Agreed about the cyclical nature of it all. Personally, I lean towards it trending colder (another Ice Age in the future). Problem is, we really just do not know. The Lord does, and He ain't tellin'. Ultimately, an ice age like the last cycle would be absolutely devastating to mankind. We'd survive, but we sure as hell wouldn't have much, if anything in many of the northern states. Sure as hell wouldn't be growing crops on a mile-high sheet of ice.
Warming is ultimately beneficial to mankind, as you have longer growing seasons. Massive desalination projects might be able to assist some areas that would be adversely affected by drought if we really wanted it. We have the technology. Some of that tech could very well be solar. (solar concentrators powering evaporative captures).
I'm hoping for heat, but my naturally pessimistic nature is expecting cold.
During the last ice age, the Sahara was a grassy steppe, much like Ukraine today. We could all move there. The Russians will.
As the ice sheets retreated, the Sahara dried out, the hunter-gatherers of the Eastern Sahara migrated into the Nile Valley, settled down, and as they say, the rest is history.
The reason I think the longer-term trend is toward a warmer world is that in terms of the geologic history of the earth, it is estimated that permanent ice has existed about 5% of the time. The earth’s natural condition is warmer than today. However, I can also agree with you that we are headed to a colder “ice age” period, as that is the intermediate cycle. The short term cycles are the 20-year warmer/cooler cycles. We are definitely coming out of a 20 year warm cycle, but are now headed into a 20 year cool cycle.