If you try to look at the history of human development on a large time scale, you will notice how much the living conditions of our civilization have changed under the influence of scientific and technological progress(NTP). Science and technology have penetrated deeply into all spheres of human life, influenced his relationship with nature, given him new techniques and methods of production, and affected the level and style of life of people. So, thanks to modern technology, people can move from one point in a few hours globe to another, communicate with each other at a distance of several thousand kilometers using telephone, radio and television communications, almost instantly learn about events taking place in other countries, or directly observe them using live broadcasts. A person can today dive into the deepest points of the World Ocean, where the pressure is hundreds of times greater than atmospheric pressure, and work on other planets in conditions of cosmic temperature differences at complete absence atmosphere. Optical and electronic technology helps us study both the life of huge space objects and the structure of the smallest elements of a living cell, individual molecules and atoms. The creation of high-speed computers and developments in the field of cybernetics allowed people to refuse direct participation in many production processes and entrust their execution to machines.
It is important to note that most of these achievements of science and technology were obtained in recent decades, over a period of time that is negligibly short compared to the entire previous history of mankind. Back at the end of the 19th century. - early 20th century Many years passed before the scientist’s discovery was introduced into technology or industry. The main way to improve and create new technology there was an evolutionary path of search, accumulation and development of practical skills, which led to the creation of most of the machines and tools used today, especially in everyday life and traditional industries.
Significant boost to development productive forces was given in the 19th century. thanks to the rapid development of natural science, which managed to combine disparate knowledge about the world around us in the form of a single harmonious scientific system, which allows not only to explain many discoveries, but also to determine priority directions scientific research for the long term. Moreover, this created the preconditions for the rapid development of the natural sciences, the discoveries of which began to be actively introduced into technology and industry. At this stage, NTP began to acquire not an evolutionary, but a revolutionary character. The quantitative accumulation of both practical skills in the use and improvement of technical tools, and scientific knowledge about the surrounding world has grown into a qualitative leap, allowing for close, ever-accelerating interaction between science and technology. The peculiarity of this stage of development of scientific and technological progress is that all significant technical achievements began to be based primarily not on direct practical experience humanity, but on scientific discoveries made on the basis of this experience. This, of course, does not mean that in the past science did not have any influence on the progress of technology. The discoveries of B. Pascal, A. L. Lavoisier, M. V. Lomonosov, J. C. Maxwell, I. Newton and many other scientists certainly helped inventors choose the right directions for technical research. However, firstly, previously there was no such rapid direct introduction of scientific achievements into technology, and, secondly, the interaction between science and technology was very weak. After all, only at a very high level of technology was it possible to create such advanced means of scientific research as electron microscopes, radio telescopes, synchrophasotrons, nuclear reactors, powerful high-speed computers and other devices. Scientific research carried out with their help leads to new discoveries, which are implemented in new machines and instruments, and thus provide the basis for new discoveries. Consequently, a kind of feedback arises: new technology contributes to an even deeper penetration of science into the secrets of nature, and this, in turn, gives rise to new, even deeper technical ideas, methods and processes. Of course, this does not mean that there is no room left in science for purely theoretical research using “paper and pencil”, however, the practical implementation of scientific developments today is unthinkable without an appropriate technical experimental base. Thus, the modern development of mankind is determined by the ever-accelerating interaction of science and technology, creating qualitative new stage in the development of productive forces. This process is called the scientific and technological revolution within the framework of scientific and technological progress.
From the point of view of a number of scientists, in lately a qualitatively new stage of scientific and technical progress has begun, which will inevitably lead to new profound revolutionary changes in the development of productive forces and in the life of society. These changes are caused by a number of problems, in particular the possible significant depletion of the Earth's natural resources in the next century.
Already today, traditional energy sources - coal, gas and oil - have been replaced by alternative ones: nuclear, solar and water energy. Rare and noble metals are gradually being replaced by special glass fibers, which are significantly superior to their predecessors in a number of physical and chemical properties; cast iron and high grades of steel used in mechanical engineering are giving way to ceramics and plastics; advances in the development of medicine and biology have led to the emergence of a whole new branch of science called bioengineering, which will help people get rid of serious illnesses and diseases. The combination of advances in biology, computer technology and cybernetics has led to the creation of modern super-powerful computers with elements of artificial intelligence that can not only replace humans in production and in extreme conditions, but also help them penetrate the deep secrets of nature. Great influence on modern science and technology was helped by the invention of the laser, which is finding more and more wide application in a wide variety of branches of human activity. With its help, new horizons have opened up in communications technology, medicine, space research, and everyday life. It is still difficult to assess the impact on the development of mankind of a new branch of knowledge - computer science, but there is no doubt that it can have a huge impact on the existing stereotypes of scientific and industrial activity.
But scientific and technological progress, in addition to all the progressive significance that it has for modern civilization, carries with it a number of problems. Here we can mention the use of scientific achievements in means of mass extermination of people, and the increasing frequency of psychological stress associated with a huge information flow, and the environmental problems of our planet (see the “Green” movement), and much more. All this requires the intelligent use of major achievements in science and technology, which will make every person a truly happy inhabitant of the Universe.
Science helps us to penetrate into the essence of phenomena occurring in nature and society, to understand the patterns that govern the development of the natural and man-made environment around us.
It shows people ways to influence and direct this development. Technology arises as a material embodiment of experience and knowledge accumulated by science and practice, and is an instrument of human practical activity. Thanks to technology, people interact more actively with the world around them and have the opportunity to improve the conditions of their existence. Technology also becomes a powerful incentive for the further development of scientific knowledge, since with its help, either immediately or after a certain time, it becomes possible to evaluate the results of scientific research.
The interaction of science, technology and production, leading to the improvement of the productive forces of society, gives rise to scientific and technological progress.
For many centuries, science and technology have developed without showing any obvious relationship with each other. Science gravitated towards speculative constructions, logical conclusions and philosophical generalizations, while technology and technology were improved mainly on the basis of experience, intuitive guesses and random finds. The secrets of mastery were often passed down only by inheritance. This prevented the widespread dissemination of technological discoveries. Science was not closely related to production activities person.
In the 16th century the needs of trade, navigation and large factories required theoretical and practical solutions to a number of problems. Under the influence of the ideas of the Renaissance, science gradually begins to turn to practice.
In subsequent centuries, scientists in different countries- G. Galilei, E. Torricelli, R. Boyle, I. Newton, D. Bernoulli, M. V. Lomonosov, L. Euler, A. Volta, G. Davy and many others - studied mechanical processes, thermal, optical, electrical phenomena. Their results scientific discoveries contributed to the rapprochement of science and practice.
In the XVIII-XIX centuries. With the development of machine production, science is becoming more and more closely connected with the practical activities of mankind. The Russian scientist-encyclopedist M.V. Lomonosov was the initiator of a wide variety of scientific, technical and cultural events aimed at developing the productive forces of Russia. The English inventor J. Watt created a universal steam engine. The French chemist A. Lavoisier explained the process of roasting metals and combustion using the law of conservation of mass of matter. French physicist S. Carnot gave a theoretical justification for the working cycle of a steam engine. The famous Russian metallurgical engineer D.K. Chernov laid the foundations of metallurgy.
In the 20th century scientific and technological progress is associated with the scientific and technological revolution. Under its influence the front expands scientific disciplines oriented towards the development of technology.
Entire branches of production arise in the wake of new scientific directions and discoveries: radio electronics, microelectronics, nuclear energy, chemistry of synthetic materials, production of electronic computer equipment, etc. Science stimulates the development of technology, and technology puts forward new tasks for science and provides it with modern experimental equipment.
Scientific and technological progress covers not only industry, but also many other aspects of the practical activities of society, agriculture, transport, communications, medicine, education, and everyday life. A striking example of the fruitful connection between science and technology is mankind’s exploration of outer space.
Scientific and technological progress serves as the basis social progress. However, in a capitalist society, the progress of science and technology occurs mainly in the interests of the ruling class, the military-industrial complex, and is often accompanied by the destruction of the human personality.
Under socialism, scientific and technological progress is carried out in the interests of the entire people, the successful development of science and technology contributes to the solution of economic and social tasks communist construction, the creation of material and spiritual prerequisites for the comprehensive and harmonious development of the individual.
The XXVII Congress of the CPSU highlighted the task of accelerating the socio-economic development of our country on the basis of scientific and technological progress. One of its most important directions is the widespread development of advanced technologies: laser, plasma, membrane, radiation, electron beam, technologies using ultra-high pressures and pulsed loads, etc. Another direction is comprehensive automation and mechanization of production, designed to make the work of workers, collective farmers, intelligentsia more productive and creative. Modern stage automation is based on the revolution in electronic computing technology, rapid development robotics, rotary conveyor lines, flexible automated production, ensuring high productivity.
Drawing (see original)
Recently, based on the experience of leading scientific organizations in our country, intersectoral scientific and technical complexes have been created, which are a new effective form of connecting science with production. The Comprehensive Program of Scientific and Technological Progress of the CMEA member countries for the period up to the year 2000 is being implemented.
Section 1. The essence of scientific and technological progress, scientific and technological revolution.
Section 2. World economic leaders.
NTP — it's interconnected progressive development science and technology, driven by needs material production, growth and complexity of social needs.
The essence scientific and technological progress, scientific and technological revolution
Scientific and technological progress is inextricably linked with the emergence and development of large-scale machine production, which is based on the increasingly widespread use of scientific and technical achievements. It allows us to put powerful natural forces and resources at the service of man, to transform production into the conscious application of data from natural and other sciences.
With the strengthening of the relationship between large-scale machine production and science and technology at the end of the 19th century. XX century Special types of scientific research aimed at translating scientific ideas into technical means and new technology: applied research, development and development industrial research. As a result, science is increasingly turning into a direct productive force, transforming an increasing number of aspects and elements of material production.
NTP has two main forms:
evolutionary and revolutionary, meaning a relatively slow and partial improvement of the traditional scientific and technical foundations of production.
These forms determine each other: the quantitative accumulation of relatively small changes in science and technology ultimately leads to fundamental qualitative transformations in this area, and after the transition to a fundamentally new technique and technology, revolutionary changes gradually outgrow evolutionary ones.
Depending on the prevailing social system, scientific and technological progress has different socio-economic consequences. Under capitalism, the private appropriation of funds, production and the results of scientific research leads to the fact that scientific and technological progress is developed mainly in the interests of the bourgeoisie and is used to increase the exploitation of the proletariat, for militaristic and misanthropic purposes.
Under socialism, scientific and technological progress is put at the service of the entire society, and its achievements are used to more successfully solve the economic and social problems of communist construction, the formation of material and spiritual prerequisites for the comprehensive development of the individual. In developed socialism, the most important goal of the economic strategy of the CPSU is to accelerate scientific and technological progress as a decisive condition for increasing the efficiency of social production and improving the quality of products.
The technical policy developed by the 25th Congress of the CPSU ensures the coordination of all areas of development of science and technology, the development of fundamental scientific research, as well as the acceleration and wider implementation of their results in the national economy.
Based on the implementation of a unified technical policy in all sectors of the national economy, it is planned to accelerate the technical re-equipment of production, widely introduce progressive equipment and technology that ensures increased labor efficiency and product quality, savings material resources, improvement of working conditions, security environment and rational use of natural resources. The task has been set - to carry out the transition from the creation and implementation of individual machines and technological processes to the development, production and mass use of highly efficient machine systems;
equipment, devices and technological processes, ensuring mechanization and automation of all production processes, and especially auxiliary, transport and warehouse operations, and the wider use of reconfigurable technical means that make it possible to quickly master the production of new products.
Along with the improvement of already mastered technological processes, groundwork will be created for fundamentally new equipment and technology.
Scientific and technological revolution is a radical transformation in the system of scientific knowledge and technology, occurring in inextricable connection with the historical process development of human society.
Industrial revolution of the 18th-19th centuries, in process which replaced craft technology with large-scale machine production, and established capitalism, was based on the scientific revolution of the 16th–17th centuries.
The modern scientific and technological revolution, leading to the replacement of machine production with automated production, is based on discoveries in science late XIX- first half of the 20th century. The latest achievements of science and technology bring with them a revolution in the productive forces of society and create enormous opportunities for production growth. Discoveries in the field of atomic and molecular structure substances that laid the foundation for the creation of new materials;
advances in chemistry have made it possible to create substances with predetermined properties;
study of electrical phenomena in solids and gases served as the basis for the emergence of electronics;
research into the structure of the atomic nucleus opened the way to the practical use of atomic energy;
Thanks to the development of mathematics, means of automation of production and management were created.
All this indicates the creation new system knowledge about nature, radical transformation of technology and production technology, about undermining the dependence of production development on the limitations imposed by human physiological capabilities and natural conditions.
The opportunities for production growth created by scientific and technological revolution are in blatant contradiction with industrial relations capitalism, subordinating the scientific and technological revolution to an increase in monopoly profits, strengthening the rule of the monopolist (see. Monopolist capitalist). cannot put forward social tasks for science and technology that correspond to their level and nature, and gives them a one-sided, ugly character. The use of technology in capitalist countries leads to such social consequences as increased unemployment, increased intensification of labor, and an increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of financial magnates. The social system that opens up space for the deployment of scientific and technological revolution in the interests of all workers is.
In the USSR, the implementation of the scientific and technological revolution is inextricably linked with the construction of the material and technical base of communism.
Technical development and improvement of production are carried out towards the completion of a comprehensive mechanization production, automation of processes that are technically and economically prepared for this, developing a system of automatic machines and creating the prerequisites for the transition to complex automation. At the same time, the development of labor tools is inextricably linked with changes in production technology, the use of new energy sources, raw materials and materials. Scientific and technological revolution has an impact on all aspects of material production.
The revolution in the productive forces determines a qualitatively new level of society’s activity in production management, more high demands to personnel, the quality of work of each worker. The opportunities opened up by the latest achievements of science and technology are realized in growth labor efficiency, on the basis of which prosperity is achieved, and then an abundance of consumer goods.
The progress of technology, primarily the use of automatic machines, is associated with a change in the content of labor, the elimination of unskilled and heavy manual labor, and an increase in the level of vocational training And general culture workers, transferring agricultural production to an industrial basis.
In the future, by ensuring complete well-being for everyone, society will overcome the still significant differences between city and countryside under socialism, the significant differences between mental and physical labor, and will create conditions for all-round physical and spiritual development personality.
Thus, the organic combination of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with the advantages of the socialist economic system means development in the direction of communism
The scientific and technological revolution is the main arena of economic competition between socialism and capitalism. At the same time, this is an arena for intense ideological struggle.
Bourgeois scientists approach revealing the essence of scientific and technological revolution primarily from the natural-technical side.
For the purpose of apologetics of capitalism, they consider the changes occurring in science and technology, outside public relations, in a “social vacuum”.
All social phenomena are reduced to processes occurring in the sphere of “pure” science and technology, they write about the “cybernetic revolution”, which supposedly leads to the “transformation of capitalism”, to its transformation into a “society of general abundance” devoid of antagonistic contradictions.
In reality, the scientific and technological revolution does not change the exploitative essence of capitalism, but further aggravates and deepens the social contradictions of bourgeois society, the gap between the wealth of the small elite and the poverty of the masses. countries capitalism is now as far from the mythical “abundance for all” and “general prosperity” as before the start of the scientific and technological revolution.
Potential development opportunities and production efficiency are determined, first of all, by scientific and technological progress, its pace and socio-economic results.
The more purposefully and effectively the latest achievements of science and technology, which are the primary source of development of productive forces, are used, the more successfully the priority tasks of society are solved.
STP (scientific and technological progress) in a literal sense means the continuous interdependent development of science and technology, and in a broader sense - constant process creating new and improving existing technologies.
scientific and technological progress can also be interpreted as a process of accumulation and practical implementation new scientific and technical knowledge, an integral cyclical system of “science-technology-production”, covering the following areas:
fundamental theoretical research;
applied research work;
experimental design developments;
mastering technical innovation;
increasing the production of new equipment to the required volume, its use (operation) for a certain time;
technical, economic, environmental and social aging of trade items, their constant replacement with new, more efficient models.
The scientific and technological revolution (scientific and technological progress) reflects a radical qualitative transformation of conditioned development on the basis of scientific discoveries (inventions) that have a revolutionary impact on the change of tools and objects of labor, production management technologies, the nature of labor activity people.
General priority areas of NTP. Scientific and technological progress, always carried out in its interconnected evolutionary and revolutionary forms, is a determining factor in the development of productive forces and the steady increase in production efficiency. It directly influences, first of all, the formation and maintenance high level technical and technological base of production, ensuring a steady increase in productivity social labor. Based on essence, content and patterns modern development science and technology, we can highlight those characteristic of most industries national economy general directions of scientific and technological progress, and for each of them priorities, at least for the near future.
In the conditions of modern revolutionary transformations of the technical basis of production, the degree of its perfection and level economic potential is generally determined by the progressiveness of the technologies used - methods of obtaining and converting materials, energy, information, product manufacturing. Technology becomes the final link and form of materialization of fundamental research, a means of direct influence of science on the sphere of production. If earlier it was considered a supporting subsystem of production, now it has acquired independent meaning, becoming the avant-garde direction of scientific and technological progress.
Modern technologies have certain development and application trends. The main ones are:
firstly, the transition to few-stage processes by combining in one technological unit several operations that were previously performed separately;
secondly, provision in new technological systems little - or waste-free production;
thirdly, increasing the level of comprehensive mechanization processes based on the use of machine systems and technological lines;
fourth, use in new technological processes microelectronics tools, which allow, simultaneously with an increase in the level of automation of processes, to achieve greater dynamic flexibility of production.
Technological methods increasingly determine the specific form and function of means and objects of labor, and thereby initiate the emergence of new directions of scientific and technological progress, displace technically and economically obsolete tools from production, and give rise to new types of machines and equipment, automation equipment. Now fundamentally new types of equipment are being developed and manufactured “for new technologies,” and not vice versa, as was the case before.
It has been proven that the technical level and quality of modern machines (equipment) directly depend on the progressive characteristics of the structural and other auxiliary materials used for their production. This implies the enormous role of the creation and widespread use of new materials - one of the most important areas of scientific and technological progress.
In the field of objects of labor, the following trends in scientific and technological progress can be identified:
significant improvement in the quality characteristics of materials of mineral origin, stabilization and even reduction in the specific volumes of their consumption;
intensive transition to the use of a larger number of light, strong and corrosion-resistant non-ferrous metals (alloys), made possible due to the emergence of fundamentally new technologies (developments), significantly reducing the cost of their production;
a noticeable expansion of the range and accelerated increase in production volumes of artificial materials with predetermined properties, including unique ones.
Modern production processes are subject to requirements such as achieving maximum continuity, safety, flexibility and productivity, which can only be realized with an appropriate level of mechanization and automation - an integrated and final direction of scientific and technological progress. and production automation, reflecting varying degrees replacement of manual labor with machine labor, in its development sequentially, parallelly or parallel-consistently passes from the lowest (partial) to the highest (complex) form.
In conditions of intensification of production, the urgent need for multiple increases labor efficiency and radically improving its social content, radically improving the quality of products trade items automation of production processes is becoming a strategic direction of scientific and technological progress for most enterprises industries national economy. The priority task is to ensure comprehensive automation, since the introduction of individual automatic machines and units does not provide the desired economic effect due to the remaining significant amount of manual labor. A new and quite promising integrated direction is associated with the creation and implementation of flexible automated production. The accelerated development of such industries (primarily in mechanical engineering and some other industries) is due to the objective need to ensure highly efficient use of expensive automatic equipment and sufficient mobility of production with constant updating of the product range.
World economic leaders
Developed countries world, the country of the “golden billion”. They are seriously preparing to enter the post-industrial world. Yes, states Western Europe joined forces within the framework of a pan-European program. Industrial developments are underway in the following areas information technology. Global mobile telephony (, 2000-2007) - providing universal teleaccess to any subscribers and information and analytical resources of the global network from a personal handset (such as a cell phone) or a special mobile terminal.
Until recently, people on the planet slept up to 10 hours a day, but with the advent electricity humanity began to spend less and less time in bed. Thomas Alva Edison, who created the first electric light bulb, is considered to be the culprit of the electrical “revolution”. However, 6 years before him, in 1873, our compatriot Alexander Lodygin patented his incandescent lamp - the first scientist who thought of using tungsten filaments in lamps.
telephone set
First in the world telephone set, which was immediately dubbed the miracle of miracles, was created by the famous Boston inventor Bell Alexander Gray. On March 10, 1876, the scientist called his assistant at the receiving station, and he clearly heard on the phone: “Mr. Watson, please come here, I need to talk to you.” Bell hastened to patent his invention, and already a few months later telephone set was in almost a thousand houses.
Photography and cinema
The prospect of inventing a device capable of transmitting images haunted several generations of scientists. At the beginning of the 19th century, Joseph Niepce projected the view from his studio window onto a metal plate using a camera obscura. And Louis-Jacques Mand Daguerre improved it in 1837.
The tireless inventor Tom Edison made his contribution to the invention of cinema. In 1891, he created the Kinetoscope, a device for displaying photographs with the effect of movement. It was the kinetoscope that inspired the Lumiere brothers to create cinema. As you know, the first film show took place in December 1895 in Paris on the Boulevard des Capucines.
Debates about who invented it first radio, continue. However, most representatives scientific world This merit is attributed to the Russian inventor Alexander Popov. In 1895, he demonstrated a wireless telegraphy apparatus and became the first person to send a radiogram to the world, the text of which consisted of two words “Heinrich Hertz”. However, the first radio Patented by the enterprising Italian radio engineer Guglielmo Marconi.
TV
television appeared and developed thanks to the efforts of many inventors. One of the first in this chain is professor of the St. Petersburg Technological University Boris Lvovich Rosing, who in 1911 demonstrated an image on a glass screen of a cathode ray tube. And in 1928, Boris Grabovsky found a way to transmit a moving image over a distance. A year later in USA Vladimir Zvorykin created a kinescope, modifications of which were subsequently used in all televisions.
Internet
The World Wide Web, which has enveloped millions of people around the world, was modestly woven in 1989 by Briton Timothy John Berners-Lee. The creator of the first web server, web browser and website could have become the richest man in the world if he had patented his invention in time. As a result, the World Wide Web went to the world, and its creator received a knighthood, the Order of the British Empire and a Technological Prize of 1 million euros.
Scientific and technical progress is
Investor Encyclopedia. 2013 .
By technology we mean:
methods, techniques of activity (“subjective technique”) - for example, the technique of a musician or the technique of an athlete;
material devices, structures, systems (“objective technology”) - for example, a machine tool, a car, a computer.
Technology is an artificially created means of human activity.
The technology is very diverse: industrial, transport, agricultural, medical, military, computing, management, household, communications technology, educational equipment, etc.
Technology occupies an intermediate place between man and nature. On the one hand, it is a human invention and operates according to the principles laid down in it by man. On the other hand, it represents a set of material things and processes that exist in accordance with the objective laws of nature. Each technical device is a kind of “miracle of nature”, a “trick”: an “extra-natural thing” created according to the laws of nature.
The development of technology has a huge impact on the life of society:
increases the productivity of human labor - by enhancing the physical (and computers - and mental) abilities of a person and replacing his actions with the work of a machine;
forms an artificial habitat (clothing, housing, household items, etc.) that protects a person from the dangers that may await him in wildlife creating for him comfortable conditions life. But at the same time this distances him from natural conditions existence and exposes you to new dangers arising from equipment malfunctions or careless handling;
constantly increases human needs and creates means to satisfy them;
changes all types of human activity and, as it develops, gives rise to more and more new types of it.
In the development of technology, progress is clearly visible, determined by a number of criteria (Table 7.5).
Table 7.5
It is easy to see that one’s own, “internal” criteria of technical progress do not coincide with the general criteria of social progress. Consequently, technological progress that meets its own criteria may not correspond to or even hinder the solution of the tasks of social progress. Therefore, technical achievements must be assessed not only by its own, but also by general criteria progress, and look for ways to resolve in the interests of people the problems that arise when technological progress gives rise to undesirable consequences for people.
The main danger is that the development of technology, which should be nothing more than a means of social progress, threatens to become an end in itself. Freeing a person from hard, monotonous work, technology at the same time requires him to work on its creation, maintenance, and care. To get rid of this labor, a person is forced to create new equipment to perform it. And the pace of this process is increasing with technological progress. This leads to the fact that now 80-90% of new equipment is created not to serve people, but to service equipment. Thus, technical progress does not so much save human labor as change its focus: formerly man worked for himself, but now technology forces a person to work more and more for it.
Technology serves man, but man also serves technology. She gives him dominance over nature, but his dependence on it increases more and more. So who is the person - the master of technology or its servant? Doesn't technology turn from man's slave into his mistress?
Something to think about. Back in 1818, the English writer M. Shelley, in her novel “Frankenstein,” described a monster that was created by man and escaped his power. Will technology become such a monster? The theme of “revolt of the machines”, “rebellion of the robots” is widespread in modern science fiction literature. Maybe science fiction writers foresee the future in some way? Wouldn't it actually turn out, for example, that eventually, through the efforts of man on Earth, a huge planetary system will be created? technical system with a single information network - carrier artificial intelligence, and a person suddenly sees that he has become just a modest “cog” performing certain official functions in this system?
IN modern philosophy Two opposing attitudes to technological progress have emerged:
technicism, whose supporters insist on the need for further technical progress, are confident in the beneficial results of its results for humanity and are optimistic about the future, believing that negative consequences technological progress are liquidated by themselves on the basis of its new achievements;
anti-technicism, which expresses disappointment in technical progress, criticizes its achievements and develops the idea that humanity has “got lost”, has taken the “wrong path” in its development and, therefore, needs to go back to choose another, “non-technological” path development.
Something to think about. Analyze these opposing philosophical positions and try to determine your own point of view.
The environmental consequences of modern scientific and technological progress are of particular concern.
Currently, the technical power of man has increased so much that the changes he makes to nature have reached a critical level: the natural environment has begun to be irreversibly destroyed and made unsuitable for the existence of mankind. This is expressed as follows:
non-renewable natural resources (oil, coal, ores, etc.) consumed by society are approaching depletion;
nature does not have time to restore the damage that its renewable resources suffer as a result of human activity naturally resources (atmospheric oxygen, flora, fauna);
traces of human technical activity irreversibly pollute natural environment(air, water, soil), which undermines the conditions necessary for the preservation of life on Earth;
human energy consumption reaches levels that disrupt the energy balance of the planet;
As a result of technological progress, unforeseen changes occur in nature, causing deviations from its stable state that are dangerous for humans (“the ozone hole” in Antarctica, the growth of golden algae and “red tides” in the North Sea... and perhaps many others, as yet unknown phenomena).
According to most demographic forecasts made in the mid-20th century, the world's population will beginning of XXI V. should have reached 9 billion people. Today there are a little more than 6 billion of us. Why did the forecasts not come true? In 1999, radiobiologist Rosalia Bertel calculated the consequences of radio exposure:
cancer from radiation killed 240 million people;
genetic damage - 223 million people;
accidents in nuclear production - 40 million people;
miscarriages and stillbirths - 500 million people;
congenital deformities - 587 million people.
In total, 2 billion 886 million people became victims of radiation. Here they are - those who were supposed to live in the 21st century.
Thus, a person himself creates a threat to his existence.
The dangers arising from technological progress have long been predicted by philosophers and have attracted widespread attention over the past 3-4 decades. Several different approaches have emerged to assessing the environmental prospects facing humanity.
Ecological pessimism. Technical civilization has reached a dead end. The death of nature as a result of technological progress is inevitable, and therefore, the death hour of humanity is approaching. In this regard, religious and eschatological ideas about the “end of the world”, etc., are filled with new meaning.
Neo-Russianism. Rousseau was right when he argued that the development of science will not bring happiness to humanity. It is necessary to abandon technical civilization and move to simple natural life in nature, return to the “golden age” - “back to nature!”
Ecological optimism. There is no reason to panic. You just need to limit harmful effects technical progress, strengthen nature protection, develop measures against environmental pollution, etc. All this can be done in the process of further continuation of technical progress and on its basis.
Technocratic utopianism. Technological progress it is impossible to stop, and the scale human impact on nature will increase at an increasing rate. This will finally happen sooner or later natural conditions on earth unsuitable for life. But there is no need to fall into despair: humanity, based on technological achievements, will be able to create for itself an artificial technical environment ( underground cities, space colonies), will establish the production of everything necessary for life (air, food, etc.) and will live in new conditions no worse than now.
Something to think about. All these positions express some that actually exist in modern public consciousness sentiments and, perhaps, contain some grains of truth. Assess their importance for solving environmental problems.
No matter how we feel about these points of view, we cannot help but admit that they indicate a crisis in traditional ideas about the nature of interaction between society and nature. Man's old dream of domination over nature is collapsing. It becomes clear that a person must move to a fundamentally different type of attitude towards her.
A century ago Vl. Soloviev wrote that there are three possible types of human relationship to nature:
submission to it is in the past;
its conquest and use - from the beginning of civilization;
approval perfect condition- what it should become in the future with the help of man.
The solution to modern environmental problems lies in the transition to the third type indicated by Solovyov.
Indeed, we now have to abandon attempts to “conquer” nature, as has been done until now. But it hardly makes sense to strive to “preserve” nature, to preserve it as it is now. It would be wrong to think that solving environmental problems should be reduced simply to nature conservation measures. Firstly, nature does not remain unchanged, and the changes that occur in it do not always go in the way that is desirable for people (for example, the advance of the sea onto land in Holland). Secondly, many processes occur in nature that harm people (natural disasters). Finally, thirdly, technological progress cannot be stopped, and no measures will be able to completely eliminate its growing impact on the natural environment.
To cope with the environmental threat, humanity must organize global (planetary scale) management of environmental processes. The condition for this is, obviously, the peaceful cooperation of all countries on Earth. It is necessary not only rational use of natural resources, which involves protecting nature and ensuring environmental safety of production ( closed loops, waste-free technology, etc.), but also the intensive development of new sectors of the economy - the industry of restoration, improvement and enrichment of nature. An important environmental role should be played by the transfer of part of production processes (especially harmful and dangerous industries) into space.
Recently, the concept of co-evolution of man and nature - their joint, conjugate, mutually agreed upon development - has become increasingly recognized.
Humanity should not oppose itself to nature, but form a single integral system with it. In such a system, intelligent human activity becomes a factor ensuring its preservation and further evolution, the result of which is the emergence of the noosphere on Earth, i.e., according to V.I. Vernadsky, a new, highest stage of development of the biosphere on earth, arising on the basis of intelligent activity humanity.
The scientific and technical process of the New Age (hereinafter referred to as STP) is the rapid development of technology that began in the 18th century and continues until today. The importance of technological innovation cannot be overestimated in its impact on European civilization. And for the whole planet.
Industrial revolution
The first stage of scientific and technological progress is the so-called one, which began in England in the middle of the 18th century and lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. This stage of scientific and technological progress was characterized mainly by the mechanization of labor, which had previously been manual.
Pioneers from the British Isle
It is traditionally believed that NTP is the brainchild of this particular country. It is here that, since the 1760s, major changes in some areas of both light and heavy industry. For example, the invention of the yarn loom led to English dominance in the European as well as American textile markets. The appearance of the first in this country led to the replacement of the English fleet with ships of a new type - high-speed and ergonomic. This further consolidated the already traditional advantage of the English fleet over the rest of the Europeans.
The achievements of scientific and technical progress have also manifested themselves in
infrastructure development. An example is the advent of steam locomotives, as a result of which the country was very soon entangled in a whole network of railways, facilitating communication between different regions of the country, trade between them, and so on. Important transformations also took place in heavy industry. For example, the invention led to a significant leap in the development of mechanical engineering.
