2100. Come sarà l’Asia, come saremo noi

Cultured meat and jellyfish cocktails, Big Data and artificial intelligence, millionaire companies and surveillance, remote surgery and neural chips, anti-fake news laws and deepfakes. Asia is now a demographic, economic, cultural and military powerhouse, growing at a rapid pace and where what happens is often just a preview of what will happen in our Western societies. After all, as Simone Pieranni observes, issues and problems that have long been debated in the West are now being discussed, addressed and, in some cases, resolved in Asia. What will we eat in the future? How will we ensure the sustainability and liveability of our cities? How are rights and ideas about the family evolving, or how are those rights disappearing, faltering or being eliminated? And again: in what direction are work, information and artificial intelligence moving? In the background, then, is the issue of climate change, which is on the global agenda but is a priority in Asia in particular. It is not necessarily the case that Asia’s future must be ours, quite the contrary. But overcoming the “fixed view” that the West has of Asia, which often makes little distinction between countries, is a necessary step. Ranging from orderly Singapore to military-ruled Myanmar and Malaysia, from booming Vietnam to Cambodia, from China to India to Japan, and further afield to the Philippines, Taiwan and the two Koreas, Pieranni offers an in-depth look at a continent that, amid social conflicts, technological innovations and cultural trends, helps us imagine the future that awaits us. To draw examples, ideas and solutions. Or simply to avoid repeating its mistakes.