Francesca Bria's booklet The EuroStack is published by the Berggruen Institute, the think tank that brings us the impressive and very popular Noema. Linear history is a myth. In the past, it was useful. But today, it has become more and more unsustainable as its mythical dimension had to face the hard truths of science. With the evolution of physics, in particular quantum physics, we don’t have any choice left: we have to reconsider the nature of history just as we had to reconsider the very nature of reality. Rather than a univocal logic, looking at time as if it was some sort of a river flowing from the past to the future, quantum theory introduces us to a world made of multiple states and configurations all at once. The present, the future and the past are suddenly changing status, reversing their course or reinventing the precession of one upon the others. But if history has lost its linearity, what does it change for the creatures of history – for us? What does it change for our historical societies? What does it change for politics? The answer is simple: everything. It is high time that we take notice.
