The comeback of the future

Since the beginning of the new millenium, our perception has changed: the future is back.

During the fifties and the sixties, positive utopias were still present. Architects imagined new radiant cities. Human kind was expected to expand itself in the planets or under the sea.

This attraction for the future ended during the sixties and the seventies. The main feature of the "postmodern" period was the end of the "big stories" The oil price dropped and noting seemed able to stop the economic expansion. The system seemed to run by itself and the politics became ultraliberal. There way no need to think about the future.

And then occured the crisis. Furthermore, it appeared that humankind was transforming nature and the planet at a rate much more rapid than ever during the whole Earth history. We have entered in a new geological era: the Anthropocene, during which the Earth system is transformed at a high speed. Biodiversity is dramatically reduced, landscapes  are modified, the climate changes. Some of the consequences can be quite accurately predicted. Thus, it is possible to model and predict climate changes likely to occur. What should be done in order to avoid a major breakdown is quite reasonably well known. Anticipating the future is no more only a possibility or even an option. It becomes a necessity.