The problem of human survival. Problems of the psychological survival of the individual Problems of fundamental science and the survival of mankind

Paul Di Filippo

Problems of survival

Smells like fumes from stinky soup swirl around the Immigration office. The sweat of desperate men and women, the rotting refuse that littered the crowded street, the spicy smell of cologne around one of the guards at the outer door. The mixture is strong, almost suffocating for anyone born outside of Junks, but the Stone is used to it. Of such smells the only atmosphere he has ever known is his native environment: close acquaintances are not despised.

Competing with the stink, noise comes in: gruff voices of quarreling, whining voices of entreaty. “Don’t shove, you kind of moron!”, “If you share, I’ll treat you kindly, baby.” At the immigration door, an artificial voice reads out the list of vacancies for today, endlessly spinning the same cycle of crappy options.

- ... test new aerosol anti-personnel toxins; 4M enters into a contract for rejuvenation using Citrine methods for survivors. McDollel Douglas is looking for high orbit vacuum workers. Mandatory consent to memory imprinting...

No one is running after these jobs. Not a single voice begs the guards to let them in. Only those who have incurred impossible debts, who are hunted inside Junks himself, grab onto tasks in the tenth category - handouts of the "immigrant". The stone knows for sure that he does not need such proposals. Like everyone else, he sticks around Immigration simply because it's a center of gravity, a gathering place as important as a Serengeti watering hole that masquerades as a business for petty deals and big buyout deals in the South Bronx Free Enterprise Zone. , in other words - in the Jungles of the Bronx, or simply in Junks.

The heat melts the noisy crowd, making them more irritable than usual - a dangerous situation. From over-alertness, the Stone dries up in the throat. Reaching for the coded plastic flask hanging from his hip, he takes it and pours the stale water down his throat. Musty, but safe, he thinks, reveling in this arcane knowledge. It was a stroke of luck that he even stumbled upon a slightly leaky pipe at the point where the surrounding Junks fence crosses the river. He smelled clean water, like a dog, from afar, and, running his palms along the cool pipe, he discovered a crack. Now he firmly remembered all the numerous landmarks by which it can be found.

Shuffling through the crowd with his bare, callused feet (it's amazing how much information can be gleaned through them, and what else but information keeps the soul in the body?), Stone seeks out bits of information that will help him survive another day in Junks. Survival is his main, his only concern. If, after what he endured, he still has a grain of pride, then he is proud that he is still alive. The cheeky voice says:

I fired up the temporal, man, that's the end of the fight. In half a minute all three are dead.

The listener whistles in admiration. Imagination draws to the Stone that he finds a stolen temporal and sells it for an incredible amount, which he then spends on a dry, safe place to sleep and stuff his eternally empty belly. It's damned unlikely, but a man can dream.

The thought of food makes his stomach cramp. He places his right hand on the rough, dirt-scrubbed piece of cloth that covers his diaphragm. Pain pierces the finger (festering cut). The stone suggests it's an infection. But until it stinks, you won't know for sure.

Slowly moving through bodies and voices brings him almost to the entrance to the "immigration". He senses an empty space between the crowd and the guards, a semicircle of respect and fear. Respect is generated by the status of the guards (they have a job!), fear is their weapon.

One day, someone - an exiled criminal with a bit of education - described this weapon to Stone. Long, heavy, tubes with a ledge in the middle, where the vibrating magnets are located. Plastic stock. The weapon emits beams of electrons moving at near-light speeds. If a sickle beam passes over you, the kinetic energy will blow you apart like a hammer - the kernel of a nut. If the sickle misses, you will die in a few hours from radiation sickness, since each shot is accompanied by gamma radiation.

From this explanation - and the Stone remembers it verbatim - he understood only the description of a terrible death. Quite enough.

The stone stops for a moment. A familiar voice: Mary, a rat dealer, is secretly negotiating to resell clothes from charities. Having estimated, the Stone guesses where she stands. She lowers her voice. Now the Stone cannot make out the words, but it would be nice to listen to them. He sideways makes his way forward, although he is afraid of being trapped by bodies ...

Dead silence. Nobody speaks or moves. The stone feels a wave of air: someone has appeared in the doorway.

You, - the voice of a woman, indifferent. - A young man without shoes in ... - the voice hesitates in search of a definition for what is hidden under the mud - in a red overalls. Come here please. I want to talk to you.

The stone does not know if it (what does it have to do with red?) is being talked about until it feels the pressure of many looks. Immediately he turns on his heel, makes a deceitful movement ... - too late. He is grabbed by dozens of greedy clawed paws. He breaks out. The moldy fabric is torn, but the hands cling again - to the skin. He bites, kicks, swings his fists. In vain. During the fight, he does not make a sound. At last, still bucking, he is dragged forward, dragged along the invisible line that separates this world from another as inexorably as the unyielding fence between Junks and the other twenty-two SSPs.

A cloud of cinnamon smell surrounds him, and a guard brings something cold and metallic to the base of his neck. All the cells of his brain seem to flash at once, then darkness comes ...

The three betray their location to the awakened Stone with vibrations in the air, and also with their smells, their voices - and the elusive subtle ingredient, which he calls "the feeling of life."

Behind him is a massive man who breathes through his mouth - no doubt because of the old stink of the Stone itself. Most likely a security guard.

To his left is a smaller person - a woman? - from which smells of flowers. (The stone once smelled a flower.) In front of him, at the table, is a man sitting.

The stone does not feel any pain - except that it is completely confused. He has no idea why he was tied up and kidnapped, and only wants to return to the familiar dangers of Junks.

But he already knew that he would not be allowed to.

This person will ask you some questions. When you answer them, I'll have one too. Do you agree?

Stone nods: there is still no choice.

Name and surname? asks the immigration official.

They didn't call me again.

Unbearable white-hot pain: those bastards gouged out the eyes of a little waif caught watching them dismember a corpse. But he did not cry, oh no, he was always stone silent, and therefore - the Stone.

Place of Birth?

This dump, Junks. Where else?

Parents?

What it is?

Age? Shrug.

Later this can be found out by scanning the cells. I believe we have enough information to issue you a card. Don't move.

Stone feels a ray of heat flicker across his face, and after a few seconds, grunts are heard at the table.

This is your citizenship certificate and access to the system. Don't lose it.

Stone reaches out to the voice and receives a plastic rectangle. He is about to put it in his pocket, finds that both are torn off in a scuffle, and continues to awkwardly hold it in his hand, as if it is a bar of gold that is about to be taken away.

This is where sirens begin to howl in Stone's head. Anxiety! A job they can't even announce publicly? Probably, the case is so bad that it does not fit into the usual scale of discharges.

Thanks, no, Ms. My life is cheap, but I have no other. - He turns to leave.

I can't fill you in on the details until you agree, but we can file a contract this minute that will convince you that this is a first-class job.

The stone stops. What a bad joke... What if it's true?

Contract?

Be kind, - the woman orders the official.

The squeak of a tired key, and a mechanical voice pronounces the text of the contract. For Stone, unaccustomed to long words, it all sounds pretty straight forward, without equivocations and all sorts of traps. Work of the first category for an indefinite period of time, each of the parties has the right to terminate the contract, the description of duties will be a separate application.

Technogenic civilization has created extremely serious problems for the survival of mankind. And after technogenic civilization and civilization in general, a super-civilization is already visible - a hypothetical level of development of a society of intelligent organisms, advancing after civilization.

Russian scientist N.P. Kardashev introduced the concept of types of civilizations according to the level of energy consumption.

The first type is Civilization, the energy consumption of which is comparable to the power received by the planet from the central star and the energy sources of the planet itself.

The second type is Civilization, whose energy consumption is comparable to the power of the central star of the planetary system. Estimated energy consumption is 1020 ergs per second. One of the hypothetical forms of civilization of the second type is the civilization of the Dyson sphere.

A civilization of the second and higher types is already considered a super-civilization.

The third type is Civilization, the power consumption of which is comparable to the power of the galaxy. Estimated energy consumption -- 1044 erg per second.

Not included in the theory, but possibly existing type 4 - Civilization, the energy consumption of which is comparable to the power of the universe. Estimated energy consumption -- infinite power.

The American astronomer Carl Sagan (1934--1996) supplemented the energy classification of super-civilizations with information.

At the end of the XX century. the development of civilization has approached its critical limit. Among the problems discussed by scientists and philosophers are the crisis of the metropolitan city and the dying village, the degradation of culture and morality, the marginalization of significant sections of the population and the biological degeneration of people, the change in values, ideals, and the needs of modern man. In general, there is a picture of the crisis of technogenic civilization as a whole.

Most often, the responsible for this crisis, which appeared instead of the expected ideal society, are declared to be technological growth (which should have resulted in an ideal society) and the principles on which modern industrial and technical civilization is built: an orientation towards the growth of consumption (sometimes they are divided according to the degree of environmental friendliness between material and spiritual, but also spiritual needs for their implementation need a material basis) and preference for sociocultural innovations (compared to fidelity to traditional ways of reproducing life).

Pain points of socio-natural and socio-cultural interactions that characterize the state of our era are called "global problems of our time." These problems, which have not yet found even a theoretical solution, raise doubts about the viability of the post-industrial society itself, for which they are characteristic. It is their unresolved nature that threatens the further existence of mankind, leaving no room for historical optimism.

The essence of the global environmental problem, or the disrupted interaction between society and nature, is the uncontrolled growth of the technosphere and its negative impact on the biosphere, primarily the biota.

Its components are: the destruction of many species of plants and animals and the reduction of biospheric diversity; depletion of non-renewable natural resources and degradation of renewable resources (soil, forests, fresh water) due to the increase in their consumption; exhaustion of the habitat's capacity to absorb anthropogenic waste; saturation of the biosphere with technospheric elements (especially chemical and radiation components); the threat of degradation and extinction of mankind as a result of environmental degradation; the growing concentration of the population in the largest cities; the replacement of the natural processes of self-regulation of the biosphere by anthropogenic influence and the growth of the necessary participation of man in maintaining a favorable state of the natural environment.

The essence of the anthropological global problem, or the violation of interhuman ties and cultural processes, is the growing disharmony between the development of the natural and social qualities of a person. Its components are: a decrease in the natural health of people, the threat of destruction of the human gene pool and the emergence of new diseases; detachment of man from biospheric life and transition to technospheric conditions of life.

It is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that global problems are caused by human activity, more precisely, they are its by-products, being associated with artificial systems designed by mankind. And technological complexes, and public institutions, and regulatory systems were created with the best of intentions to achieve results that were considered optimal. But the activity of people, in addition to direct consequences, has unpredictable effects, and as the technical equipment grows, these side effects begin to prevail. Along with the positive results of historical development, a load of negative ones has been accumulating, which by now has exceeded the critical mass.

Consider the role of one of the forms of human activity - technological

in the genesis of global problems and their possible resolution.

By now, two systems created by the evolution of living matter have developed and coexist on planet Earth: the biosphere and the technosphere.

The biosphere is the shell of the Earth, created by the activity of living organisms, which billions of years ago became a geochemical force on a planetary scale.

The result of thousands of years of technological development has become a global technosphere system, within which all aspects of the life of a modern person are realized. The technosphere as an artificial material world is a product of human civilization. Along with society and culture, it is a product of the active essence of man, his need to change himself and the world. There is a continuous interaction between the biosphere and the technosphere.

Mankind in the course of technological activity changes the structure of the earth's surface, concentrates or rearranges chemical elements, destroys or creates biological species. If the transformation of the technosphere as a result of this interaction is the goal of the production process and is controlled by man, then the change in the physical and chemical characteristics of the biosphere is a side effect.

Socio-natural studies show that techno-biospheric interactions depend on the level of technogenic development, the biosphere only reacts to its changes. Thus, the industrial revolution led to a sharp increase in the anthropogenic load. Biospheric responses ceased to affect individual regions and led to systemic changes in global characteristics, which caused the concern of the world community with environmental problems.

The results of the thousand-year technospherization of the biosphere are as follows: there is an increase in difficulties in maintaining the already achieved level of altered biocenoses and approaching the limit of further changes in the biosphere in the indicated direction. Human economic activity has acquired such a scale that the basic principles of the natural structure of the biosphere are violated: the energy balance, the existing circulation of substances, the diversity of species and biological communities, population stability, etc. Theoretically, there are no more biospheric forms in their pure form. As a result of the global use of biospheric resources, even parts of the Earth that are not occupied in economic turnover experience technogenic influences.

The tense relationship between the technosphere and the biosphere, expressed by the discrepancy between the technogenic load and the resource potential of the biosphere, has reached the stage of an ecological crisis: the replacement of ecosystems by less productive ones has begun. The biosphere is gradually losing its bearing capacity. Even renewable natural resources cease to be renewable as it is disturbed. In the future, the preservation of the previous trend of growth in anthropogenic load threatens the biosphere with collapse (complete loss of biological productivity).

Thus, an unreasonable technogenic impact on the biosphere, which goes beyond its adaptive abilities, can lead to the extinction of humanity itself as a biological species.

The technosphere needs for its functioning a constant borrowing of resources from outside.

Apparently, attempts to get away from the ecological crisis by restructuring the technosphere alone (without simultaneously adapting humanity to new socio-natural patterns) are utopian. Both our inability to foresee all the results of technogenic changes in the field of living matter, and the inevitable growth of the material needs of mankind (which sooner or later will require a new borrowing of resources from the biosphere) will lead to the fact that the implementation of the proposed programs can, at best, slow down the anthropogenic degradation of the biosphere, but don't stop her.

The mind of people is not yet high enough to foresee all the consequences of the impacts produced. Even when the negative consequences are realized, the benefit of future generations does not always force people to abandon momentary benefits. Therefore, we can conclude that the ecological global problem is secondary compared to the anthropological one, and the root cause of the global ecological crisis is the anthropological crisis - the negative changes of modern man.

The rebirth of nature due to the formation of an artificial world is accompanied by catastrophes and causes alarm in the international community. The technogenic rebirth of the human spirit is less noticeable.

Events of the 20th century proved the existence of a feedback between humanity and the technosphere. For example, one can note a change in the systemic determination of human life: if before people were subject to biospheric laws and were forced to defend their place in the fight against natural elements, then modern man, as a result of the technologization of his life, is forced to obey the technosphere, fit into its laws and develop qualities in himself, necessary for its activities.

The technospheric rebirth of man has reached an alarming level. The creator of the artificial world becomes a part of it, the biospheric being becomes a technospheric one.

In the course of technogenic development, human properties undergo significant technospheric transformation. The biosphere is changing not only outside people, but also inside them - in the body and psyche. Man, more and more immersed in the artificial world, gradually loses his natural qualities and acquires socio-technogenic ones. From birth, he finds himself in a technosphere environment. Not only material objects, but also plants and animals admitted to man cannot be called "natural" - their species are also the fruits of the development of mankind.

The sphere of physical labor is reduced and mental stress is growing, which leads to the emergence of new diseases. The human body itself is invaded by an artificial environment: the use of artificial or genetically modified food, artificial insemination, transplantation, etc. are practiced.

The inhabitant of the modern world is characterized by biological changes that cannot be called progressive: a decrease in resistance to infections and environmental factors, a weakening of the senses (sight and hearing are getting worse), insomnia and depression that are affecting more and more segments of the population, cardiovascular and cancer diseases, allergies and infertility. Weakens the immune defense of the human body, the growth of genetic anomalies and mental illness becomes a disaster. With each generation, the degradation of the internal organs and systems of the human body intensifies, more and more often man-made interference in their functioning or their direct replacement is required. Considering how many people in industrialized countries literally cannot live without using the achievements of medicine every day, such a life can be called "artificial".

The latest biotechnological achievements lead to the fact that the object of change is no longer external nature, but the biophysical structure. There are projects of self-transformation through technical intervention: human nature, as imperfect, is declared in need of the same radical processing that other elements of the biosphere have undergone. Previously, the material for artificial alteration was the external environment, now the man himself becomes the material.

The number of people (moreover, in developed, prosperous countries) who seek to "forget", to escape from reality (from alcoholics and drug addicts to all kinds of fans of virtual reality) is increasing. Hopes for building an ideal society that would allow achieving all personal and public benefits did not come true: a post-industrial society, which seems perfect to those who dream of building it, upon closer examination turns out to be just as contradictory, full of problems, based not on the needs of mankind, but guided by general systemic laws of the technosphere.

Man turned out to be not only the creator of the artificial world, but to a large extent his creation. This is the essence of the anthropological crisis, which can be called technogenic-anthropological.

The global problems of technogenic civilization are not the results of individual mistakes, but the consequence of a specific way of being a person in his desire to survive and realize himself. The anthropological crisis is the deepest problem of our time. It covered the whole complex of human relationships: human behavior and way of thinking change so much that the degradation of not only the biosphere, but also the person himself became a matter of concern.

Technological development that is not balanced with regard to the interests of the biosphere is not the result of the evil will of individual people, it is objective as the realization of human nature.

Limitation of technogenic development is impossible, and a complete rejection of technology is not only impossible, but also harmful, it would lead to the restoration of the biosphere at the cost of the extinction of mankind. Man himself has always been, is and will be a biospheric being. Although technogenic alienation is intensifying, nature is still our body and our instincts, and there is no hiding from them in any artificial world. Mankind cannot live without the biosphere (otherwise it will cease to be such and become a different species - no longer biological) and mankind cannot but change the biosphere.

World of Eternal Noon - 1

World of Eternal Noon

Rostik woke up because the sun burned his eyes. It was strange, he slept on his father's "street" cot, under the family's favorite cherry tree, which means that the sun could not shine on him. It appeared here only after eleven, and now it could not be eleven, he knew this for sure, he did not get enough sleep.

He needed to sleep for another two hours, especially since today it would be desirable to have a thinking head. Because the final exam in mathematics was coming up, on which it depended what he would do next, where he would direct his feet, as his father used to say, discussing all kinds of institutions and the continuation of Rostikov's education.

He opened his eyes ... and rolled off the cot, tangled in the blanket, which, imitating his father, his mother must have “warmed up” over the plaid under which he slept, when he had already fallen asleep. She did not approve when someone slept in the yard only under a blanket, talked about dew, cool air and possible tarantulas. All this is nonsense, no one has ever seen tarantulas, and the cool air is only good. Like a father.

And then I realized why the sun shines from above on his unfortunate head - he overslept. Rostik looked at his watch, it turned out it was already half past eleven... I overslept!

No, at twelve there is not a small one, but a large one, but a small one ... It just went in at six o'clock. So it's the beginning of the seventh now?

He raised his head, looked at the solar disk, hanging at its zenith, breaking through not only sparse grayish clouds, but also cunningly bypassing the saving cherry tree, under which in the summer he had slept for as long as he could remember, since infancy, and had spent the night for three years, since Mom succumbed to the persuasion of her father that Height, they say, is already big.

So, the clock was lying, it stopped while he was sleeping, and then started again and now, almost at noon, they are trying to console him with the fact that he can still make it to the exam. Having weighed this possibility, Rostik found slippers cut from old sneakers and went into the house.

Mom, mom!

They didn't answer him. He reached the third, farthest room, where the parent's bedroom was located, and stared at the bed in surprise. So Mom didn't make her bed - definitely the world has gone crazy!

Well, everything is clear with my father, he left a month ago for some kind of “summer meeting”, because he has such a job - he is a radio engineer, signalman, “Marconi” and in general they have a legendary personality in the city, since one of the few communicated with live foreigners on wintering grounds. Knows three foreign languages ​​and speaks them faster than Russian. He will be gone almost until the New Year, and even then if he is not persuaded to stay for the winter, that is, for the rest of the year.

But that's why my mother showed such freethinking, incompatible with her, or rather, promiscuity? She is the head physician of the ambulance, she has a passion for cleanliness and neatness - from her student days or even earlier, from her upbringing ... What happened to her?

Rostik found a pitcher of milk with a piece of bread smeared with honey, so that the bread would be properly soaked, as he likes. So, she still thought about him when she ran away who knows where, who knows when.

There was a clock on the wall above the milk. Rostik came closer. That's right, a quarter past six, he couldn't be late for his exams, because his father had won this watch at a dog race three years ago in Alaska, it is wound up once every two weeks and its accuracy is comparable to marine chronometers. That's what my father said, so it's true. In the city, he said, all the other clocks could lie, especially in the heads of the chiefs, but this one showed absolute astronomical time.

2. Prerequisites for the survival of man and mankind in the modern world.

3. References

1. Problems of mankind. Threats to human life and survival.

Rationalists, scientists, and sociologists believe that the present age holds the contradictory possibilities of both rise and fall. They insist that we are entering a multidimensional world and a new, yet unknown, model of world civilization is emerging. Theorists talk about the entry of mankind into the zone of bifurcation points, a fault that has become apparent, a turning of history in an unpredictable direction.

Indeed, the familiar world of the 20th century, full of turbulent events, is rapidly transforming before our eyes, changing radically. We are facing a new historical time.

It is now clear that without “thinking” on the scale of humanity, it is impossible to productively analyze any local task at a different level: a continent, country, region, city, etc. Any crises in the economy and politics, in prosperous or lagging countries, deep or superficial in essence, is a manifestation of the general crisis shaking human civilization. Politicians and economists of various directions are increasingly coming to the conclusion that a crisis of modern world civilization is coming, which has engulfed nature, the world economy, political relations, culture, and especially man himself.

Describing the global situation at the end of the century, it should be noted that humanity, being essentially united, is at the same time represented by an inexhaustible variety of dynamic socio-cultural forms. The highest achievements of human progress are expressed in high technology, efficient industrial and agricultural production, an extensive information network, and the world of refined art. At the same time, relic, archaic formations remain in a number of regions of the globe, hundreds and hundreds of millions of people do not have the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of civilizations, they drag out the existence of outsiders.

Until recently, we lived in a "bipolar" world. In socio-economic, ideological and political terms, the countries of the developed market economy (capitalism) and the countries of the socialist community opposed each other. The collapse of the socialist community and the profound changes taking place in our Fatherland have dramatically and unexpectedly changed the entire panorama of the world community.

Describing the current situation, the famous German political scientist Ralf Dahrendorf said with confusion: “It is as if a huge hurricane has destroyed the entire political landscape, destroying all landmarks.” Multipolarity is emerging, and the confrontation, which could conditionally be designated "North-South", comes to the fore. On the one hand, a relatively small group of highly developed countries with a stable political system, mastering the latest information and computer technology, with a high level of well-being, on the other hand, the bulk of countries living within the framework of industrial, and even pre-industrial technology. Here mass poverty, rapid population growth, instability of domestic life. The nature of the confrontation between the "Golden" billion and the four billion of the rest of the world's population can be judged by such data. In 1992, the richest 20% of countries received 83% of world income, while the rest had only 17%, while the share of their poorest part was only 1.4%.

"Fed North" and "Hungry South". The South, which cannot provide its inhabitants not only with food and shelter, but also with spiritual food. India gives the world 1/3 of all illiterates, China a fourth, the US and Canada spend 90 times more on education per capita than many African countries. You can't get away from this ratio. At the United Nations Conference on the Environment and the World Outlook (June 1992), Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundland said: “Human history has reached a watershed beyond which policy change becomes inevitable. Over a billion people unable to meet their basic needs, our own children and grandchildren, and planet Earth itself are demanding a revolution. She's coming. We know that we have the ability to prevent the danger, chaos and conflict that are otherwise inevitable.” Needless to say, the words are harsh and truthful. However, years pass, and nothing significant happens. Angry warnings, alarming forecasts have not yet brought the bulk of politicians and even ordinary people out of a state that could be called the well-aimed Russian word “maybe”.

Perhaps it will carry over, troubles and sorrows will resolve themselves, thunder will not strike. But you have to face the truth. The trends that give rise to anxiety have already been identified. It is no coincidence that the motley concepts of global development are sometimes characterized as a search for a "survival strategy". It is no longer about how to "live", but about how to "survive", and this cannot but arouse deep concern among all thinking people.

The threat of thermonuclear fire still remains. The ghost of "doomsday", the global destruction of everyone and everything still roams the planet. The possibilities of the emergence of a "burning flame" and the subsequent "nuclear winter" are by no means abstract, they have visible features. In the 1981 UN Declaration on the Prevention of Nuclear Catastrophe, it was stated that any actions pushing the world towards a nuclear catastrophe are incompatible with the laws of human morality and the lofty ideals of the UN Charter. However, nuclear weapons have not ceased. The moratorium on underground nuclear tests is violated either by China, or by France, or by other members of the "nuclear club". The people of the Earth have not yet ceased to be hostages of atomic mythology and nuclear maniacs. Far from everyone has yet realized, felt that nuclear power is not so much a muscle as a cancerous tumor.

Now the danger of a direct military clash between nuclear superpowers seems to have decreased, but at the same time, the threat of a blind technological accident - the "Chernobyl option" - has not disappeared, and even increased. By the way, the causes of the disaster at Pripyat have not yet been established. There are many versions, but the versions are not yet true. Any technique, as history testifies, will ever break. And no one gives absolute harmony from the repetition of Chernobyl. We must not forget that more than 430 nuclear power plants are currently operating on the planet, and their number is increasing. Armenia has restored its nuclear power plants, China intends to build 15 new nuclear power plants.

The spread of nuclear technology is leading to the same. India, Pakistan, South Africa, Israel and a number of other states are already ready for the production of nuclear weapons. There is a growing danger that nuclear weapons will fall into the hands of irresponsible political adventurers and even criminal elements.

The second threat is the impending proximity of an ecological catastrophe. Our cradle and abode are in danger. History decreed that earthly nature, our ecological niche, is experiencing a state of increasing instability. The relationship "man - nature" in its significance begins to overlap our economic concerns, political worries and theoretical word disputes.

What is the essence of the environmental threat? The fact that the growing pressure of anthropogenic factors on the biosphere can lead to a complete break in the natural cycles of reproduction of biological resources, self-purification of soil, water, atmosphere. This gives rise to a "collapse" - a sharp and rapid deterioration of the environmental situation, which can lead to a fleeting death of the planet's population. There has been talk about the coming destructive processes for quite a long time. Many ominous facts, figures, estimates have been cited and are being cited. They are not talking, but are already shouting about a decrease in the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere, an increase in the "greenhouse effect", the spreading of ozone holes, and the non-stop pollution of natural waters. It is estimated that at least 1.2 billion people live with acute shortage of drinking water. Biologists record that every day as a result of human activity the world loses 150 species of animals and plants.

Global ecology as a set of ideas and practical acts to optimize the relationship between mankind and Nature, to ensure their co-evolutionary development should be the subject of reflection and application, politicians and economists, all the "powers of this world". Otherwise - hopelessness and servile expectation of the ecological version of the Day of Judgment. It is necessary to outline those "limits of development" under which the horror of a universal catastrophe can be avoided.

There is a sharp shortage of agricultural land in the world. It is estimated that by the end of the century there will be 44 million landless households in India alone. Since 1984, world grain production has grown by only one percent each year, twice as fast as population growth. This figure is depressing. All this creates a situation in which the cost of increasing the production of the world's gross product (from fuel to daily bread, from cement to alloys and composites) will exceed the price that society is able to pay for this increase.

The demographic situation on the planet is changing significantly. The process of irresistible growth of the Earth's population (in the 1900s - 8 thousand people per hour, in the 80s - 10 thousand people per hour, and today - 12 thousand people per hour) is uneven. In our country, against the background of ongoing social cataclysms, the death rate per 1 million people a year exceeds the birth rate. Russia began to die out. In developed countries, growth is minimal or non-existent. But the "third world" continues to grow rapidly.

Demographers believe that the maximum population of the Earth is no more than 10 billion people. This figure will be reached by the 30s. 21st century Many claim that it is too high. So, what of thinking global; concerted measures to optimize the demographic shaft will not go anywhere.

There is an acute problem of stopping the pollution of the living environment by xenobiotics (ie, substances hostile to life). Chemical, radiation pollution is increasing. The sphere of our common human heritage has fallen into the danger zone: the World Ocean, outer space, Antarctica. There is only one conclusion: it is necessary to speak with Nature in a language that she understands. The time has passed when the motto of the breeder I. V. Michurin was famously proclaimed in our country: “We cannot wait for favors from nature, it is our task to take them from her.” Now it is paraphrased with bitter wit: "We cannot expect favors from nature - after what we have done to her."

The power of man turned against him. This is the core of the environmental problem. Note that the environmental challenge is no less, if not more, dangerous and tragic than the economic and political ones. But we must also admit that it is impossible to answer it without radical shifts in the world economy and politics, in the minds of leaders and millions.

The third threat is the danger hanging over the human corporality. Under the sword of Damocles is not only the "external" nature, the ecological niche in which we live, but also our "internal" Nature: our body, flesh, human corporality. The body is not a joke. We come into this world with him and leave our mortal bodily remnants, leaving it. The body brings great joy and cruelly torments us with ailments and ailments. Physical health is always in one of the first places in the system of human values. And it is all the more alarming to hear the growing warnings of biologists, geneticists, physicians that we are facing a dangerous line. The genetic burden of human populations is growing. A sharp weakening of the human immune apparatus is recorded everywhere, under the influence of xenobiotics and numerous social and personal stresses.

There are visible consequences of this phenomenon. The chilling word "AIDS" is increasingly invading human life. Such a misfortune that befell mankind is the first global pandemic in history that sows death. A number of researchers believe that this is not just a disease, but some stage in the biological existence of the human race, which is associated with the unbridled mass intrusion of people into the natural foundations of their own being.

Finally, the fourth, no less terrible threat is the crisis of human spirituality. Virtually all secular and religious, global and regional, ancient and new ideologies cannot today. Even to give some convincing answer neither to the actual problems of the epoch, nor to the eternal demands of the spirit.

Defenseless, tossing, limping human thought in many cases is unable to grasp the present, maturely evaluate the past, at least somehow foresee the future. There are currently no reliable social theories and philosophical and anthropological concepts within which it would be possible to more or less definitely characterize our today and, even more so, our tomorrow. Fear, anxiety, anxiety permeate all layers of human existence.

One of the influential American philosophers, Richard Rorta, in the spring of 1995 at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences said that in the American philosophical community everyone is so tired that they hope for something to appear, but no one has the slightest idea of ​​what it should be.

There is no fresh outlook on the world. No one has groped for the guiding thread of a large-scale world-creating character. The production of inspirational symbols and appeals somehow stumbled and choked. It is sometimes said that two ideas came to us from the 19th century that deserve to be called the ideas of the century (realizing that this is a strong simplification, one can still agree with them). One idea is socialist, the other is scientific and technological. It was believed that, based on these ideas, the people of the Earth would build a just society, gain the fullness of life, assert the freedom and dignity of the individual. Both of these ideas are now in ruins.

These are the threats. They are real. They cannot be seen. However, you should not give up, fall into hopeless pessimism, despair and dramatize everything and everything. There are threats, but there are also hopes. Let timid, but still hope. Of course, optimism should not be blissful and groundless. One should not be like those "optimists" who, during a major earthquake, comfort: "Citizens, do not worry, everything will be settled." Nobel laureate, Frenchman Albert Camus became known as an author who wrote about the absurdity and horror of life, that we are all like slaves in a galley smelling of herring, where there are too many overseers and, perhaps, we are rowing in the wrong direction. And yet you should not throw the oars. The main thing is not to despair. Do not listen to those who scream about the end of the world. Yes, of course, we live in a tragic era. But too many people confuse the tragic with the hopeless. But didn't the Nobel laureate, Russian writer A.I. Solzhenitsyn, assert the same thing in his Harvard speech, back in 1978? He declared that if not death, then the world has now approached a turn in history, equal in value to the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance - and it will require from us a spiritual outburst, an ascent to a new height of vision, to a new level of life ... And this said a man who went through the Gulag, emigration, who knows the inside of life.

2. Prerequisites for the survival of man and mankind in

the modern world.

One can confidently point to certain hopes, prerequisites for overcoming global crisis collisions, blocking and diverting the universal threat from humanity.

The first prerequisite is the deployment of the information (computer), biotechnological revolution as a technical and technical basis for a possible way out of the situation of "survival", overcoming obstacles to the unification of mankind. The creation of some new civilization on its basis is still only being revealed, and the contours of such a civilization are still poorly discernible. But there are real trends towards the deployment of a more humanized and prosperous world community in the foreseeable future.

It is important to emphasize that it is this information revolution that creates an objective substantive basis that will make it possible to avert thermonuclear and environmental threats, as well as the danger hanging over human corporality. Whatever skeptical assessments are expressed about modern Big Science, without it - nowhere. One of the brightest modern minds, Ilya Prigozhy, said that in our "turbulent" age, we are very close to a new rethinking of the world. We are in the face of a new universe, a new nature, it takes time to restore or establish ways of understanding this new nature that we are discovering. A new understanding of the world, new mathematical means, new physical and technical tools - all this will help to understand Time, the Universe in a new way, to see the world differently and make appropriate decisions.

The second prerequisite is the establishment of a mixed market and socially protected economy with elements of a convergent type as the dominant type of world economy. This form of economic relations will contribute to linking the interests of different economic entities, harmonizing ties, finding a balance between economic efficiency and social justice.

Equally unjustified are both a super-centralized economy with overwhelming state ownership and a radical-liberal economy with the throwing of selfish proprietors and the hope that the mute automation of the market will put everything in its place. Of course, stereotyped monotonous structures can hardly be applied everywhere. The economic traditions of the United States and the economic habits of Somalia are not the same thing. Labor relations in France and Japan are different. Consumer demands in Sweden and Kyrgyzstan do not match. But the direction of the general search for an optimal economic arrangement, the relationship between the plan and the market, has already been determined in its main features. And this will serve to strengthen world economic ties and solve global problems.

The third prerequisite is the formation of the principle of non-violence and democratic consent in foreign and domestic policy, in group and interpersonal relations. Regrettably, but aggression, violence were the eternal companions of history. Wars, coups, blood accompany all significant events. F. Nietzsche, arrogantly calling a person a "superchimpanzee", believed that violence is an organic way of mutual communication for people. Sigmund Freud considered aggressiveness an irremovable moment of human behavior. Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz bluntly argued that there are good reasons to consider intraspecific aggression the most serious danger that threatens humanity in the current conditions of cultural, historical and technological development.

At the same time, many major thinkers - from M. Gandhi, L. Tolstoy, Martin Luther King Jr. to Erich Fromm and Pope John Paul II believed that aggression, violence, destruction are by no means eternal and do not play a leading role in human motivations. Over the altruistic ideas of M. Gandhi and M. King, over the calls of Leo Tolstoy to non-violence, cynics and mundane pragmatists laughed a lot, giggled. And today there are many who argue that the growth of violence is the defining trend of reality. They say that a new "inter-confessional" messiah is needed, and only he will break the age-old ring of enmity and hatred.

Yes, staying on the ground of reality, we see that shots are still ringing, human blood is shed, hatred is blinding and the “image of the enemy” does not disappear. However, at considerable cost, through retreats and stops, the idea of ​​moving from the cult of force to dialogue, the search for agreement on mutually acceptable solutions, is making its way. The terms "consensus", "negotiation process", "compromise" are becoming permanent in international and domestic politics. The general confidence that the "big battalions" are always right, hopes that only with the help of force it is possible to change the world for the better, is replaced by an orientation towards a peaceful solution of even the most acute problems. Jim Sharp, an American political scientist, in his three-volume study "The Politics of Nonviolent Action" described 198 methods of nonviolent struggle (including forms of symbolic protest, social boycott, nonviolent intervention, etc.).

The fourth prerequisite is the unifying (ecumenical) processes of spiritual life in both religious and secular versions. At considerable expense, there is a search for something that can bring together liberal and socialist thought, the attitudes of the Vatican and Orthodoxy, the Western mentality and Eastern etiquette. Attempts to support these processes are not rare. The Vatican has already proposed to the hierarchs of Orthodoxy to find ways to overcome the church schism that has been going on since 1054. Social democratic leaders are striving to find common ground with the communists and conservatives.

Attempts at ideological rapprochement and mutual understanding are being renewed all the time. They are still weak, timid, insecure, encountering stubborn resistance from fundamentalists of all colors. And yet, there is a process of accepting tolerance (tolerance), rejecting stubborn ideological and spiritual confrontation, as a condition for a benevolent search for mutually acceptable values.

The fifth prerequisite is the steadily ongoing interethnic and intercultural integration while maintaining the autonomy and uniqueness of each ethnic group and each culture. The universalization of cultural life is increasingly unfolding against the background of the preservation of the identity of all participants in this process. International economic and cultural contacts are expanding sharply. The thesis about the “impenetrability” and complete isolation of self-sufficient peoples and their way of life has long collapsed. An intensive exchange of values ​​is accelerating. Synthesis and mutual influence prevail over hardened isolation.

The sixth prerequisite (last but not least) is emerging breakthroughs in the field of intelligent search. Sometimes they even say that we are on the eve of an intellectual revolution. The largest scientists of our time say that; that we are in the face of a New Universe, a new nature, and now the human intellect, as it were, is again moving from a state of mental satisfaction to a state of puzzlement, surprise.

It is worth noting that now there is an acute issue of finding acceptable contacts between the rational and non-rational, scientific and technical, aesthetic and mystical in the development of reality. The ruptures and rejections from each other of different aspects of the human spirit revealed all their perniciousness and unsteadiness.

Concluding the review of visible hopes, let's say about the need to construct a global ethics, universal moral principles that strengthen all-human solidarity. Wisdom and conscience are higher than the straightforward truths of dry-rational knowledge. Knowledge that is not ennobled by eternal values, that is not multiplied by the idea of ​​the good, that does not affirm justice, can lead to universal destruction. Without an ethic of human solidarity, threats cannot be deflected and hopes cannot be met. These are the grounds for getting out of the global crisis in which we are immersed.

3. References

1. Davidovich V., Abolina R. Who are you humanity. - M., 1975.

2. Ivanitsky G.R. New start or last finish // Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Volume. 70. 2000. No. 3. - S. 203 - 214.

3. Ilyichev A. A. School of survival. - M., 1993.

4. Knyazev V.P. Man and technology. Kyiv, 1990.

5. Korostelev V. G. From "A" to "I". - M., 1995.

6. Fundamentals of life safety: Handbook. – M.: AST, 1997.

7. Petrov N. N. Man in emergency situations. - Chelyabinsk: YuUK, 1993.

8. Tavrizyan G. M. Technique. Culture. Man. M., 1988.

9. School of Survival / Ed. S. I. Samygina. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 1998.

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This group includes problems directly related to a person, his individual being. This is the problem of "human qualities" - the development of moral, intellectual and other inclinations of a person, ensuring a healthy lifestyle, normal mental development. Since the second half of the 1970s, attention to these problems has become a characteristic feature of global studies. The turn to man, to the spiritual foundations of being, was not accidental. In fact, it expresses an increase in interest in human problems, which has become a characteristic feature of our time. This new understanding can be called philosophical-anthropological.

Global problems, according to this approach, are not considered as a result of the social structure, features of the economy and technology, but a person as a passive victim of the course of world development. Now it has become clear that the fate of the world ultimately depends on questions of a spiritual nature.

Global problems in the "individual - society" system reflect different aspects of the situation, when the gigantic pace of scientific and technological progress does not correspond to the spiritual development of mankind. A person simply does not have time to spiritually master what his mind generates. The famous philosopher Merab Mamardashvili, describing the current situation, used the expression "anthropological catastrophe". He meant that behind all our troubles, local and global, there is a crisis of man, his spirit. Man has forgotten how to see the world as it is, undistorted by the standardized optics of ideological structures.

The world has changed, and the ideas of humanity must meet the new conditions. Russian culturologist G. Pomerants bitterly said that the triumph of modern civilization appears as a triumph of lack of spirituality. Civilization, with all its material upsurges, suddenly reveals itself as devoid of reliable spiritual foundations. She is not sure about her future, cautiously evaluates the present and gets confused in understanding the past.

Thus, one of the main causes of the crisis that has befallen human spirituality is the loss of guiding ideas. Such ideas that could tie together human reality, help evaluate the lessons of the past, determine the meanings of what is happening and outline the contours of the future. There have been such ideas in the past. For example, the idea of ​​socialism is a society of social justice. Or a scientific and technological idea that glorified economic efficiency. But these ideas have not stood the test of time. And new, bright, unifying ideas, perhaps, are only just beginning to emerge and will be clearly revealed only in the new century.

Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz examined eight different, but closely related processes that threaten the death of not only our current culture, but the whole of humanity as a species. Here they are:

• -- Overpopulation of the earth, forcing each of us to protect ourselves from excessive social contacts, fencing ourselves off from them sometimes in "inhuman" ways. Aggressiveness is also a consequence of the crowding of individuals in a small space.
• - The devastation of the natural living space, which not only destroys the external natural environment in which we live, but also kills in the person himself any reverence for the beauty of nature.
• - The ever-accelerating development of technology, making people blind to all true values ​​and leaving them no time for truly human activity - thinking.
• - Disappearance of all strong feelings and affects due to effeminacy. The development of technology and pharmacology gives rise to an increasing intolerance for everything that causes the slightest displeasure. Thus, the ability of a person to experience joy disappears, which is given only at the cost of strenuous efforts in overcoming obstacles. Waves of suffering and joy, replacing each other by the will of nature, subside, turning into "an imperceptible swell of unbearable boredom."
• - Genetic degradation. The problem of destruction in the present form of human corporality is also one of the global ones.
• - A break with tradition. It occurs when an extreme point is reached, beyond which the younger generation no longer manages to reach mutual understanding with the older ones, not to mention cultural identification with them. Therefore, young people treat their elders as if they were an alien ethnic group. The reason for this is the lack of contact between children and adults.
• -- Increasing unification of mankind. The number of people belonging to the same cultural group is increasing, the technical means of influencing public opinion are being improved, which leads to an unprecedented unification of views. The inspiring influence of the doctrine increases with the increase in the number of followers. For example, people who consciously avoid exposure to television are most often viewed as pathological subjects. The destruction of individuality is welcomed by those who would like to manipulate large masses of people.
• - The eighth, according to K. Lorenz, the mortal sin of mankind, he considers the unrelenting nuclear threat.

The global problems associated with a person affect not only the state of his spirit. Another integral part of human integrity is corporality. “Those who declare the soul incorporeal are delusional,” said the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. The Greek principle of kalogatia (from the word "kalos" - beautiful and "kai agathos" - valiant, uniting physical and moral virtues) meant perfection both spiritual and bodily. The health of the body has always been one of the most important human values.

Is everything safe with human corporality in the modern world? It turns out that the physical condition of a person is also in great danger. Geneticists, biologists, medical professionals are increasingly warning us about the danger of the destruction of humanity as a species. V.E. Davidovich in his book “In the Mirror of Philosophy” cites data that approximately every five hundredth child is born with some significant deviation from the norm, and even with deformity. If the trends in the accumulation of inferiority in the gene pool continue to grow at the same pace, then by the beginning of the 22nd century, humanity will come to the dangerous threshold of erosion of its corporality, undermining mass health. These phenomena are associated with both the process of environmental pollution and the growth of social pressures. Approximately every fifth inhabitant of the planet suffers from severe depression associated with a change in the cyclical work of the right and left hemispheres of the brain, their imbalance. AIDS has become a terrible danger of our time - a disease that is increasingly found next to us. It spread to all corners of our country, did not spare not only representatives of the "risk group" (drug addicts and homosexuals), but also thousands of unsuspecting people. The whole world shuddered when faced with AIDS. Incurability and mass character are his calling card. A number of researchers call AIDS a stage in the biological existence of people. They associate it with the unrestrained interference of man in the foundations of his natural existence. Geneticists fear that the number of such diseases will increase.

The factors that destroy our physicality also include alcoholism and drug addiction. In our country, it is customary to treat drunkenness condescendingly, they say, a Russian person cannot do without it. In Russia, this problem is extremely widespread. But people in other countries of the world also face it. There are a lot of alcoholics in the USA, France, etc. Western civilization can be called "alcoholic civilization" without exaggeration, although the culture of drinking alcohol has not been developed. Therefore, abuses that take on a painful character are frequent. It is known that alcoholics live 15-20 years less than teetotalers and moderate drinkers. More than a quarter of alcoholics do not live past the age of 50. Crippled destinies, congenital deformities, everyday dramas and the possible degeneration of mankind are the consequences of alcoholism. Currently, alcoholism takes more human lives than AIDS and drug addiction combined. The real tragedy of the twentieth century was drug addiction. People, as a rule, are young, thousands are lost for their loved ones, for a normal life, for the future. “They have a drug addict in their family,” they say with such sorrow, as if there is a dead person in the family. But a drug addict who has lost his basic connection to reality is also dangerous. He can cause irreparable moral and physical harm to others, commit a senseless crime, intentionally or unintentionally become a source of the spread of diseases. An experienced drug addict needs constant financial support, as a result of which he introduces 10-12 people to drugs per year, taking a percentage of their money for supplying the drug or getting to know the places where the potion is distributed. Drug trafficking is one of the most profitable types of business, which makes it incredibly attractive. Drug dealers do not care about the victims of their product, profit is the only motive for their activities. In pursuit of large incomes, they are not shy in choosing means to help a person take a careless step into the abyss. In the case of further distribution of drugs, the familiar world will change, because human civilization, despite all its shortcomings, relies on a certain system of values, norms, rules that are of no importance to a drug addict. We have not listed all the problems that humanity faces. But even this is quite enough to indulge in pessimistic melancholy. However, this was not our task. It is important to realize that, ultimately, it depends on us whether humanity will be able to continue development or die out in agony. In order to act effectively in the future, it is necessary to be aware of the mistakes and results of the past. This is what motivated our review of global issues.

In objective reality, we are dealing not with an aggregate, but with a system of global problems. Its characteristic feature is that it is extremely complex and multifactorial. And this is manifested, first of all, in the fact that the essential basis of the system of global contradictions are social relationships determined by the fundamental laws of social development. There are no purely social and purely socio-natural global problems. All of them express certain aspects of a single process of socio-natural development. A characteristic feature of the global problems of our time is that, having arisen for social reasons, they lead to more than social consequences, affecting the biological and physical foundations of human existence.

Considerable efforts are being made in our country to preserve the environment, to protect nature. Russia is the initiator of many international treaties on environmental protection, conservation and prudent use of both natural resources and many types of flora and fauna. The solution of environmental problems is closely connected with the tireless struggle for peace, against the creation of means of mass destruction that threaten both humanity and nature.

The central link in the strategy for solving global problems is the development of comprehensive international cooperation, the unification of the diverse efforts of all mankind. So, the world community has an objective opportunity to save itself and life on the planet. The problem is - will it be able to seize this opportunity?

Can it be argued that in our time people have become more moral and happier than before? No. Never before have people experienced such anxiety for their lives and felt so insecure as they do now.

Each person must be aware that humanity is on the verge of death, and whether we survive or not is the merit of each of us.