Civilization in 2001

Author: Fourastie
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1996-09-01
Features: The world-famous "What Do I Know?" series is a popular encyclopedic knowledge series compiled and published by the Presses Universitaires de France (PUF) since 1941. Over more than half a century, with the continuous development of scientific knowledge, the series has expanded its topics and updated its content, covering all fields of social sciences and natural sciences as well as various aspects of human life. Since the authors of the series are all renowned experts and scholars in their respective fields, each book is written in an accessible yet profound manner, blending knowledge with interest. To date, the series has published over 3,000 titles and has had a significant global impact, translated into more than 40 languages. "What Do I Know?" was originally a phrase by the 16th-century French philosopher Montaigne. It not only illustrates the boundless nature of knowledge but also reflects the thirst for knowledge during the Renaissance. In 1941, France was in a critical period. The Presses Universitaires de France chose this phrase as the series' title, publishing it not only to meet the needs of university teaching and student reading under the special circumstances of war but also to popularize knowledge, inspire reading enthusiasm, and revitalize the French nation. Today, our country is in a new era of advancing toward modernization, and the entire nation is striving to build it into a prosperous and strong socialist country. We believe that selectively translating and publishing this series will also play its due role for us. The translation and publication of this series have been supported by the Presses Universitaires de France and the French Embassy in China, for which we express our sincere gratitude. Due to the large number of original works and the urgency of the task, there may be imperfections in the selection and translation. Some works may hold biased views, and we hope readers will bear with them. This book is undoubtedly one of the most frequently republished works on contemporary economic, social, and political forecasting, also known as "futurology." However, it now appears that the discussions in the book's early editions were almost exclusively limited to the economic prospects of the world. For various reasons to be explained in the book, economic factors had an enormous impact on the living conditions and survival of humans at the time, to the extent that the entire civilization seemed to depend on these economic factors. Even today, it is easy to recognize that these factors, especially the economic "development" experienced by the West and the world after World War II, have and continue to give almost every issue in the world, and thus contemporary civilization, an economic character.