Towards Sustainable Future by Transition to the Next Level Civilisation

23 pages, 23 eqs, 3 figs, 30 refs; Report presented at the Symposium “The Future of Life and the Future of Our Civilisation” (Frankfurt am Main, 2-6 May 2005), http://archive.future25.org/Symposium05/kirilyuk.pdfUniversal and rigorously derived concept of dynamic complexity (ccsd-00004906) shows that any system of interacting components, including society and civilisation, exists only as a process of highly inhomogeneous, qualitative development of its complexity. Modern state of civilisation corresponds to the end of unfolding of a big enough level of complexity. Such exhausted, totally “replete” structure cannot be sustainable in principle and shows instead increased instability, realising its inevitable replacement by a new kind of structure with either low or much higher level of complexity (degrading or progressive development branch, respectively). Unrestricted sustainability can emerge only after transition to the next, superior level of civilisation complexity (ccsd-00004214), which implies qualitative and unified changes in all aspects of life, including knowledge, production, social organisation, and infrastructure. These changes are specified by the rigorous analysis of underlying interaction processes. The unitary, effectively one-dimensional and rigidly fixed kind of thinking, knowledge, and social structure at the current level of complexity will be replaced by “dynamically multivalued”, intrinsically creative kind of structure at the forthcoming superior level of development. We propose mathematically rigorous description of unreduced civilisation complexity development, including universal criterion of progress. One obtains thus a working basis for the causally complete, objectively exact and reliable development science and futurology