The main spheres of human life and their development. Realize that life goes on after failure.

After talking with technology and innovation experts at Singularity University in California, Pete Flint collected different predictions about the future: about how we will think, about the opportunities that will open up to us, and about the challenges that society will have to face.

Pete Flint

Investor and technology consultant, founder and director of online real estate service Trulia, founder of Lastminute.com, an online travel service.

An optimistic outlook suggests that advances in technology will solve some of the big problems in areas ranging from medicine to transportation and energy. This will allow reaching a qualitatively new level of life.

Already, the rate of change is very high: literally every week something new appears in business and technology. In the future, the speed of progress will only increase. And this entails changes in ethics, culture and society. New problems will arise that humanity will have to solve.

Features of the development of innovations

1. In fact, it is very difficult to predict the future, because it is too illogical and the principles of exponential growth do not apply in many areas of life. In terms of technology, many of them are developing exponentially. As a result, we often overestimate the impact of scientific discoveries in the short term and underestimate the long term.

2. It is often difficult to predict the future because of companies that innovate that are attractive to a limited number of people. The public either does not notice such innovations, or ridicules them. Nonetheless, these companies are growing rapidly and provide decisive advantages for themselves, while other organizations are either unable to use the new product, or are unwilling to do so, or they are doing it too late.

3. Innovation is like a baton, where one group of people creates something and passes on to another. First, dreamers pass their ideas on to innovators, who, in turn, pass on products to entrepreneurs, and they - to big businessmen, creators of empires, in order to put the product on a financial basis and introduce it to the masses. Successful technology investment depends on timing and understanding how innovation evolves.

4. We must be enthusiastic about the emergence of superintelligence that will help solve many important problems. Especially considering the fact that technological breakthroughs happen both when deeply immersed in one science, and at the junction of different disciplines.

5. Consumer technology is constantly improving. Usability, data analysis, analytics will be of increasing importance. The companies that are doing this now have great prospects for the future.

6. Some technology companies, whose activities are based on their own data, public data or intellectual property assets, on the contrary, will weaken. Because other companies and communities provide data for free or for very little money to attract users to their services.

7. or artificial intelligence will make many people happy.

8. have practically become a commodity of mass consumption. In the future, increased power and number of sensors, lower prices, more advanced interfaces and lower costs will drive the further proliferation of robots.

9. Robots will become much more interesting when they begin to do what is not available to humans, instead of just replacing humans, as is happening now.

10. The shift to self-driving electric vehicles will greatly affect everyday life in general. And this will happen much earlier than expected, and before people have time to prepare for this. The fact that during the trip you can do whatever you like and not follow the road, cities and areas. In large cities, this will affect the quality of life and is likely to lead to a surge in urbanization.

11. The introduction of electric vehicles will start slowly and then quickly pick up steam. As gas stations become less in demand, it will become less and less profitable to have a regular car over time.

12. Changes in robotics and the introduction of innovations in manufacturing and agriculture will destroy the traditional production chains that exist today. This will create many business opportunities.

The medicine

13. In the near future, 3D printing will allow the creation of cartilage and bones, taking into account the characteristics of a particular person. In the long term, molecular and nano printing will create devices and robots that will revolutionize medicine. For example, with the help of such a seal, it will be possible to create organs for transplantation.

14. The cost of genomic testing is falling rapidly, and this procedure will cost a penny in the next decade. This will have a major impact on and at the same time the emergence of consumer health products and crazy ideas like smart toilets and showers based on sensitive sensors.

15. The ability to conduct low-cost genetic research, combined with data analysis, will shift the focus of medicine from treatment to diagnosis and prevention of disease. This will allow finding cures for the worst killers of our time - cancer and neurological disorders.

16. To account for the huge amount of information obtained from sensitive, inexpensive sensors, medicine will need analytics and artificial intelligence. Fragmentation and accounting of information will become the main problems of medicine.

17. People born in developing countries today have every chance to live 2.5 years longer than those born 10 years ago. As technology advances exponentially, human life expectancy will increase with every decade. So in the future, those who will be born in a few decades will have every chance to live a very, very long time (if, of course, they can afford it). In this regard, a number of problems will arise - financial, cultural and social.

Finance and economics

18. Blockchain - a technology for reliable distributed data storage - will soon change the way financial institutions work. They will become almost invisible to us.

19. will evolve until it becomes practically indistinguishable from the real world. Moreover, it will surpass reality in the quality of experience and functionality. This will go really far and will have a huge impact on our society.

Energy

20. The cost of obtaining solar energy will fall, so it will be used more and more often.

21. Over the past few decades, changes in the energy sector are not held back by technology, but by politics and social factors.

22. Innovation in energy storage and transportation matters even more than new energy extraction technologies.

23. Digitizing information will create potential threats, so the investment in security will be huge.

Education

24. Most likely, the skills required for the job are. To stay afloat, the specialist will need to undergo repeated training. A new approach to education and career will be required.

25. Our children and grandchildren will live in a different world. For them to be successful, we must provide them with continuous learning and knowledge in technology, engineering, and develop critical thinking, creativity and sensitivity.

Organizations of the future

26. As technology advances, the demands on the productivity of organizations and leaders will increase. This will shorten the lifespan of most companies. The most successful organizations of the future are those that will continue to train employees and introduce new technologies throughout their existence.

27. Companies that have the ability to rapidly innovate and change will always keep pace with progress.

Society

28. To prevent a sharp decline in jobs, the government will need to provide everyone with a basic income, whether they work or not, and help them get through the changes in society and in the workplace.

29. The number of US jobs is expected to halve over the next 20 years due to computerization and the replacement of humans with robots. In less developed countries this figure will be lower.

30. Job cuts due to the introduction of robots and artificial intelligence are predictable and inevitable, just as they were in the past when automating enterprises. But it is difficult to predict how the government and society will react to this.

31. The rapid development of technology should help people in all areas of life. But if there are no major changes in government and society, then technologies will be available only to a small number of wealthy people, which will further divide society into classes.

32. Some developing countries will be able to overtake others in building certain types of infrastructures and gain an economic advantage, just as established companies are beating out by adopting a new, more efficient model of operation.

33. The future reflects many stories that are woven into traditional religions: life after death, out-of-body experience, eradicating disease, curing paralysis, superintelligence, and so on. Is this a coincidence? Or has our human nature pushed us to solve these problems throughout history? And how will religions react to miracles becoming commonplace?

34. Perhaps society will become more humane, or maybe it will value human nature more in a digitized life. As technology becomes more and more invisible, a person moves up the Maslow pyramid of needs and begins to value things around him in a way that all generations of people before him could not.

Topic 7. The concept of social progress

The problem of the direction of the changes taking place in society originated in antiquity and remained quite controversial.

Different views on the direction of social development

– French enlighteners - history of continuous renewal, improvement of all aspects of society.

– Religious movements - the prevalence of regression in many spheres of society.

– Plato, Aristotle, J. Vico, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee - movement along certain steps within a closed cycle, that is, the theory of the historical cycle.

– Contemporary researchers - positive changes in some spheres of society can be combined with stagnation and regression in others, that is, the conclusion about the inconsistency of progress.

Humanity as a whole has never regressed, but its forward movement could be delayed and even stopped for a while, as they say stagnation .

The concept of progress in modern conditions is increasingly being transformed towards enriching it with humanistic parameters and characteristics. The development of a person in his spiritual and physical dimensions, the awareness of the intrinsic value of human existence, the creation of favorable conditions for a person - this is the progress of modern society. As humanistic criteria the following indicators of the progressive development of society are put forward: average human life expectancy, child and maternal mortality, health status, level of education, development of various spheres of culture, sense of life satisfaction, degree of respect for human rights, attitude to nature, etc.

Sample assignment

B2.Below is a list of terms. All of them, with the exception of one, are associated with the concept of "progress".

Social reform; stagnation; social revolution; social development; modernization.

Find and specify a term that is not related to the concept of "progress".

Answer: Stagnation.

Topic 8. Processes of globalization and the formation of a single humanity

In the modern world, there is a significant strengthening of ties between individuals, organizations and states, and the interdependence between them is growing. Humanity is developing, expanding its ties and contacts. People are more and more aware of themselves as a single community, where everyone is connected with many thousands of other people in all parts of the Earth.

The modern world in all its diversity is one, and its parts are closely interconnected.

Globalization – the process of integration of states and peoples in different fields of activity.

The main causes of globalization: transition from an industrial society to an information society, to high technologies; transition from the centralization of the economy to its decentralization; transition from the national economy to the world one; transition from alternative choice ("either / or") to variety of choice; use of new communication technologies: the Internet, satellite television.

Globalization is a process during which the mutual influence and interdependence of peoples and states increases.

The main directions of globalization: activities of transnational corporations with branches around the world; globalization of financial markets; international economic integration within individual regions; creation of international organizations in the economic and financial spheres: International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, etc.

The formation of a global economy gives rise to the interdependence of the economies of individual states. The success or crisis of countries is having a tangible impact around the world. Power becomes powerless in front of global processes. This prompts the unification of efforts of different countries to address socio-economic and political issues, for example, the expanding European Economic Community.

On the issue of the formation of a single humanity, there are the following points of view:

- The unity of humanity is only apparent. People speak thousands of languages, profess different religions, adhere to different values. The world is not at all one. It is diverse and multifaceted.

- The modern world does not leave much room for variety. People in different parts of the world eat the same foods, watch the same TV programs, read the same literature, etc. The existing differences should disappear in connection with the information revolution that has swept the whole world today.

- The world is one and diverse. The stronger the tendency towards unity, the more clearly the diversity of cultures, lifestyles, and social values \u200b\u200bis manifested. One does not contradict the other. The unity of humanity complements its diversity.

In the modern era, humanity gains unity Not only anthropological - as a biological species, but also social - uniting into an integral world social system, and cultural - because in the interchange of the achievements of different cultures, a single common human culture is formed.

Sample assignment

A1.Choose the correct answer. Are the following judgments about the consequences of the globalization process correct?

A. Globalization contributes to the integrity of the world and its development.

B. Globalization promotes the spread of values \u200b\u200band norms characteristic of Euro-American culture.

1) only A is true

2) only B is true

3) both statements are true

4) both judgments are wrong

Answer: 3.

Topic 9. Global problems of humanity

The term "global problems" appeared in scientific literature at the end of the 60s. XX century The global problems of our time are not something new for the current stage of human development, but represent an exacerbation and deepening in modern conditions of the previously existing problems in the system "man - nature - society".

All global problems are interconnected. It is impossible to solve each of them separately: humanity must solve them together in order to preserve life on the planet.

Taking into account the current level of social development and the special acuteness of the global problems facing humanity, various social forecasts of the prospects for humanity are made:

– Pessimistic forecasts ("environmental pessimism") are connected with the fact that it is impossible to solve the global problems of mankind, since this will require the implementation of such measures that are practically impossible to implement (for example, the suspension of population growth, the rejection of technical and technological progress, a decrease in the level of consumption, etc.). The inevitability of an ecological catastrophe, "the end of history", the death of mankind.

– Moderately optimistic forecasts ("scientific and technical optimism") substantiate by the fact that scientific and technical discoveries and technological innovations can become the basis for solving the most complex of global problems. A condition for this is the adoption by the world community of the concept of "sustainable development", according to which the scientific, technical and technological revolution should be subordinated to the interests of survival, preservation of the natural environment of human existence.

Sample assignment

B4.Find the global problems of our time in the list below and circle the numbers under which they are indicated.

1) the problem of education of the masses

2) demographic problem

3) food problem

4) trade problem

5) the problem of using space

6) scientific problem

Write the circled numbers in ascending order.

Answer: 235.

Section 2. Spiritual life of society

Topic 1. Culture and spiritual life

Culture is a very complex phenomenon, which is reflected in the hundreds of its definitions and interpretations that exist today. The most common are the following approaches to understanding culture as a phenomenon of public life:

- Technological approach: culture is the totality of all achievements in the development of the material and spiritual life of society.

- Activity approach: culture - creative activity carried out in the spheres of material and spiritual life of society.

- Value-based approach: culture is the practical implementation of universal human values \u200b\u200bin the affairs and relationships of people.

Starting from the 1st century. BC e. the word “culture” (from the Latin cultura - care, cultivation, cultivation of the land) meant the upbringing of a person, the development of his soul and education. It finally came into use as a philosophical concept in the 18th - early 19th centuries. and denoted the evolution of mankind, the gradual improvement of language, customs, state structure, scientific knowledge, art, religion. At this time it was close in meaning to the concept of "civilization". The concept of "culture" was contrasted with the concept of "nature", that is, culture is what man created, and nature is what exists independently of him.

Based on numerous works of various scientists, the concept " culture »In the broad sense of the word can be defined as a historically conditioned dynamic complex of forms, principles, methods and results of active creative activity of people constantly renewing in all spheres of social life.

Culture in the narrow sense - the process of active creative activity, during which spiritual values \u200b\u200bare created, distributed and consumed.

In connection with the existence of two types of activity - material and spiritual - two main spheres of the existence and development of culture can be distinguished.

The division of culture into material and spiritual is very arbitrary, since it is sometimes very difficult to draw a line between them, because they simply do not exist in their "pure" form: spiritual culture can be embodied in material carriers (books, paintings, tools, etc.). etc.). Understanding all the relativity of the difference between material and spiritual culture, most researchers nevertheless believe that it still exists.

Under spiritual life of society usually understand that the area of \u200b\u200bbeing, in which objective reality is given to people not in the form of opposing objective activity, but as a reality that is present in the person himself, which is an integral part of his personality.

The spiritual life of a person arises on the basis of his practical activity, is a special form of reflection of the surrounding world and a means of interaction with it.

The spiritual life usually includes knowledge, faith, feelings, experiences, needs, abilities, aspirations and goals of people. Taken in unity, they constitute the spiritual world of the individual.

Spiritual life is closely related to other spheres of society and is one of its subsystems.

Elements of the spiritual sphere of society: morality, science, art, religion, law.

The spiritual life of a society covers various forms and levels of social consciousness: moral, scientific, aesthetic, religious, political, legal consciousness.

Sample assignment

A1.Choose the correct answer. Are the following judgments about culture correct?

A. Culture - a set of values, the general level of intellectual, moral, aesthetic development of people.

B. Culture - a set of historically established forms of joint activities of people.

1) only A is true

2) only B is true

3) both statements are true

4) both judgments are wrong

Answer: 1.

Topic 2. Forms and varieties of culture: folk, mass and elite; youth subculture

When it comes to cultural diversity, it is understood in different ways.

However, most often, speaking about the diversity of cultures, they mean three forms of culture: elite, popular, mass and its two varieties: subculture (from Latin sub - under) and counterculture (from Latin contra - against).

The criterion for the presence and formation of a subculture is the totality of all its parameters.

Components and signs of a subculture, knowledge (picture of the world in the narrow sense of the word); values; style and lifestyle; social institutions as a system of norms; skills, abilities, methods of implementation, methods; social roles and statuses; needs and inclinations.

Popular and elite cultures are not hostile to each other. Achievements, artistic techniques, ideas of "elite art" after a while cease to be innovative and are adopted by mass culture, raising its level. At the same time, profit-making popular culture enables film companies, publishing houses, and model houses to support the “creators” of elite art.

The youth subculture is often viewed as deviant (deviating), expressing a certain degree of opposition to the dominant culture. It develops most often on the basis of peculiar styles in clothing and music and is associated with the development of a consumer society, creating more and more new markets for products aimed primarily at young people. Youth culture is a culture of conspicuous consumption. Its emergence is also associated with an increase in the role and significance of free time, leisure, around which all relationships are formed. The youth subculture also focuses more on peer group friendships rather than family. In addition, the growth of living standards allows large-scale experiments with the way of life, the search for other, different from the culture of adults, cultural foundations of their existence.

Sample assignment

B6.Read the text below where a number of words are missing. Select from the provided list the words to be inserted in place of the blanks.

“Initially, in the interaction of innovation and ____________ (1) in culture, the dominant role is played by the latter, which consolidates and retains slowly accumulating innovations. Moreover, this system in the early stages of the development of society is necessarily characterized by extreme cruelty, does not allow even a shadow of ______________ (2). The deeper into the past, the more we see a person swaddled in speech and figurative stamps and stencils, in formulas for assessments and ______________ (3), in the formulas of everyday ____________ (4), practical ____________ (5), beliefs. He is relieved of the need to think: almost just in case of life, almost for every question there is a saying, proverb, quote, verse, writing, generalized artistic _____________ (6) ".

The words in the list are given in the nominative, singular. Choose one word after another in sequence, mentally filling in each gap. Note that there are more words in the list than you need to fill in the blanks.

B) behavior

C) democracy

D) innovation

E) art

E) reason

G) continuity

3) tradition

I) wisdom

The table below shows the pass numbers. Write under each number the letter corresponding to the word you have chosen.

Answer: ZVBIEA.

Topic 3. Mass media

Mass media (mass media) have a huge influence on the formation of spiritual models (standards) of mass culture.

The media are:

The totality of all channels of information transmission: print (newspapers, magazines, newsletters, newsletters, etc.); radio; the television; cinema; video; The Internet.

The totality of all genres through which the entire content of the mass media is realized: note; interview; reportage; report; correspondence; comment; review; conversation; talk show; press conference; questionnaire; feature article; essay; interactive survey; feuilleton; pamphlet.

The media influence not only feelings, attitudes, social attitudes, value orientations, etc., but also the form and in what ways they spread among various social groups, how they manifest themselves in the activity and behavior of the latter. Their enormous role will become especially evident if we consider that the tools of communication and knowledge, as such, are at the same time tools of power.

Efficiency and dynamism, widespread use of documentary and artistic forms contribute to the fact that the media quickly and effectively influence the spiritual life of society, on the consciousness of the broadest masses. They can quickly and easily persuade public opinion in support of some specific goals, campaigns, a particular political course, etc. The media contribute to the perception and assimilation of the dominant values, ideals, ideological and political attitudes by people. characterized by universality, standardize and form a homogeneous culture, unify opinions, orientations, attitudes, behavioral guidelines.

Verbal expression of information, especially for audiovisual media, is not the only and not always the most important element of information activities. The ever-growing stream of images, symbols, signals pushes aside the word not only as a means of transmission, but also as an element of the culture of our time. The media are becoming the main agent for the production and distribution of culture.

Sample assignment

B3.Read the text below, each position is numbered.

(1) Today the press, radio and television have become indispensable attributes of modern life. (2) During the Soviet period, there was no such variety of publications and programs in the mass information sphere, representing the entire spectrum of opinions. (3) Among researchers of mass communication, there is an opinion that in Soviet times, methods of influencing the audience were coercive. (4) In our opinion, a democratic society brings with it other models of influence on the population, since now it is not the army hierarchy that works, but a game on equal terms.

Determine which positions of the text are:

A) factual nature

B) the nature of value judgments

Write a letter under the position number indicating its nature.

Transfer the resulting sequence of letters to the answer form.

Answer: AABB.

Topic 4. Art, its forms, main directions

Art is the central link in aesthetic culture, a special form of social consciousness.

There are a number of theories about the origin of art:

– biologizing - the origin of art from the need to attract the attention of the opposite sex. Art arises from emotional excitement, the psyche, which is in a state of conflict, at the moments of transformation and switching of the energy of elementary drives towards the goals of high creative activity;

– playroom - the reasons for the emergence of art in the need for a person to spend energy unspent in labor activity, in the need for training to master social roles;

– magical - art is a form of various types of magic, introduced into the daily activities of a primitive man;

– labor - art is the result of labor: the useful qualities of the objects produced become an object of artistic pleasure.

Art – practical human activity aimed at mastering and creating aesthetic values. Art expresses an aesthetic attitude to the world. It creates a special reality - artistic, in which the aesthetic reflection of the world, as a rule, has little to do with the utilitarian needs of man.

There are different views on art in society: art is an imitation of nature; "Nature is the best master of forms." Art is the creative self-expression of a person or a symbolic and symbolic concept.

Piece of art – man, his relationship with the outside world and other individuals, as well as the life of people in certain historical conditions. The life of people is reflected in art in all its diversity in the form of artistic images, which, being the result of fiction, nevertheless are a reflection of reality and always bear the imprint of really existing objects, events and phenomena. With the help of an artistic image, the process of artistic generalization takes place, the selection of essential features of cognizable objects.

The form of being art – work of fiction, which has a specific and genre specificity and is realized as a material object - a sign that conveys to people a certain artistic concept that has aesthetic value.

Art as a cultural phenomenon is subdivided into a number of species, each of which has a specific language, its own sign system: architecture (architecture); painting (genres: portrait, still life, landscape, genre genre, animalistic genre, historical genre); sculpture (easel, decorative, monumental); arts and crafts; literature; music; theater; the circus; ballet; movie; photography; stage.

Art as a form of artistic knowledge has specificity: is figurative and descriptive; uses special methods of reproducing the surrounding reality, the means by which artistic images are created (word; sound; color, etc.); plays an important role in the process of cognition, imagination and fantasy of the cognizing subject.

Art performs many different functions in society, about the content of which there are disputes between supporters of various theories.

Sample assignment

C8.State your thoughts (your point of view, attitude) about the problems raised in the statements. Provide the necessary arguments to substantiate your position.

In carrying out the assignment, use the knowledge gained in the course of social studies, the relevant concepts, as well as the facts of social life and your own life experience.

“The goal of art is not a dream, but real life” (R. Rolland).

“Art is loved by those who have failed in life” (V. Klyuchevsky).