Conclusion: Reconsidering the Limits – Suggestions (Come On!)

This concluding chapter provides summary of main ideas expressed in the previous chapters of the present report to the Club of Rome, which are: (1) population growth has ceased to be the main cause of many other global problems; the issue has shifted to other dimensions and requires optimization of demographic processes, rather than general limitation of population growth; (2) modern political system is obviously in a transitional period to a fundamentally new condition based on new principles, that will allow to overcome major contradictions between countries and regions and find new solutions to global problems; (3) the problem of resource depletion could be to a very considerable extent solved through the development and diffusion of fundamentally new technologies, through the movement toward resource and energy saving in the framework of the ongoing Cybernetic Revolution, which is associated with the saving of resources and labor; (4) aging of the global population now becomes one of the most important issues of the world development and requires special attention to minimize the emergent problems and at the same time utilizing advantages of increasing life expectancy; (5) the problem of inequality both within countries and between them requires a stronger social policy and a general restructuring of socio-economic relations in combination with measures preserving the potential for economic growth; (6) technological progress together with global aging will lead societies to a new societal type – cybernetic W-society, characterized by its reliance on AI-based smart (cybernetic) technologies and self-regulating systems, as well as the institutionalization of age differences; (7) a transition to a new global socio-economic system (“world-organism”) is expected, from the modern system, from competing states to a more coordinated global management, and, in the long term, to a closer association based on cooperative principles and aimed at solving common problems, a move to a more solidary society; (8) the inevitable transformation of the current social system requires critical reflection on the previous experience, taking into account the best achievements of the past, which could be realized with the help of media. Thus, generally speaking, this report’s key message is that the time of historical bifurcations is coming, and we need to prepare for it to make the future more beneficial to us and humanity as a whole.