Jacques Attali

Preliminary English Translation:

“Good morning.

To change code, change what? Dress code, food code, secret code, phone code, software code… social code? The code of behaviour towards one another? The code of politeness? The rules of the road? The code refers to a set of laws, a set of rules.

Do we have to change all the laws and rules that govern us? Probably. There is much that can be changed. Do we need to change the genetic code? Maybe also to make sure that we get better as human beings, and can be more responsible, a little more compassionate, a little more empathetic.

Maybe, we need to touch that. Maybe we shouldn’t touch that?  What must remain man’s own? When we look at the history of humanity, we realise that humanity touches everything, including itself, and that the history of humanity is a language translation of the living being, into an object, into an artefact, gradually. We are supplemented with prostheses, and then the prostheses come into us, and we gradually become ourselves without realising it. Our genetic code itself, gradually known, and that is fine. We are increasingly able to combat its shortcomings, and that is how it should be. We are very capable of creating vaccines that will protect this code, improve it, and defend it against viruses, and that is how it should be.

Then in the long term, what is it? The one made in an artificial way from this code and all the rest of what makes up life; artificial beings?  Will there one day be a barrier that we will put in to protect the essentials of life against the artificialisation of codes? Or will “one day” be a long time from now?

Speak well of this mastery of codes and objects like the others who believe themselves eternal because they have been artificially manufactured, since it is in the artefact that the truth lies. Perhaps you want to talk about the codes in a much more mosaic way. Do we have to change the code of politeness? it is done every day and what we need to change, our food codes. We have to do it. We have to eat differently. We have to eat healthier. Do we need to change our codes of relationship with one another to be empathetic, softer, more tolerant, more respectful, more benevolent, more altruistic? Yes, and the social code must transition from the code of selfishness and greed to a code of altruism and respect.

How to do it, will it be a sudden change? Will it be a voluntary change? Will it be a gradual change? We will move from the code of selfishness and greed to the code of altruism and empathy. It will come after a shock no doubt.  It is up to us to start doing this for this reason to realise that in the current crisis, all the codes are being called into question. All the rules are called into question and in particular the one that determines the nature of what we see, what we do with what we think. We are now thinking in the short term, each for himself. You have to think long term for others. And so in the long term for future generations.

The real code must be the one that makes life possible for future generations. That is the key to our destiny. We will not survive ourselves if we do not give the means to live to future generations, our life depends not on our past, but on our future.  Our lives depend not only on our parents, but on our children. If we do not create the conditions for a decent life for children, we will not live.

That is why I call for the creation of a positive society and within, a society of an economy of life.  That is to say, of an economy or are truly tolerated by all codes, only those sectors that are useful to life and not the sectors that they poison.

Do not allow sugar. Do not allow tobacco, do not allow alcohol, do not allow oil, do not allow everything that arises from these activities that are a large part of the diet. A small part of agriculture. A large part of the transport industry (automobile, air, railway). A large part of the mechanical industry, the chemical industry, and the textile industry.  Whereas we should develop the economies of life, that is to say, the sectors of health and hygiene, food, education, culture, digital, security, democracy, sustainable housing and sustainable energy.

If we do all this, we recreate a code of life around an economy of life at the service of future generations, and we will have succeeded in creating the conditions for this world that we miss so much.

I wish you all the best.”

Jacques Attali, 19 July, 2021