Abstract
This concluding chapter provides summary of main ideas expressed in the previous chapters of the present report to the Club of Rome, which are: (1) population growth has ceased to be the main cause of many other global problems; the issue has shifted to other dimensions and requires optimization of demographic processes, rather than general limitation of population growth; (2) modern political system is obviously in a transitional period to a fundamentally new condition based on new principles, that will allow to overcome major contradictions between countries and regions and find new solutions to global problems; (3) the problem of resource depletion could be to a very considerable extent solved through the development and diffusion of fundamentally new technologies, through the movement toward resource and energy saving in the framework of the ongoing Cybernetic Revolution, which is associated with the saving of resources and labor; (4) aging of the global population now becomes one of the most important issues of the world development and requires special attention to minimize the emergent problems and at the same time utilizing advantages of increasing life expectancy; (5) the problem of inequality both within countries and between them requires a stronger social policy and a general restructuring of socio-economic relations in combination with measures preserving the potential for economic growth; (6) technological progress together with global aging will lead societies to a new societal type – cybernetic W-society, characterized by its reliance on AI-based smart (cybernetic) technologies and self-regulating systems, as well as the institutionalization of age differences; (7) a transition to a new global socio-economic system (“world-organism”) is expected, from the modern system, from competing states to a more coordinated global management, and, in the long term, to a closer association based on cooperative principles and aimed at solving common problems, a move to a more solidary society; (8) the inevitable transformation of the current social system requires critical reflection on the previous experience, taking into account the best achievements of the past, which could be realized with the help of media. Thus, generally speaking, this report’s key message is that the time of historical bifurcations is coming, and we need to prepare for it to make the future more beneficial to us and humanity as a whole.
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Notes
- 1.
See chapter “Introduction. Hoping for the Future” (Sadovnichy et al., 2023b).
- 2.
- 3.
See chapter “Modeling Social Self-Organization and Historical Dynamics. Modern Society and a Look into the Global Futures: Cybernetic W-Society” (Akaev et al., 2023, this volume), chapter “Analyzing Social Self-Organization and Historical Dynamics. Future Cybernetic W-Society: Sociopolitical Aspects” (Grinin & Grinin, 2023a, this volume), and chapter “Socio-Political Transformations. A Difficult Path to Cybernetic Society” (Grinin, Grinin, & Malkov, 2023b, this volume).
- 4.
See chapter “Socio-Political Transformations. A Difficult Path to Cybernetic Society” (Grinin, Grinin, & Malkov, 2023b, this volume), chapter “High Income and Low Income Countries. Towards a Common Goal at Different Speeds” (Grinin & Korotayev, 2023b, this volume), and chapter “Analyzing Social Self-Organization and Historical Dynamics. Future Cybernetic W-Society: Socio-Political Aspects” (Grinin & Grinin, 2023a, this volume).
- 5.
On the ways to optimize growth rates see chapter “Economics. Optimizing Growth” (Grinin, Grinin, & Malkov, 2023a, this volume), chapter “Demography. Toward Optimization of Demographic Processes” (Korotayev, Malkov, & Musieva, 2023, this volume), chapter “Modeling Social Self-Organization and Historical Dynamics. Modern Society and a Look into the Global Futures: Cybernetic W-Society” (Akaev et al., 2023, this volume), chapter “High Income and Low Income Countries. Toward a Common Goal at Different Speeds” (Grinin & Korotayev, 2023b, this volume), chapter “Future Political Change. Toward a More Efficient World Order” (Grinin et al., 2023a, this volume), and chapter “Africa – the Continent of the Future. Challenges and Opportunities” (Grinin & Korotayev, 2023a, this volume).
- 6.
- 7.
See chapter “Global Ageing – an Integral Problem of the Future. How to Turn a Problem into a Development Driver?” (Grinin, Grinin, & Korotayev, 2023b, this volume), chapter “Technology. Limitless Possibilities and Effective Control” (Grinin & Grinin, 2023b, this volume), chapter “Socio-Political Transformations. A Difficult Path to Cybernetic Society” (Grinin, Grinin, & Malkov 2023b, this volume), and chapter “Modeling Social Self-Organization and Historical Dynamics. Global Phase Transitions” (Malkov et al., 2023, this volume).
- 8.
For more details see chapter “Socio-political transformations: a difficult path to a cybernetic society” (Grinin, Grinin, & Malkov, 2023b, this volume) and chapter “Analyzing Social Self-Organization and Historical Dynamics. Future Cybernetic W-Society: Socio-Political Aspects” (Grinin & Grinin, 2023b, this volume).
- 9.
Schumpeter’s “creative destruction” (Schumpeter, 1942) should be replaced here with “preserving destruction”. See our understanding of “preserving destruction” in chapter “Economics. Optimizing Growth” (Grinin, Grinin, & Malkov, 2023a, this volume), chapter “High Income and Low Income Countries. Toward a Common Goal at Different Speeds” (Grinin & Korotayev, 2023b, this volume), chapter “Socio-Political Transformations. A Difficult Path to Cybernetic Society” (Grinin, Grinin, & Malkov, 2023b, this volume), and chapter “Modeling Social Self-Organization and Historical Dynamics. Modern Society and a Look into the Global Futures: Cybernetic W-Society” (Akaev et al., 2023, this volume).
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Sadovnichy, V. et al. (2023). Conclusion: Reconsidering the Limits – Suggestions (Come On!). In: Sadovnichy, V., Akaev, A., Ilyin, I., Malkov, S., Grinin, L., Korotayev, A. (eds) Reconsidering the Limits to Growth. World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34999-7_23
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