A Brief History of the Future: A Brave and Controversial Look at the Twenty-First Century

The first portion of this book covers the historic rise and fall of previous economic empires. To be honest, it does not start out promising. Perhaps it was due to the fact that I knew most of the information already. At least it was a nice refresher on the past.However, the author uses this beginning to offer a base for his theory. As in all of the future books, the information presented is a best guess of what may happen. The only problem here is that I have, after reading hundreds of current event and historical books, I have come to a similar conclusion as the author. The viewpoint presented is a bleak future with hope existing only in the distant future, which lies beyond our life expectancy. Of course, every generation thinks it will be the last. And it is easier to focus on the negative.While I agree with said I agree with many of the conclusions, I have to say that these would fall into my worst case scenario. I think anyone who reads this should look at the book in the same fashion. People either tend to be overly optimistic, or continually negative. Reality tends to fall somewhere in between.

I was enjoying the history part, & looking forward to the future part when I noticed everything mentioned was no later than 2008. Neither the description or any other reviews I read mentioned this. (It does say published in 2011; I missed that).Missing the rise of Trumpism, fascism, Maga, the "Tea Party", etc; etc; really reduces the accuracy of the book.I would not have bought this if I had been aware of it. Hopefully there will be an update that will be pushed out to Kindle users. Not sure if I'm going to finish this, as he's making predictions based on very out of date information.

This is a compelling book, visionary and necessary for the survival of our species. Read it and consider its message and share it with as many friends as possible!

Some reviewer named Melissa posted page that was not in this book. I don't like trolling, even if it's from my viewpoint. That said.This book is 3/4 history refresher from this guy's view. Not until last chapter does he talk about future predictions. Not written expressly, but in between lines. "Toxic masculinity, theocratic religions such as Islam, but mostly Christians are bad. Cure is to be found in people labels "Transhumanist" like one of the very few people mentioned by name in the book : Melinda Gates. Compared to Mother Teresa, not Dr Josef mengele.

Scary but worth reading and thinking about. Particularly in light of today’s news and social climate. Our planet being a mix of societies and individual differences will be challenged moving forward.

very interesting read I did like it all things are indeed possible

Knowing the background of this author and the influence he has had on state leaders, it is interesting how his forecasts coincide with ancient forecasts. If you want to understand how the ruling political elite discuss, this is one book in the puzzle.

This book provides an outstanding foundation for students seeking to understand forecasting, and in particular prediction of future technology, although it is probably an equally suited grounding for people seeking to predict future trends in diverse fields. So often, future prediction is based on wild guesses, fantasy or extrapolation of a particular case. Instead, this author attempts to devise an architecture for thinking about the future, based on patterns observed in history.

It describes the events which are going all over the world right now. This book opened my eyes to a lot og things. Recommend this book to everyone.

A little bit disappointing... But Jacques Attali makes some excellent observations. The concept of various 'core economic areas' was revealing and most interesting. He gets a bit bogged down with the future wars and terrorists groups which he sees emerging as 'pressure groups' which is completely untrue since we know that any 'terrorist' action comes from the state itself and not disparate groups... He's an illuminati insider but unfortunately he doesn't have the complete agenda (for a moment I thought he did...and he gets close several times) but then blows it, showing himself to be another 'academic' with an incomplete picture.His concept of 'self surveillance Insurance' is a great one and we can already see people reporting back all sorts of information about themselves to get cheaper premiums... and this does seem a likely thing to happed. His predictions are interesting but a prediction is always going to be that and since he's not right at the top of the pyramid it's bound to be incorrect in most areas...

The author wrote this book with aim to show us stupid people that their overgovernment group can do anything they plan. And all this in process of realisation.

a lot of history now makes sense- ; you can see the inevitable march of 'democracy'/materialism/merchantile-ism. The power of the transcontinental corporations becomes clear as ethics ,in whatever form takes a back seat. Countries are becoming irrelevant and nationalism is pointless except in sporting events- speaking of which - I am writing this on the eve of the Olympics - whose sponsors include a sugary drink, a fast food outlet, & a chocolate manufacturer ,all whose products more than likely contribute to our obesity 'epidemic'. - nuff said. For the seers among you this will guide your visions- Now where did I read that the love of money is the root of all evil?

Exceptionally engaging and troubling in equal measures. Well written and not stuffy at all.