A Brief History of the Future. An Account of the Round Table with Jacques Attali Organized by Futuribles International in March 2007

Futuribles International invited Jacques Attali to a Round Table on 8 March 2007 to talk about his recent book Une brève histoire de l’avenir (Paris: Fayard, 2006). The book is disturbing because it discusses the future as if it had already happened. It recounts the future as Jacques Attali perceives it, his aim being to uncover what is unchanging, what drives history, and then see where the trends lead and extrapolate the changes that result. As well as wishing to explicate the changes ahead, Jacques Attali would like to warn us about certain aspects of the future and therefore to try to stop it from happening. We publish here an account of the Round Table.