2100.org

Once upon a time... a hundred years in the future

The disarray wrought by the media

History will remember the end of the 20th century as a period free from worry. The world seemed to be following a path of peaceful development. Technology had achieved its millenary dream of humankind's first step on the moon after subduing its bellicose instincts through the incredible destructive power of Hiroshima. Everything seemed possible and the only thing left was to take our dreams for reality. Psychoanalysis encouraged this and mass consumption pushed us to gratify all our dreams. The human species saw pleasure without limit and total comfort on the horizon. But disarray was already beginning to sprout beneath this carefree ambience. Excess choice was disturbing our spirits, and routine and dependence, similar to those generated by drugs were surreptitiously settling in. Under the pretext of liberating desire, commerce had in fact subjugated it to its profit.

With the first oil crisis, society began to suffer from disturbing jolts. Indications of the future were there but they received little attention. Our spirits were still preoccupied with old structures, conflicts and habits and took little heed of the germination of a new age. Few people risked looking into the future as most believed that forecasts beyond ten years were unreliable. Anyway, what was the point of looking so far ahead?

The financial world, now interconnected, bubbles with speculation but distances itself from reality. It swells upon its own fantasies but, like an enormous soufflé, risks collapsing at any moment. The wave of investments to equip developing countries allows the currency afloat to be anchored in tangible operations. After Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, it is now the turn of Vietnam, China and Eastern Europe. When Hong Kong becomes part of the Chinese continent again, the Chinese business diaspora will take control of the Middle Kingdom. As in a game of Go, the periphery invests in the centre.

Capitalist fever spreads throughout the world even in deepest Africa. As in the nineteenth century, the order of the day is "make your fortune". The beginnings of the crisis are reabsorbed by releasing monetary constraints, as the money machine can resolve all difficulties. It is as if the world is intoxicated by money and it seems the human species has given up its goal of constructing civilization. It behaves as if possessed, disciples of the sect of the invisible hand (of the market).

During this unsettled period, many become rich by dubious means. Adventurers set up financial coups worth billions of dollars. In one hour a New York raider can raise the equivalent of the combined yearly income of millions of Indian peasants. The distinction between the financial markets and a video game of monopoly becomes blurred. The usual operators are joined by crowds of anonymous individuals able to intervene directly on the stock market via their terminals amplifying its disruptions. The virus lodged in a pirated game software which almost brought down the Singapore stock exchange and through contamination, the interconnected world system is still recalled with horror. "Order" was quickly re-established and protective mechanisms set up but who can control rumours?

The intoxification of information is beginning to have an effect. Rationality lessens and credulity is more and more exploited. Companies have their own gurus and even their sorcerers. Consultants array themselves in the occult and trainers introduce initiation rites. Spells are cast upon competitors and sacrifices are offered to preserve the loyalty of clients. Rumours abound that major banks are practising ritual dances in the bank vaults in secret; voodoo penetrates the cult of the golden calf !

The better educated are just as likely to succumb. There is more than one type of teaching. The education model of the developed countries set up in the latter part of the nineteenth century has gradually drifted away from its objectives. Its content has become more and more abstract and formal with little relation to practical knowledge. Even professional training teaches one to be able to "speak about" rather than to be able "to do". Education has become a filter for social selection as in the time of Imperial China and the examination for mandarins.

In the Ottoman empire those with education were referred to as "Effendi" in contrast to the fellah, the productive but ignorant peasant. The effendia are the educated class who know - and actually make up - bureaucratic formalities. They are now found everywhere, the substance of power in large companies as in government services. In the United States the more gifted seek to become lawyers or "managers" and forsake technological studies. In Europe too, those exercising power take pride of place.

At the end of the 20th century, the ancient colonies hastened to construct their own universities producing effendias in imitation of their ex-colonial masters. However, at just this moment of time productivity in these countries dropped alarmingly, under the weight of a technically incompetent army of chiefs, unable to repair the devices they use daily, such as the telephone or car.

Independence has not brought prosperity to the decolonized countries. They now have ruling classes of an exquisite charm and culture while their economies sag. Yet the natural resources of, for instance, Zaire, Tunisia or Cambodia are sufficient to feed their inhabitants and only need to be valorized. Their economies however have not reached the moment of take off as the problems which must be practically resolved are neither within the interests nor form part of the knowledge of their elites. There is a manifest lack of entrepreneurs with their solid common sense, practical knowledge and unflagging efficiency.

Adding to the problem, as the Effendi now have the same diplomas as their colleagues in the richer countries, they want to partake of the same standard of life. To achieve this, they exhaust their peoples' meagre resources. Because, by definition, the effendi is a predator. However, similarly to all other predators his actions are not purely destructive, they also have a positive aspect creating the seeds for a global civil society, and a social class with international ramifications. They manifest a hankering for a new culture, opposed to violence and protecting nature.

While the oil crisis was accompanied by bursts of unemployment in the developed countries, it did not resolve the difficulties of the oil producers. Here again hopes were not fulfilled. The revenue from the black gold seemed like the revenge of humiliated countries but this gift from God was confusedly seen as an excuse to do nothing. So instead of encouraging progress, this unearned gift brought decline. Oil seems to engender madness and only steel-hardened souls are able to resist this spreading intoxication. Dictatorships, corruption, nepotism, and fundamentalism are found wherever it flows, and the abuse of power and refusal of all questioning or change prevail everywhere. Black gold gives off a diabolical perfume.

Overall, however, social exclusion is growing at an alarming rate. Who would have dared imagine in the golden sixties that by the year 2000, the homeless would be strewn around the underground platforms of the greatest cities while violence would reign in the suburbs. Extreme violence and abject poverty are rampant in the largest town of the richest state of the richest country in the world, namely Los Angeles. It is clear that economic development ends in absurdity but no-one is sure why or how it happens.

There is ample evidence that humanity is experiencing an exceptional moment in its history. World population grew from 250 to 650 millions between the year 0 and the beginning of the eighteenth century. It is now 6 billion, nine times as much. Every three years it increases by 250 million, the total population at the time of Christ. The freeing of productive and creative forces has resulted in the most fantastic demographic explosion in the history of humanity.

Despite this, the countryside is depopulating. A human tide is converging on the large cities where life becomes ever more difficult, reversing this tendency. Contraception, already practised by one in two women of child bearing age, is spreading throughout all cultures, throwing over ethnic and religious prejudices. Signs of natural stabilization are appearing and it has been predicted that world population will reach its highest point of around 13 billions, shortly after 2100.

The reasons for this pattern of evolution have not been clearly established. Why was there an outburst of creative energy as soon as human's rights began to be respected. Why are births now being voluntarily limited even though productivity per individual is higher than it has ever been. What is the source of this disarray, this anxiety and these difficulties of urban life?

It is only recently, at the beginning of the twenty-first century that intellectuals began to accept that these various phenomena all had the same cause. Admittedly the current state of scientific research renders the expression of any new vision difficult. There are more scientists now alive, than have lived in the whole period since classical times and more is published each year than ever previously, but this body of knowledge is scattered about in a myriad of subjects. This division of knowledge and its confiscation by bureaucratic effendias encourages more and more detailed observations in ever narrower fields. But it exposes any attempts at synthesis to the crossfire of the chiefs in place who each defend their own particular approach.

Now, to understand what is happening today knowledge of one field or even two or three is not enough. At one and the same time one has to be capable of understanding how society engenders its technology (the mechanisms of innovation) and the converse process of how society itself is transformed by the new technology it creates. From the end of the 20th century, philosophers were explaining that the evolution of tools was similar to that of animal organs. They are in a way external organs. Wo/Man externalizes the functions of her/his body via them. Mechanization means much less muscular effort is required, while a new technological system based on computers and telecommunications means people can delegate parts of their cerebral functions.

At each stage there is a marked increase in power paid for by a loss of know-how. The modern urbanite could no longer survive at the forest's edge in the Omo valley where our species began its brilliant journey.

Farming was still an autonomous activity at the beginning of the 20th century. Everybody could more or less turn their hand to anything. In the year 2000, farmers have to go to the supermarket to feed themselves. Overspecialized, they cannot even live off their own production. As for the modern urban citizen, once s/he has lost her/his work, s/he has even less of a base s/he can fall back on, and has to rely on others, causing anxiety and a return to idolatry.

As concerns the economic aspects, a business consultant called Isidore Ducasse was responsible for identifying the causes and outlining the remedies. He stated that seeing and representing the economy as a flow of products with its concomitant flow of money, the whole being regulated by market forces, while not untrue was only looking at the visible manifestations of another underlying reality ; the evolution of knowledge and know-how. He asserted that we were now living in a cognitive society characterized by overproduction, exclusion, over-information, disinformation and dependency. Following on from the exploitation of economic weakness denounced by Marx we now suffered from the exploitation of psychic weakness.

As in the first half of the nineteenth century, technology has been developing at an incredible speed, prancing before a lost and destabilized population. Everyday practical knowledge cannot keep pace with it anymore. Even means of communication, which in theory serve to link people, often exclude them in practice. While some represent extraordinary achievements, this cannot disguise the dislocation with the masses. Complete sections of society fail to keep up and become outcasts. Having lost the habit of using their skills, people become prey to a spiral of downfall. Civilization is much more fragile than is apparent.

So is nature. The ecological damage caused by humanity has not in general woken up scientists to the danger. Apart from a few Cassandras, they consider their role to be one of reassuring the public and not alarming it. To accuse oil, cars, and excess packaging would be to risk irritating potential fund-providers at the very moment when civil industry needs to assume greater importance with the fall in military orders. Grants are more important than awareness. We have not yet reached a stage where researchers are confident enough of their role to present their findings to the public even when they displease lobbies.

Thus few are prepared to explain how agriculture and industry contribute to the desertification of the earth and changes in its climate. It has been demonstrated without question that, over a time scale of thousands of years, vegetation often no longer grows where man has been. Mesopotamia, the bread basket of the ancient world, the cradle of civilization, is now a desert. The American Middle West suffers from a lack of water and signs of desertification are appearing even amid the luxurious growth of the Amazonian region. Clouds pass without stopping over areas where the vegetation has been too reduced, and deforestation spreads as a consequence of the effendis' frenzy for paper. Local atmospheric disturbances spiral throughout a continent and then world-wide. Typhoons have become more violent, droughts more severe and rainfall more torrential. The monsoon season is delayed and when the rain does fall it's a sudden deluge. Paradoxically both drought and flooding are rampant, but officialdom tells us not to panic as the overall volume of precipitation remains much the same, so why worry?

This general lessening of conscience on the part of scientists and technologists more concerned with their careers and grants than with a moral code highlights the exemplary courage of the few exceptions such as Toshimo Katoh, a Brazilian of Japanese origin and winner of the Nobel Prize for Ethology, who from the beginning of the century, leads a crusade for the protection of nature throughout South America. While finishing filming a series of programmes on the massacre of the forest on location, Katoh is ambushed by a group of mercenaries in the pay of powerful Zebu (the Asian ox) ranchers who make their fortune from insipid hamburgers sold to customers dulled by a diet of American fast food. He is killed on the spot and his body thrown to the crocodiles. His cameraman manages to film the scene and escape and the episode is shown on television throughout the world.

The Japanese academy is the first to react, calling for its blood-brothers to be protected from barbarity. Next the Swedish and the Europeans in general protest at the murder of a Nobel prize winner. The media everywhere force the scientific establishment to speak out and the conscience of the scientific community is shaken out of its torpor. As a result of this atrocity many intellectuals call for "crimes against nature" to be prosecuted in the same manner as "crimes against humanity".

Due to television and the cinema a whole generation has grown up with images of animals in front of their eyes. The media now defend nature, striking a chord in the richer countries. Public opinion is moved. The way people live has changed with a revival of consumer movements, "organic" food, complementary medicine, ecological tourism. The political class is not quite sure how to react. Initially it allays suspicion by declarations of intent. But pressure from the media intensifies as if a planetary conscience is being born.

On a more practical level, the idea of using taxation as a solution gains ground. Since feudal times money has been garnered wherever it is found and a mish mash of taxes has grown up, reflecting the powerful influences of the time. However, it would be possible to levy taxation according to rational and modern principles such as encouraging taxpayers to act in the general interest. Thus, for instance, your car tax will be more expensive if your diesel car is old, poorly serviced, smelly and noisy than if you have a new, clean, silent car. This is a way of controlling a wasteful economy and making each individual responsible for the cost to society of his/her actions.

Ecology also raises the question of interference in the internal affairs of other countries. A temporary coalition cannot stop Brazil destroying the Amazon. A maritime international police force is needed to stop and board polluters and prevent destruction of endangered species. Joint control of spy satellites, and even powers of expropriation to set up nature parks and reforestation of the planet would be necessary. The Nation-State is too narrow a framework, too small for major undertakings and too large for small purposes but no way has yet been found to do without it. The territorial principle is still recognized everywhere.

So the law is bypassed before being reformed. Implicit and then official powers are given to new independent organizations, such as Greenpeace, which are allowed to operate on national territory in competition with the agencies of the U.N., the latter seen as too slow moving, and difficult to eject when disagreements occur. Negotiations drag on. More than forty years (1950-1992) were necessary to build the European Community, which is only a free trade area. But this time, the pressure of public opinion results in faster action. People are exasperated with pollution in the large cities, causing pulmonary illnesses. In all countries there is a desire for reforestation, replacing petrol, oil and kerosene by hydrogen and for monitoring all industries.

In 2004 a consortium of depolluting agencies led by the Greater Water Company uses the occasion of the Olympic Games to organize the first world-wide referendum on the Internet. In response to the question "Do you believe a world ecotax is necessary?" 68% reply yes, 15% no, and 17% don't care. The majority in favour is overwhelming even where it was not expected to be. For example, the Inuit Eskimos voted on a massive scale. For the first time they were asked for their opinion and used the occasion to express their love of nature and their concerns to the whole world. The fashion for tourism in northern climes had made them painfully aware of the lack of care of the so-called civilized races. It takes a further ten years of negotiations to implement the tax and those paying are to a certain extent able to choose the recipients of their money. By 2015 everyone can contribute directly to one of the major NGOs concerned with protecting nature, to a fund for the forest, for endangered species or for clean technologies.

This change of direction, following a period of nationalistic sectarianism also owed much to a transformation in military attitudes. The over-abundance of armaments in the world in 1990 at the time of the opening up of the Eastern Bloc was enough to scare anyone. While no-one could imagine that anybody would use a nuclear bomb or even more, biological weapons, the great powers continued to order weapons to sustain their industries and be able to carry on giving the impression of still being major powers. Other countries tried to procure weapons by indirect means. Sheltered by their nuclear umbrella, the industrialized countries could engage in this lucrative armament trade, in complete peace of mind, stirring up many localized conflicts in the Third World.

The Gulf war, coming to the boil at a time when there was a danger of the petrol price and weapons' orders collapsing, restored the sagging credibility of the Western powers. It was also the first financially beneficial war for the U.S. and served as a fantastic test bench and demonstration site for a new generation of weapons, enhanced by computer technology. The military-industrial lobby hoped it represented a renewal of world-wide exploitation of residual, tribal and religious aggression.

Nevertheless, available money for military procurements is globally declining. War is becoming a media event and terrorist acts have a greater impact on the public than battles. They are not so suitable for industrialists as they consume very few arms. Sparing life brings a greater "reward" than killing. The aim of the game is to be the good guy, saving lives. Kidnappings are carried out by obscure, uncontrolled factions while negotiations are overseen by representative organizations who can then claim to have been responsible for the liberation of the hostages and even for a change of heart by the kidnappers. Obviously this is all just a set up but at least it shows that the military have gained in subtlety what they have lost in force.

The values of the new age are starting to spread gradually but widely. Power, which has held sway since the time of Machiavelli, already seems like a relic of the past. The Serbs are the first to suffer the bitter experience of this new reality. Those who would have been treated as nationalist heroes fifty years ago are now presented as criminals who have broken the law.

On drawing up an inventory of their assignments, the realization dawns that the armed forces are in reality employed in civil protection tasks and policing the environment. They prevent petrol tankers discharging at sea, help put out large fires and aid victims of catastrophes. Their "all weather" emergency equipment, while not perfect, is often the only appropriate equipment available in crisis. Are these assignments, previously seen as marginal and secondary, in the process of becoming the principal activity of the army ? Can one imagine that the armed forces of different countries competing for media attention, will hurry to provide assistance in earthquake or flood disaster areas and vie with each other to be quicker and more efficient, instead of waiting, armed to the teeth, in their barracks for a hypothetical enemy? Young conscripts find this a useful training and governments gain in popularity.

The turning point is reached in 1999 when an SDI satellite is used in a rescue in the Andes mountain range. Arms manufacturers realize that they can receive orders for a new generation of equipment just as, if not more sophisticated than the old one. The military-industrial complex takes up the causes of defence of the environment and humanitarian actions, already tried out in Bosnia. As a sign of its good intentions France transforms the Mururoa site, now no more than a symbol of evil, into a bird reserve.

By 2015 this "show business" society, boasts on average one screen for every four people. Direct television transmitters and satellites irrigate even the most remote areas. High-powered authorities treat television favourably and divert it for propaganda purposes. Messages can be rained down onto several millions passive and energyless spectators using just a few dozen transmitters. By contrast the telephone and its extension, the Internet, which are personal instruments, are only found in industrialized countries and amongst the ruling classes of poor countries. On average television is watched for more than two hours daily, a veritable "entertainment" society, though this window on the world also opens awareness. The image betrays those who believe they control it. The face of freedom slowly emerges from out of the kaleidoscope of trivial events and the mist enveloping official doctrines.

While television is centralized, the telephone is decentralized. The former represents messianic centralized power while the latter is the nervous system of civil society, made up of personal links and transactions. The collapse of Eastern Europe shows that any authoritarian system will internally collapse once there are more than ten telephone lines per 100 inhabitants and transnational television stations can be received. In the meantime the poorly equipped countries of the south are temporarily at the mercy of a return to old forms of authority. Thus, the world is divided in two, a minority (a quarter of the world population) enjoys the right to speak out while the majority (three quarters of the world population) does not.

An outbreak of fundamentalist powers replace the rationalist regimes which emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, and their rise, facilitated by ignorance, is instantly disseminated by the media. In 2008, India is the unfortunate setting for a fratricidal struggle between Muslim and Hindu fundamentalists which is only prevented from degenerating into a nuclear conflict by the co-ordinated intervention of the super-powers.

From the beginning of the twenty-first century onwards the map of wealth coincides with that of the density of the network. Small firms, on which prosperity is founded, cannot carry out their trade and grow, without using this tool which provides instantaneous contact with clients, suppliers and banks. In fact, all social organization is being smoothly transformed by this new form of communication. The decline of the Nation-State continues and the new form of socialization is the firm which fits naturally into this decentralized communication network.

This development is a consequence of the spread of a new system of technology. Humanity finds itself in a totally new situation, never previously experienced in its two million years of existence, it can instantly communicate from one end of the globe to the other. While one can be awed by the achievement it is also important to consider the consequences. Mac Luhan heralded the "global village". In reality what we see is the emergence of not one but many global villages, each structured around a common interest i.e. the neuro-physiologists village, the stamp collectors village, the Formula 1 drivers village. Previously geographically limited, the distance of communication and society was structured according to territories, for hunting, fishing or farming. From now on however proximity is defined abstractly, within a mental landscape. During the next century the world will be progressively restructured according to interests and activities. This new pattern, a sort of slow motion catastrophe, forms the substance of the present scenario.

This mediatized society is still not aware of the human drama taking place before its very eyes despite its abundance of information. While journalists are curious, they prefer to spend time in comfortable hotels rather than visit squalid and dangerous areas of cities where even the police no longer dare go. Yet, one and half billion human beings out of a total of six billion have migrated from the countryside to the city, either driven away by the competition of industrialized farming or attracted by the whirl of city life like moths to light. By 2005 half of the world population is urbanized. The children of these inner cities, slums and townships are born cut off from any means of survival ; traditional, rural know-how is no longer passed on to them. More or less illiterate, modern technology passes them by; they are doomed to exclusion. Modern automated production can do without them, the rich today no longer need the poor. These outcasts (twenty per cent of adolescents) become "urban savages". They have nothing to lose. They invent new ways of survival with the city as their jungle. They organize themselves into gangs with international alliances and provide a favourable breeding ground for sects, fundamentalist movements and the mafia.

Persisting in their analysis to its logical end, the initial reaction of the ruling classes is one of protection. Relying on themselves alone, they employ private militia and purchase sophisticated protective equipment. Factories and offices take on the characteristics of electronic surveillance bunkers. Whole residential areas inhabited by the rich and elderly are placed under reinforced protection. But these devices are undermined from within : protectors are also predators. Guards and robbers are cousins, they come from the same background. Those with nothing to lose are prepared to take risks. There are mass movements, attacks by armed gangs, hostage taking, and more than anything else unpredictable sabotages (electricity, water, telephone). The media dramatize the situation.

Even nuclear weapons are of no use in the face of such pandemonium. Wars between nations with a clearly identifiable enemy had been foreseen but these attacks are anonymous and the aggressors disappear into the crowd. The new minaturized laser beams carried by tracking robots represent a new generation of weapons capable, sometime in the future, of selectively striking one individual in the labyrinths of the city. The military name it "nanosurgical strike". However, the problem is to identify the suspect. But, in 2007, under the urging of Interpol, world-wide authorization is given for each known delinquent or criminal to undergo a small surgical operation on arrest: a magnetic bar code, recognized universally, is implanted in the hip bone. Now simple detection devices can signal their presence in any public place and they can be followed by tracking robots without fear of error. The expression "I've been done" takes on a new and concrete meaning and creates fear not only amongst the underworld but also in peaceful citizens as in some countries no one is safe from being arrested and marked.

One can only allude to this period as being a diabolical era (etymologically dia-ballein - divided in two). This is a stage in development. A unified conscience can only become incarnate after having passed through this extreme separation into two. An analysis based on dualism - opposing success and failure - permeates society. Winners and losers, the gifted and the stupid, the rich and the poor, the oppressors and the oppressed are seen as natural divisions. The main thing parents teach children is how to be in the "right group" or how to cheat your way out of it, if you end up in the "wrong group". This division in two which has such a hold on people's imagination is naturally projected onto society. Also sectarianism becomes rife during this period of instability. While racial integration advances in Europe, the United States and Brazil, the media inflame those of simple faith and exploit credibility. There are more and more evangelists on television, new prophets appear and fundamentalism becomes widespread. In this chaos, people look to the past.

While the Nation-State declines, tribal instincts are reactivated. Faced with the "shock of the future" people turn to clans for comfort. Any social mould in which one feels sheltered and a member of a really interdependent community is accepted as a protective haven. People are fearful on having to sell their soul to become part of the economic system or of losing it in the welter of adverts and media pressure. To protect themselves, they regress. It is a return to the womb as described by psychoanalysts, a visceral feeling for belonging. One finds support in coming together: If one harms my tribe one harms me and if a crime is committed vengeance must be exacted. The law of retaliation is more important than law itself.

The central issue of the century is thrown into prominence by these perils; the dwindling of tribalism within a much larger adherence ; the human species (human rights) and the biosphere itself (Gaia). However, tribalism is exacerbated before its eclipse, its casting off involving many a jolt. Outside Europe old splits re-emerge and cause dissension; Turkish nationalism, supported by a strong economic development, extends its influence among its brethren living on the steppes of Central Asia in the southern part of the ex-Soviet Union. Racial and religious conflicts for influence and power become more marked in South Eastern Asia, India, Ceylon, Indochina, Malaysia and Indonesia as the privileges of one group are met by the revolt of the others. Human rights are confronted by attitudes of mind in which sectarianism, nepotism - my family and friends come first - and the abuse of power are seen as a natural part of life.

Resorting to education

The teachings of Isidore Ducasse start to be put into practice a generation after they were first published, just as happened previously with Keynes. This is the time interval needed for a new stratum of leaders to be formed. The facts are in front of one's nose. How can one not see that poverty is responsible for the runaway increase in population, which unavoidably suppresses emerging pockets of prosperity ? Outcasts need to be reintegrated. The new savagery, ensconcing itself on our doorsteps, is not worthy of the human race. Space needs to be structured by expropriating and reconstructing towns in a well ordered manner bringing about a civilized way of life. Minds especially need to be structured, using educational propaganda.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, following an initial phase of galloping industrialization, the towns of Europe were inhabited by a proletariat living in awful, unhygienic and poverty ridden conditions. This was the world of "Oliver Twist". The ruling classes' response was secular, free and compulsory education for all. "We can't get rid of them, so let's mould them into our image. If we educate them they'll think like us and play the game according to our rules". The gamble worked as is confirmed by history. So in January 2024 a new organization, the World Education Authority, a consortium cofinanced by all countries is set up to organize mass education on a global basis. It does not use the old school system but new, more direct and efficient methods such as television, video games, leisure organizations and associations. The necessary funds are made available ; there is always enough money if fear is the stimulus.

Microcomputers are in everyday use by the beginning of the third millennium and knowledge had begun to be transferred onto electronic media. However, these computer-aided-learning (CAL) experiences had been unsuccessful so far. Old pedagogical methods had simply been repeated without taking any account of even the most basic conclusions of the cognitive sciences. The amount of work necessary to programme the tutorials had been severely underestimated. It was not just a question of storing information in data bases but of providing markers, references, classifications and connections allowing the student to navigate amongst the material. Not only did the various elements of knowledge have to be installed on the advanced software but also all possible links between them plus security systems to prevent handling errors. From 1987 onwards it was known that using hypertexts allowed everyone, including the illiterate, to have access to the world of computers and various small experimental programmes were released for children. But there was still a long way to go before products which anyone could use became available to the public. Approximately the same as the distance between the first Model T Ford and the Fort Mustang produced fifty years later. The preparatory work was carried out between 2000 and 2020 using software-aids to design the software.

In 2023 the Mafiosi family headed by Don Giovanni, who lives in Honduras, gaines control of several armament industries. They indirectly use a tactical nuclear weapon against the principal military camp of the Mexican government when the latter authorizes the sale of drugs in schools. As during the Prohibition era, Mafia families profiteered from the interdiction. To permit drugs to be sold was allowing competition and reducing the enormous profits of the Mafia to a pittance! Thus Don Giovanni is defending the interests of his many associates and relies on a well orchestrated moral campaign to condemn Mexico. The weapon is deployed by a so-called fundamentalist Christian group "the saviours of purity". Television programmes portraying the havoc wrought by drugs are shown at the same time, the Mafia having connections in the media. However, the niece of one of the lieutenant in the organization is caught up in the radiation emitted by the bomb, and driven crazy by her death, he then recounts the whole story on television.

This shone a light on the true state of affairs throughout the world. Under the veneer of material wealth is concealed a soulless society. Unable to educate children about the danger of drugs, incapable of preventing the dissemination of arms, incapable of allowing freedom of information, incapable of controlling the powers of the Mafia. At this time the rich countries are dominated by an ageing population which is especially sensitive about terrorist attacks. Thus though the weapon used in the nuclear explosion was a miniaturized arm with an impact limited to the barracks and the nearby small town (10,000 casualties) there was a surge of discontent. Brave investigators had since several years been revealing at the risk of their lives that the multinationals were under Mafia control. Using drug profits they had acquired hypermarkets and by means of purchasing consortiums ruined suppliers and then bought them out at rock bottom prices. The oil companies and the other multinationals had succumbed before long to their particular type of take-over bids where the financial assault coincides with the corruption of the accountants and the intimidation of large shareholders.

"Big business" survives, whatever the circumstances. In 1990, everyone referred to "mafia money", by 2000 this had become "mafia power". After 2100 no-one even bothered to mention it, it was so widely recognized. The first job of young management graduates was to spend three years learning their trade in one of these corrupt and dangerous empires where shady dealings were endemic. There, their skill in bribery and their resistance to threats was put to the test. The mafia nature of business had become second nature as the US's and Europe's power crumbled. Only the Japanese financial and industrial system resists for, though its political leaders are as corrupt as any, it succeeds in making the mafia a subsidiary of its system. It is immensely powerful and thereby protected from attack but has not asserted itself so as to avoid arousing fear. However, the time has now come to reveal itself fully. The picture that surfaces at the time of the "Scandal" is horrendous. Fear and indignation prompt the financial world, until then paralysed by apathy and uniformity, to react. The old timers arouse themselves. This event gave rise to the global movement "Order and Light" which owes much to the teachings of the more extreme Zen Buddhist sects and initially relies on the more conservative factions of the Keidanren (the japanese employers organization). The world currency imposed by Japan dates from this period and replaces the ECU/YEN/Dollar triad which was so open to manipulation by dealers.

As a result of these dramatic events the education society begins to be established from 2024 onwards, embodying a system of ethics as well. All the means of propaganda available to the "entertainment" society are mobilized in an attempt to end the predominant attitude of "everyone for himself". The experiments of a few isolated minds at the beginning of the century become generalized. Humanity exists to explore and personify the future. The spread of adoption and surrogate motherhood heralds the advent of the open family, small voluntary and co-operative communities, a sort of village within the town, rather than a return to the classical family unit. Educational software in the form of adventure games, some derived from the old Dungeons and Dragons but with a moralistic content become as fascinating as video games. However, even the most advanced teaching robots cannot replace human contact.

The whole of the planet commits itself to the training and supervision of young people up to the age of 18. Those unable to carry out four basic operations using a computer terminal are considered as illiterate. These operations are retrieving simple information in a database, entering and reading accounts in a pre-programmed spreadsheet, writing a letter on a word-processing software (authorized spell-checking) and sending it by e-mail, and filling tax returns and social security forms. Unable to fulfil their duties as citizens, these illiterates are re-educated. Everybody's abilities are re-examined every five years using artificial intelligence tele-examiners and failure to comply means one's bank assets above an essential minimum level are placed under guardianship.

The education society begins to emerge from 2040 and is fully established by 2060. The population becomes one gigantic, relatively untroubled, middle class. However, there is a reverse side to this conformism : mental illness spreads. Previously psychoanalysis healed ailments of the soul related to sex, though in fact the conformism of Vienna in the 1900's burdened sexual behaviour with its own restrictions. Now more and more of the mentally ill act as if they are computers and claim they receive messages and emissions which destructure their software. They panic at the mere evocation of (computer) viruses. A type of Alzheimer's disease, previously confined to the elderly, infiltrates all generations. Some blame a poor diet. Food products have been so adulterated by industry that one cannot be sure whether the proteins are from cows, fish or trees. Controls have become so lax that all sorts of additives are found in food. However, in reality, the new telematic, neuromimetic terminals are responsible for the disease. They produce a hallucinogenic effect on computer users, who act as if absorbed by the computer's personality. The only remedy is to keep away.

Nevertheless by 2038 this period of disarray seems to be coming to an end. Sectarianism, fundamentalism and all the superstitions which have taken advantage of the disorders and lack of culture are being progressively overcome. Religion which has aided so much criminal behaviour, has to redefine itself in a new way. Instead of being based on ancient sacred texts, teachings relate to the present: how do we gain understanding, here and now ? The development of cognitive sciences allows a dialogue to develop at last, while the ancient texts are retained as references for their poetry and prewarnings. The doctrine of the three forms of knowledge (scientific, trance and symbolic) becomes universal and takes a concrete form in the organization of work and leisure. Previously the news seemed to delight in describing crimes and accidents but now it turns towards events full of hope.

Major projects become fashionable again. Towns are restructured, and the new architecture is inspired by ethology, and endeavours to make the "naked ape" feel at home in his natural environment. But the intention is to influence desires. Town parks, finely proportioned green spaces, worked out to chime in with the scale of wo/mankind where one is constantly solicited by shops, games and sport are like prisons without bars, when considered from another angle. They condition the soul by channelling its desire to escape. They are no longer "machines to live in" but artificially constructed natural worlds where everybody can "live as a poet" ; welcoming wombs, myriad variations of the Garden of Eden. Daily objects are redesigned in the same manner and automation of a more flexible industry increases the range of possibilities and speed of delivery.

Products which used to require five years development to see the light of day can now be released within one month using CADM systems (Computer Aided Design and Manufacture) linked to artificial intelligence and data bases. The problems encountered are no longer related to manufacturing processes but in adapting the objects for public use. Design is now the key to competitiveness and considered an art in itself. The "designer" replaces the engineer. His task is to activate human impulses, a biological heritage from the dawn of humanity, in support of order.

This period also marks the conquest of the sea. The ocean is particularly fertile in the first few metres depth, where oxygen is exchanged with the atmosphere. It provides the possibility of developing vast open areas of cultivation within flexible structures close to the surface. Since 2002 monitoring and intervention systems have been sufficiently developed to guarantee such installations against poaching by fishermen. The first marine cities at the beginning of the millennium, receive their impetus from the desire to flee a hostile world on dry land. These large leisure bases, half a kilometre in diameter, contain beaches, marinas for yachts, diving facilities and many new water based sports. Sea farms provide a few privileged customers with fresh and carefully selected lobsters, soles, bass, scallops, etc... There were already millions of pleasure boats in the world in the 1980's.

The extraordinary popularity of water sports and recreation was the sign of a more profound change. To be in charge of a boat, battling against the elements expressed a desire for both liberty and responsibility, as well as symbolizing a return to the sea from out of which life was born. But as these were just holiday activities nobody thought much about their significance. The plane and car had also been treated as sporting activities at their onset (around 1900),a few specialists competing against each other with no relevance to everyday life. However, the desire for independence is shared by all wo/mankind and sooner or later we all eventually achieve it. Freedom in all its various expressions is growing. Artificial islands are established near overpopulated coast lines in Japan, the Mediterranean, Florida, California, and the Sea of China to escape pollution and promiscuity ; they attract nearby purchasing power. Water-based holidays gratify our ancestral impulses, we cleanse ourselves in the purifying water, a return to the source, and exposure to the sun's energy.

The second generation marine cities (post 2020) are equipped with training and conference centres, much appreciated by industry as they can offer their staff training in a healthy environment and develop team spirit through sharing adventures. Some firms even decide to build their own islands, as a site for their headquarters. Lawyers are delighted by the prospect of drifting away from territorial waters, thus escaping taxation and national control ; truly multinational. Furthermore, the price of land in town centres is exorbitant, an island is better value than a tower block and much more attractive. There are fashions in management as in everything else. Styles in organization charts change like haircuts according to the year, more or less feathered, in a bob, layered, shaved. Quality circles change name with the seasons. In 2030 a top businessman is on water. He has his own island to which he can invite his colleagues just as renaissance princes used to entertain each other. The palace, now floating, signifies power, cunning and the host's technicity. It seduces at the same time as it intimidates. One of the most famous islands, resplendent with an interior pearly decor illuminated by laser beams and a swimming pool containing tame sharks, belongs to the Chinese financier Lee. The visitor enters by himself, heightening the feeling of entering the lion's den. Another well known island is owned by PC Multinational (Planetary Computers) and contains an enormous hall whose walls are screens, and at any instant in time they can project what is happening in any part of the globe, via telesurveillance satellites.

People still recall the bold attempt to establish the financial centre of Hong Kong on a one kilometre long floating island positioned outside the 200 mile territorial limit, free from the control of the Chinese government. The world financial system, morally battered by the wave of financial crises and stock-exchange scandals of 2003 gathered together several tens of billions of dollars in a considerable gesture of solidarity. Governments were authorized to spend an equivalent amount, as a write off. They did this in the expectation that the ship building industry would be relaunched. Unfortunately a gigantic typhoon destroyed the island in 2018. It had been constructed out of rigid barges hinged together (the shipyards knew how to construct these), similar to the old oil rigs, which started to bash into one another. Around 100 people died with considerable damage to property. As a result the island was reduced in size and reinforced, and a hard core of believers remained there. Computerization of the markets meant all financial activity could be delocalized. London since the Big Bang (1986) was one example, while Hong Kong carried on as a stock exchange but scattered over the Pacific ocean, and even further afield with branches in Canada, Scotland, etc.

By 2044 the average temperature on earth has risen by three degrees and many winter resorts have closed because of lack of snow, while the large prairies of the American Middle West, once a grain producing region, and a product of industrialized agriculture are now mainly desert. Viewed from outer space they look like the tattered fur of a buffalo. Everywhere populations flow towards the coast or to the banks of major waterways. The level of the sea has risen by 55 centimetres and the coastal plains of Bangladesh and Indonesia are flooded. Houses are rebuilt on piles and prawn farms replace rice cultivation. People learn how to live on water as well as on land and marine cities are constructed once again but from a different and more ambitious perspective. This time the intention is to create proper colonies able to support tens of thousands of people and so escape from the yoke of earth-bound megalopolises. Communication is no longer a problem due to the advent of satellites and the majority of urban problems can be resolved more easily at sea. Drinking water is obtained through desalination, while sewage and rubbish is discharged after treatment into the profound depths. Wave energy is recuperated via protective pneumatic breakwaters. Wind and solar energy and the thermic energy of the sea are also used while agriculture is "hydroponic" i.e. without earth and using recycled water. A complete marine ecosystem linked to the city provides it with fish, shellfish and also seaweed. People travel from one place to another as in Venice, using little energy. Only the vulnerability to inclement weather remains a problem but a genius, a Chinese architect, finds the answer by using flexible materials in a structural configuration resembling jellyfish. Part of the city is submerged and can sink further into the water during powerful storms. By 2100 the ocean population is several hundred million and by the next century it is almost a billion.

The paths to Liberation

By 2062, the vast majority of the species (now more than 10 billion people) is educated according to the new standards, prescribed in 2024. The issue of knowledge is now seen very differently. No-one tries to master all the facts anymore, much too many for any one brain to garner; knowledge navigation amongst the databases is now the answer. A philosopher says that the idea is now no longer to drink the sea but to be able to find one's way in it. The different cultures of the planet are a common heritage and the more educated classes can speak a dozen languages. They are conversant with ideograms and devanagini as well as with the Western and Cyrillic alphabets. Often polyglot word plays, referring for instance to both a Bantu proverb and an exploit of Ramayana, embellish even vocational seminars.

Energy, raw material and food supplies while still limited are no longer critical. Underground nuclear power stations and gigantic solar energy stations producing hydrogen stocked in vast caves are a major source. A variable taxation regime encourages market regulation and the diversity of sources means that economies are much less vulnerable. Annual energy consumption per person tends to stabilize at the equivalent of one oil ton. Petrol and coal, both dirty energies are disappearing from use while progress in biotechnology and the farming of the oceans is reducing the risk of famine. People tend rather to ask themselves how to stop eating too much, how not to be intoxicated by so many delicacies. The greatest difficulty is to stay in control of oneself in this era of seduction.

Feminine values become more prominent at around this period. Matriarchal civilizations have existed in the past necessitated by the objective conditions of production and survival. From the first agrarian societies onwards, the masculine role of the hunter was on the decline. Traditional knowledge originating in gathering, a feminine function, the arts of preservation, forethought, order and the relation to biological rhythms came to the fore. The mother goddess asserted herself as symbol of the new economy. Masculine values reappeared later on with the emergence of a warrior class, both protector and aggressor. Seen over the centuries the respective roles of the sexes are like religious beliefs, related to objective and concrete conditions for survival. The human species shows at all levels an exceptional talent for adaptation owing to the mutation of genes responsible for cellular communications; this is the reason for the supremacy of this most opportunistic of animals.

So conditions had become more favourable to women. Motherhood which leads to structuring the children's psyche gives them an advantage. Everywhere the century's turning point revolves around education; a prolonged maturation phase distinguishing humans from other primates and with which women are more at home with than men. Future occupations are going to be more intellectual stressing qualities such as reliability, regularity, continuity. Knowledge navigation is not easy and needs partners one can rely on. Bourgeois society of the 20th century saw women as temperamental, unfaithful, extravagant and wild, a completely false image. This destructuring of femininity revealed a deep philosophical malaise as in reality the mental structure of women ideally equips them to handle the complexity of relations with Nature and infants. She precisely incarnates the qualities necessary for the new emerging occupations and women are very successful in them. However, they have been confined to family tasks since many centuries in most of the world with little experience and little chance to travel or have a fuller social life. Trapped by this tradition they passed on a pattern of conservative, even archaic, behaviour to succeeding generations at variance with the changes of the new era. When they want to emancipate themselves, they imitate men so perpetuating a masculine concept of success. The hope for change, they are also the brake. The path before them is still long, external freedom means nothing without inner freedom. It takes until the second half of the century, when religious and tribal resistances are overcome, for feminine aptitudes to be fully recognized.

Contraception, which became universal during the first half of the century means reproduction can be controlled and that the future is in women's hands. Pleasure without risk is possible. Ancestral fears and guilt are thrown into the dustbin of history. In this new era, learning is no longer a humiliating process but often a dazzling experience, a gift, an opening up and a sensual delight. Sacrificial religions are forced to change or disappear and those whose mystical traditions have stayed alive adapt more easily. Islam follows a Sufi path, Hinduism returns to the Vedic texts and yoga, while Buddhism immerses itself in the Tantras and Zen. From the beginning of the century God is seen as feminine once again; Astar, the willowy and beautiful hermaphrodite goddess, emerges from the depths like truth from a well. She encourages pleasure instead of suppressing it. Renewing with the traditions of certain Gnostics of Alexandria in the third century, she celebrates sexuality as a path to enlightenment, a recentering of the individual in danger of fragmenting and the attainment of Reason.

The most remarkable objects of the 20th century were all phalically inspired : towering office blocks, the multinational challenge rising up into the sky, rockets propelled to the moon and the high point of our technology, target homing missiles. It is self apparent that whatever the pretext for their construction they are all the product of male fantasies. Planes, cars, the TGV (high speed trains) and the advertising world were all concerned with a mythical character; a young dynamic executive, just a pale reflection of the hunter of yesteryear. The world portrayed is still the old one of power, money and war, but there are few warriors left. Perspectives change from the beginning of the 3rd millennium. The stimulus of femininity inspires an interiority and cities no longer consist of towns rising like towers but of geodesic structures burrowed out from the ground, containing warm and welcoming artificial universes. Green spaces invade city centres with commercial and hotel architecture leading the trend. The sea becomes a habitable environment.

Space formerly conquered by rockets, a male symbol, is filled with hollow planets supporting artificial ecosystems, a female symbol. New worlds are being born and creativity previously expressing itself outwardly in aggressive war machines now expends the same energy turning inwards to regulate the complexity of life. Importance is given to things previously neglected : how to construct visual, sound and tactile environments which encourage the flowering of creativity. Household robotics develops and teaching becomes more relevant to daily life. In the majority of species males struggle in the open while females unravel and take care of that which is hidden. The distribution of skills is a reflection of sexual behaviour. So the era of Woman involves a refocusing of attention. Scientific and mechanical explicitness gives way to the implicit : games, inner exploration always incomplete, the arts of divination, the dialectic of autonomy and complexity.

The issue is not the domination of one sex or another but the balance of feminine and masculine aspects in each individual. The so called woman's liberation movements of the 20th century signalled the end of an age long repression. But this was just one stage in the process and the next stage is the transformation of men. They let their protective barrier of insensibility collapse and begin communicating with their inner soul.

Despite this, female supremacy rather than equality of the sexes gradually becomes reality. Having become independent through access to jobs and controlling the future of the species through contraception, they naturally enough began to exercise authority officially. From 2012 onwards many countries replace military service with "life" service, teaching skills for the care of Nature, of oneself, of children and the elderly and how to survive in physically demanding situations, the cold, the jungle, at sea. To begin with this initiatic experience, intermingling all cultures, is obviously intended for women. The twenty-first century unfolds as the century of women. Men have less responsibility but more freedom. Men as objects appear in the media and advertising mirroring the former women-objects. These men, often television show presenters or stars of show business, look like puppets ; smiling, gentle and attentive, they capture the enthusiasm of the public by their subtle acting. Simultaneously however, the image of the naked, dancing warrior daubed with bright colours, out of the era of hunting, re-emerges from the depths of time. We watch him fulfil himself through his exploits, more interested in achievements than in routine; sports, exploration, taking risks, extreme conditions, journeys of the spirit, research; developing his artistic talents, rekindling a sense of beauty and ornamentation. Above all men rediscover their sensitivity. Sexual discrimination fades away in daily life and people, rather than stressing their sex aspire to the cohabitation of its two components, the feminine and the masculine in a quest for completeness and fulfilment.

In 2068, large scale panic sweeps the globe. A Nepalese laboratory in Kathmandu claims to have identified a retrovirus which attacks human genes and whose principal effect is to destroy self-will. It is reported that victims remain in good health but wander round like zombies obeying any suggestion made to them. As the genetic code of the virus does not correspond to any known one, researchers deduce that it is an alien attack intended to make the human species subservient to a superior civilization. Because of overall conditions at that period it is very difficult to tell who had been infected and everyone worries that they themselves might have been. Fear prompts calls to verify the genome, a costly and complex task. It is exactly what the crooks associated with the "Intermed" network intended as they possess the necessary instrumentation for this examination. A Romanian mathematician, Elina Titsa, reveals the swindle by demonstrating the incompatibility of the published formulas with the formulated structure of the human genome. If such mutations truly existed they would have produced non viable monsters. But despite this proof, distraught splinter groups still meet on the nights of the full moon twenty years later to pray together. They ask for help from the stars, believing humanity had been attacked and imploring for their liberty to be given back to them.

An era of liberation follows the period of moral conformism. A new form of computer virus selectively destroying educational programmes begins to appear on screens in 2082. In addition, they carry impertinent messages such as "Teachers = Godfather" painfully recalling the mafia era for an elderly generation. Another prints out "This is not life", showing an effigy of Socrates, the best known educational robot. The spirit of contestation recalls May 1968 and "It is forbidden to forbid". Wanting to mould humanity, society is stifling its creative abilities and distancing itself from the essence of life. The new thinking tries to embody the essence of humanity in all areas. Attempts to draw a map of the genome and the microfilming of the development of human life from a DNA molecule (the molecule carrying the genetic code) had suggested that the very heart of the processes of life were being revealed. And yet people have no better idea of how to live their own life. The refining of understanding produces both a much larger picture and a much more detailed one. Scientific knowledge of the self has greatly progressed and it is possible to maintain blood flow and composition continually in real time using miniaturized instruments. Adrenalin or bilirubin levels can be known at any moment revealing the factors which make you angry or fall in love.

But while the source of vitality is bought within the grasp of everyone, what is life itself ? At the beginning of the century some sects prayed before a double helix while others intoned the four letters of the genetic code, and rosaries reproducing the main sequences of the human genome were for sale. Purchasers soon understood that any other mantra would work just as well. With the discovery that certain chants stimulated the secretion of chemical mediators, the scientific basis of prayer and of yoga and other traditional practices, once obscure, were better understood. The notion of "Intermediate Art" is one of the key ideas of the new philosophy. It states that the distinction between animate and inanimate, considered as self-evident needs to be transgressed. Beings who are not alive but possess characteristics associated with life can be created. This intermediary zone between mineral and plant life, between the molecule and the virus is a place of creation. At last humanity is treating the earth as a garden to be cultivated and the unfolding process of hominization, represented by techno-nature, is clearly becoming our destiny.

Outer space is the arena for the culmination of this process. The issue of navigation transcends knowledge and affects all fields in particular looks to the stars. The major controversy of this time is concerned with the nature of humanity; is its vocation limited to the planet earth which it has biologically domesticated or should it extend as a manifestation of the universal energy to other species outside the solar system ? The Lagrange points where the gravity pulls of the earth and the moon are in equilibrium are inhabited by space stations and the asteroid belt is used as a source for raw materials. The first hollow planet with a dozen inhabitants and a reduced ecosystem of one thousand species - including a forest, a lake, some mammals and insects - is sited at Lagrange point L4 in 2027. It is in the shape of a large cylinder, 500 metres in diameter, rotating around its central axis to maintain an artificial gravity field. Inside, conditions are close to those found on earth. Initially it was seen as an experiment, putting into orbit a complex living community ranging from bacteria to humans with their energy, raw materials, agriculture and animals for rearing capable of surviving for ever, independently. This was an achievement of techno-nature. After ten years a second generation of larger hollow planets are launched if only to provide more space for birds to fly around in. The first planets are turned into tourist centres, and fascinate the public, making more funds available. A visit to Gaia 2 becomes a sign of status for celebrities on earth. Up to this point however, space men and women always return to earth.

In 2030 the birth of the first baby in space, named Aurore, causes a sensation. The birth, shown live on T.V. is seen as symbolic ; the earth is filled with unrest, anxiety and injustice, the space station is full of harmony, science, hope. The date of birth chosen was fortuitously the day before the budget vote and the allocation for outer space is doubled. With their habitual false naiveté, scientists had orchestrated a period of suspense lasting several weeks while secretly they had already decided the date. At the age of 12, Aurore makes a tour of the capitals of the world and is received in triumph everywhere as a symbol of the new era. She is probably the most famous woman in the world and by 2080 is 50 years old. A brilliant researcher in infobiology she has always resisted taking on executive responsibilities preferring to be out of the limelight, discreet, restrained, only speaking out rarely.

The idea of sending an inhabited artificial planet off into space never to return had been seen as a rupture. But she prompts a change of attitude by recalling her own birth which everyone had witnessed :"We have to cut the umbilical cord". The emancipation of the species can now begin. The time scale of existence changes. A space probe, travelling at 20% the speed of light takes twenty-five years to reach the nearest solar system (outside our own) and it takes four years for the signals it sends back to reach us. Thus it requires a quarter of a century to have the first information on the habitability of planets circling the nearest stars. The programme is spread over several centuries. The first phase consists of two stages; ten observation probes are sent unmanned to the 10 nearest stars in 2152. They observe and detect conditions favourable for colonization, but the information takes several years to return to earth. During this time a half dozen hollow planets are constructed to test the stability and control of biological equilibriums. Only the last few are equipped with anti matter propulsion, tested out on a voyage as far as Pluto. Starting in 2243 the operation is repeated with a second generation of probes and planets. It is only in 2408 with the third generation that the great departure seems ready. But what should these travellers carry with them? What can we teach them for their journey into the future, into the infinity of time? What words, what knowledge is humanity going to propagate in the Milky Way ?