The paper concerns the issue of the impact the society of the future would undergo under the conditions of the constant growth and development of science and technology. The paper supports the argument that in the nearest future, as the numerous scientific researches hypothesize, humankind would be superseded by the robots, machines, and other technological gadgets. This vision is based on the comparison of the current situation in science and technology and possible trends in their development in the long run. In addition to this, the paper shows the essential role science and technology would possibly play in the future of society. These functions are analyzed from the perspective of philosophic and social paradigms (mainly by determinism). This approach helps evaluate the hypothetical way of the societal development in conditions of rapid technological and scientific advancement.

The Role of Science and Technology for Society

The major world powers seek to preserve and strengthen their position in the global arena. This process includes the matter of technological leadership and efficiency improvement of their innovation systems. At the same time, no country including the richest ones is currently capable of conducting a full-scale research into all scientific fields spending the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars a year on science. Under these circumstances, each country has to prioritize its scientific, technological, and innovative development to maintain its leading position in the most promising areas with the closest regard to the forthcoming times.

Science and technology perform an important role. Their development determines the future of modern civilization. Technological development is characterized by the heated debate among the various researchers who perceive them as the solution to all problems or, on the contrary, the cause of various disasters (Lövbrand). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to research the scholars’ opinions about the impact of science and technology on the future of society. This paper argues that the disadvantages of the rapid progress in the abovementioned areas would outweigh the advantages for the society of the future.

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The Place of Science and Technology in Society

The rapid development of science and technology in the future is a subject matter for the numerous debates whose field of expertise falls within such disciplines as ethics, social science, and philosophy. On the one hand, technology acts as an important means to resolve the problems that life brings. On the other hand, technology and science represent a dominant force that threatens humanity’s spiritual essence and the natural world. Along with the positive aspects of development of technology and science, negative consequences of the trends of technological large-scale activities start to arise. The social conflicts caused by the development of modern civilization that is embodied in the philosophy of technology require the application of the moral and ethical evaluation.

The modern humankind cannot live without computers, mobile phones, and the Internet – this seems to be the most evident fact. For example, speaking of the field of education, it is possible to claim that nearly every student now possesses the newly invented gadgets. The impact that they make on children and society as a whole is different: either beneficial or negative. The nature of this influence depends on us ¬ the contemporary society representatives. In this regard, Jasanoff states that currently by only one push of a button, a modern student can find all the necessary resources and choose literature for any abstract or report. This process certainly possesses a definite advantage: the student spends less time in search of information and finds the most available library resources from around the world, the results of the research achieved by scientists living in other countries (Jasanoff). Thus, it is possible to assume that in the future, the computer would enable the larger development of intelligence. The main thing is to learn how to use these resources efficiently.

The numerous areas of human knowledge are engaged in solving the problem of what role the technology and science would have in the future. For example, the majority of interpretations of technological determinism reduce to two basic ideas: first: the future development of technology would be a predictable process that will leave an imprint on the culture and political processes; and second: any technology would be in any case the ‘consequences’ inherent in society. Strict adherents of technological determinism do not believe that the technological influence on the future of society would differ depending on how technology can be used (Jasanoff). I
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