22. NEW FRONTIERS

We have it in our power to begin the world all over again.A situation similar to the present hath not appeared since the days ofNoah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand.

—Tom Paine, 1775

Writing Barricades was a sobering experience for the entire team. We had been as realistic and conservative as we could in the development of this scenario, yet we had drawn a chilling picture of an increasingly divided world, with anarchy enveloping society within our children’s lifetime.

We then turned to the task of fully developing the alternative picture of the future, at that stage simply called Scenario A. We had reached agreement about the general dynamics of this scenario, with dramatic economic growth taking place in ...

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