The Tree of Possible Things

I did this pic for a contest on Bernard Werber's website (if you don't know who he is : [link] ). The theme was Werber's books, his works in general, so I picked up the idea of a "tree of possible things".

Think of it as a way to "predict" our future, at least to write it down and foresee as many possible paths as you can, each branch dividing into more distant branches... For example :

present time
╚═ the geopolitical balance is changed drastically
    ╠═ because global warming changes the face of the earth
    ║  ╠═ sea level rises and destroys the biggest cities
    ║  ║  ╠═ we move on and create bigger cities on mountains
    ║  ║  ╚═ Kevin Costner's Waterworld happens
    ║  ╚═ more water in the air causes a new ice age
    ║      ╠═ people create underground cities
    ║      ╚═ making snowmen just isn't funny anymore
    ╚═ because a third world war happens
        ╠═ USSR is back and engulfs western Europe
        ║  ╠═ USA and USSR 2.0 cause a 4th world war
        ║  ╚═ Sting's song "Russians" is a hit again
        ╠═ all developed countries are back to middle-age
        ║  ╠═ Third World countries take over
        ║  ╚═ Mad Max happens
        ╚═ radioactivity makes cockroaches the new dominant species
            ╠═ giant cockroaches eventually recreate atomic weapons
            ╚═ aliens discover the Earth and mock our past glory

(hours of ASCII editing later...)

*ahem* Well... You get the idea. Anyway, that's where my inspiration came from and I tried to apply this concept to our planet as a whole, the "tree" becoming a cosmic thing and each path being symbolized by a star (look closely : there's a bigger star at each branch's end). If you know a bit of Norse mythology, it could as well evoke the world tree Yggdrasil, whose roots and branches were supposed to hold the world together.

I used some space / satellite imagery for the earth and stamped the stars from a photo base as well ; but the tree itself and the nebulous "foliage" were all done by hand.