ABSTRACT
A new century began around a decade ago. More important, not only a century, but a millennium came to an end, a dramatically large segment of time in human terms. What changes can we expect to experience in the new century? We can only conjecture about the future, though we know something of the past. Because generations that came before us left a written record, we have some insights on what life was like. When the first thousand years of the Christian Era (also called the Common Era) were ending in Europe (in 999, that is), life for the majority was a grim struggle. Men considered themselves lucky to survive past 30 years, and 50 was considered a ripe old age (although, of course, some lived into their eighties). Women, too, barely made it to their thirtieth birthday, and many died regularly in childbirth.
