Global Trends and Forecasts of the 21st Century

Grinin, Leonid Grinin Anton Korotayev Andrey

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to become one of the turning points in the transformation of the world order, as well as many political, social and other relations in the World System. Undoubtedly, we live in a fast-changing world, when it is imperative to look beyond the horizon of current events in order to understand what tomorrow may bring. In the present article some forecasts of technological, political, as well as social and economic development of the world are presented in a systematic manner. The authors present short-term (10–15 years), medium-term (20–50 years) and long-term (50–100 years) forecasts (with alternative scenarios) based on the theories of long cycles and respective technological paradigms, as well as on the theories of global aging, production principles, production revolutions, Great Divergence and Great Convergence. It is also important for the topic of the article to show that measures taken against the COVID-19 can significantly accelerate the development of social self-regulating systems, which will become one of the important parts of the Cybernetic revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)