Risks, Epidemics, and an Image of the Future

Abstract

Academician I.T. Frolov proposed to consider the human problem as central in all science and to combine the efforts of various researchers in working on it. He also advanced the imperative “from biologization to anthropologization”. These approaches have now become extremely important. I consider the fundamental changes in the view of human, society and the future from the point of view of the theory of self-organization. Currently, there is a transition from the industrial to the post-industrial phase of the development of civilization. There is in this transition a bifurcation point at which it is decided what the future will become in the next half century. An indicator of the state of society and its expectations, as has happened more than once in history, are epidemics and pandemics. In our case, this is COVID-19, the pandemic of which is also considered from the perspective of philosophical anthropology. In contrast to the expectations of many philosophers, we are faced with a “crisis of the future”, with a situation where there is no single view of the future. The reactions of different civilizations to the biotechnological challenge and to the epidemic show that several “options for the future”, large projects will actively compete in the coming decades. Russia's choice in this situation may be of fundamental importance.