L'Invention de Demain

Some 58,000 years ago, our species was endangered. At that time, there were only about 10,000 humans; in 2011, there are almost 7 billion of us. As its name implies, Invention de demain maintains that our special place under the sun has one source and only one: the future. Prehistoric man has had tools at his disposal for 2 million years, and fire for nearly 1 million; thus technology – despite being the number one suspect in textbooks and the collective imagination, cannot explain the giant leap forward made by our clueless ancestors. Since no climate-related event occurred to disturb their miserable lives in their native Africa, and a genetic mutation did not transform them into semi-gods, I contend that it is humanity’s ability to make plans for the future and to share them with their peers which could make humans 1. invincible; 2. inventive; 3. restless and forever dissatisfied with what they have. Thus, after millions of years of stagnation, in what would equate to scarcely one geological year, a few members of this marginalised species left Africa, scattered themselves throughout the world (in 20,000 years, they had already invaded Australia!), domesticated beasts and plants, walked on the moon and discovered the atom and genomes.Our ability to imagine what has not yet happened – the “what-is-to-be” – is the main source of both humanity’s greatness and its misery. It also accounts for many other abilities and defects: creativity, exploration, perseverance, discipline, waste, greed, restlessness and barbarism. Humanity as we know it had its roots in the Stone Age, when an African one thousand times more primitive than his descendants of today nonetheless had the wits to say to his wife: “See you tomorrow!” It is very likely that she never saw him again, because the first modern Adam had wanderlust, as he was able to imagine alternative scenarios to his unappealing reality and left to conquer the world. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.