Global Technological Perspectives in the Light of Cybernetic Revolution and Theory of Long Cycles


Global Technological Perspectives in the Light of Cybernetic Revolution and Theory of Long Cycles
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Authors: Grinin, Leonid; Grinin, Anton L.
Almanac: Globalistics and Globalization StudiesGlobalization Studies and Evolutionary Trends

In the present paper, on the basis of the theory of production principles and production revolutions, we reveal the interrelation between K-waves and major technological breakthroughs in history and make some predictions about features of the sixth Kondratieff wave in the light of the Cybernetic Revolution which, we think, started in the 1950s. We assume that the sixth K-wave in the 2030s and 2040s will merge with the final phase of the Cybernetic Revolution (which we call the phase of self-regulating systems). This period will be characterized by breakthroughs in medical technologies which will manage to combine many other technologies into a single complex of MBNRIC-technologies (med-bio-nano-robo-info-cognitive technologies). The article offers some predictions concerning the development of these technologies.

Keywords: production revolutions, production principle, Industrial Revolution, Cybernetic Revolution, self-regulating systems, Kondratieff waves, fourth K-wave, fifth K-wave, sixth K-wave, World System, center, periphery, medicine, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, robotics, cognitive technologies.

Leonid E. Grinin, is a Russian philosopher of history, sociologist, political anthropologist, economist, and a scholar of historical trends and future studies more

Anton L. Grinin, phD in Biological Sciences, is Senior Research Fellow of the International Center for Education and Social and Humanitarian Studies as well as leading Research of Volgograd Centre for Social Research more