Breakdown of Er meint, die virtuelle Realität werde die Menschheit retten.
er
he
retten
to save (rescue)
meinen
to mean (to have an opinion, intend)
werden
will (future auxiliary)
Questions & Answers about Er meint, die virtuelle Realität werde die Menschheit retten.
Why is it werde instead of the normal future tense wird?
Because this is reported speech. To show that this is someone else's opinion, German uses Konjunktiv I. For the future tense in Konjunktiv I, we use the Konjunktiv I form of the auxiliary verb werden (which is werde for the third-person singular) plus the infinitive retten at the end.
Could we use würde here instead of werde?
No, you should use werde. The form würde is Konjunktiv II. In reported speech, we only fall back to Konjunktiv II if the Konjunktiv I form is identical to the normal indicative form. Since the indicative is wird and the Konjunktiv I is werde, they are distinct, so we must stick to Konjunktiv I.
I thought subordinate clauses put the conjugated verb at the end. Why is werde in the second position here?
This is a reported speech clause where the conjunction dass (that) has been left out. When you omit dass, the reported sentence takes normal main-clause word order with the verb in position 2. If you included the conjunction, the verb would go to the end: Er meint, dass die virtuelle Realität die Menschheit retten werde.
In English, we just say 'humanity' without an article. Why does German use die Menschheit?
German frequently requires definite articles for abstract concepts and broad, all-encompassing categories (like life, nature, or humanity) where English naturally leaves them out.