The Cybernetic Revolution and the Forthcoming Epoch of Self-Regulating Systems

<p>The monograph presents the ideas about the main changes that occurred in the development<br> of technologies from the emergence of Homo sapiens till present time and outlines<br> the prospects of their development in the next 30–60 years and in some respect until the<br> end of the twenty-first century.<br> What determines the transition of a society from one level of development to another?<br> One of the most fundamental causes is the global technological transformations. Among<br> all major technological breakthroughs in history the most important are three production<br> revolutions: 1) the Agrarian Revolution; 2) the Industrial Revolution; and 3) the Cybernetic<br> one. The book introduces the theory of production revolutions which is a new valuable<br> explanatory paradigm that analyzes causes and trends of dramatic shifts in historical process.<br> The authors describe the course of technological transformations in history and<br> demonstrate a possible application of the theory to explain the present and forthcoming<br> technological changes. They analyze the technological shifts which took place in the second<br> half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries and forecast the main shifts in the<br> next half a century. On this basis the authors present a detailed analysis of the latest production<br> revolution which is denoted as ‘Сybernetic’. They make some predictions about its<br> development in the nearest five decades and up to the end of the twenty-first century and<br> show that the development of various self-regulating systems will be the main trend of this<br> revolution. The authors argue that the transition to the starting final phase of the Cybernetic<br> Revolution (in the 2030–2040s) will first occur in the field of medicine (in some its innovative<br> branches). In future we will deal with the started convergence of innovative technologies<br> which will form the system of MANBRIC-technologies (i.e. the technological<br> paradigm based on medicine, additive, nano- and bio- technologies, robotics, IT and cognitive<br> technologies). The monograph gives an outline of the future breakthroughs in medicine<br> and some other technologies (between the 2010s and 2070s).