The characteristic of a period of great transition is the fact of passing from one world to another, from one civilization to another. This passage extends over a secular period necessary both for the transformation itself and for its generalization. This is the period of all dangers, both the successive crises that will mark the apex of this transition but also the much more structural danger of a misdirection in the chosen future.
This paper will explore the liminal space between the world "1.0" that was ours during the last 5 millennia and the emerging world "X.0". First, it will describe the three main characteristics of this liminality: the VUCA2 nature of this space (vulnerability, uncertainty, criticality and artificialization); the liquidity of people living in this period (cf. Zygmunt BAUMAN); the role of the creative minority in the emergence of a new world (cf. A.J. TOYNBEE). Then it will draw some features of this emergent world – the so-called world X.0 – like exponentiality, planetization, governance, a twofold focus on Nature and Humanity, and the disruptions that might support or kill it.
Finally, we will question the kind of agency we need to get out of liminality (world governance, new education) and what it will take (abandonment of classical culture, end of the Western hegemony).