A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

Jacques Attali proposes a scenario in five stages: firstly, the American empire extends its domination for another 20 years, thanks to and based on surveillance technologies. It then retreats in favour of the 11 powers that will dominate the world to various degrees, to the detriment of the Americans, though none of them will manage to take the lead, for technologies will make it possible to work with no need for a new ?core?. Then comes the victory of the commercial empire over the political empire?the ?hyper-empire??to the detriment of States, now outmoded. The demands of transparency then bring inequalities, violence, solitude and illegality, since there are no more States so no more law. Lastly, if we are spared ?hyper-conflict?, next would come the appearance of ?hyper-democracy? (some signs of which are already present), founded on a political modus operandi stretching from local to global and on the economy of freeness and altruism, which Attali sees as the only way to avoid tragedy, or even the end of history.