000 years we have neither advanced, nor evolved, nor progressed as much as we believe we have—and that we are not as intelligent as we assume ourselves to be.

According to a new study (February 2026), published by experts from several Italian universities in the specialized journal Heritage, the northern walls of Pompeii (the city destroyed by Vesuvius in the year 79) reveal that markings on those walls were likely caused by a predecessor of the modern machine gun, known as the polybolos.

Another recent account—a video essay published by Ecos de los Clásicos—explores the work Pro Archia Poeta (In Defense of the Poet Archias), written by Cicero in the first century BCE, in which the famous Roman orator defends Aulus Licinius Archias (his tutor), who was brought to trial after being accused of violating the immigration and citizenship laws of that time.

More than two millennia have passed since the polybolos attack on Pompeii and since Cicero’s intervention before the Roman Senate, and we still use highly destructive automatic weapons and put on trial people who are suddenly considered undocumented due to the passage of new laws.

Becoming aware of this situation, one can no longer say that the emerging future can be known only from the future, because such a task becomes impossible if we remain stuck in the past and if we refuse to see the new future both in the past and in the future.

In the case of the polybolos, researchers used laser scanning and photogrammetry to create three-dimensional models that helped determine the use of a repetitive mechanism capable of launching multiple darts continuously during the siege of Pompeii led by General Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 89 BCE.

Changes in immigration laws in 65 BCE led to the deportation of foreign residents in Rome who could not present proper documentation, as happened to Archias. Cicero described the trial against his tutor as “ridiculous” and “contradictory,” arguing that the accused was already a citizen before arriving in Rome. (The outcome of the trial is unknown.)

Today we face very similar circumstances—though without walls to stop the projectiles and without a Cicero to defend us eloquently. Only by remembering the future will we be able to rethink and re-recognize the past.