Digitalization of Society: Alternative Projections of the Future

Abstract

The impact of digitalization on four spheres of society is analyzed in the article: economic, political, social and spiritual. Digitalization is defined as the diffusion of information and communication technologies (ICT), which bring with them both positive (legitimate) and negative (wrongful) effects. At the same time, at present, the digitalization of public spheres is directly connected with the component of ensuring the digital security of society, which is increasingly becoming global in character. Cyber wars and cyber attacks cause damage on the scale of the global economy, amounting to up to $6 tn annually, commensurate with the economic losses of wartime. Large-scale digitalization of public spheres for the first time in the history of mankind creates an objective opportunity to construct and design its future states, which fundamentally distinguishes the course of future socio-economic and political processes from the course of the historical evolution of past periods, determined by the forces, including natural, beyond the human control. From this point of view, the processes of digitalization of social processes have given rise to a dichotomy of virtual utopias and anti-utopias of Future projects. Dystopias are built around visions of the coming "digital slavery", while utopian focus on visions of a "digital paradise". At the heart of polarized views on the digital Future are the processes of the "digital divide", the meaning of which is that digitalization contributes to a significant increase in inequality in access to digital goods, which in turn results in an increase in inequality in the distribution of income and wealth.