Well, it's much more sparsely populated, with huge tracts of wilderness dotted with human cities. Cities yeah - our cities are pretty-much self contained and sustainable, more arcologies than cities really. The wilderness, no longer needed as a resource, instead serves purely as a biosphere regulator and spiritual retreat.
The single biggest priority of this society is education, with massive resources being devoted to research into better teaching methods and materials, creating a society conducive to learning, building libraries, museums and science centers, etc. There is a strong focus on teaching philosophy, ecology, sociology, human psychology and neuroscience from an early age, investing people with a deeper understanding of why and how people, societies and worlds become the way they are, and for them to have a much greater capacity for thinking critically and making their own choices.
With nation states becoming a redundant concept, funding and efforts were gradually diverted away from military activity. Massive resources were freed up to use in other areas of society. Additionally, the massive freeing up of wealth that came about as a result of the worldwide popular takeover of corporate holdings in 2014, has seen research productivity increase by orders of magnitude. With labs no longer working in competitive isolation, knowledge is shared universally and researchers allowed to pool resources and ideas in a cooperative environment based on the Open Source model of the late 20th century. As with software development, this model has proven highly successful in other fields as well.
Most significantly perhaps though was The Event of 2012. All the prophecies had pointed at 21 December being some sort of apocalyptic nexus, and as we'd drawn closer to the date, more and more signs had pointed at these prophecies being correct. December came ... and nothing happened. Despondent, many believers turned away from their religions and embraced compassionate humanist principles based on mutual advantage instead. Of course, we have our die-hards, but they are ever-shrinking minorities being left behind in a different age.
Mina.
