The Future of Humanity (Second Edition)

Zhouying Jin

Description

Additional Prefaces from Hazel Henderson, Randeep Sudan, and new additional original material has been added in each chapter.

New material has a particular focus on the impact of Covid-19 and its influence, which has gone beyond the fields of health and hygiene, deeply impacting the economic, social and even geopolitical affairs worldwide, subverting many aspects of the traditional market economy and disrupting social norms. This unexpected disaster is forcing human beings to rethink the axioms of what has long called “civilization.” find ways to coexist with other creatures who share the earth, and change many of our long-established behaviour patterns, including lifestyle, working practices and diet.

The world ushered in explosive technology development, giving human beings unlimited opportunities and reverie. At the same time, mankind faces a deeper crisis - beyond the climate change, ecological environment, the gap between rich and poor, regional conflicts and terrorist threats that people already recognize. That is the human evolution crisis, science and technology crisis and human civilization crisis brought by the development and application of technology, which makes us stand at the crossroads in the history of human civilization. This book calls on human beings to prepare for the future - to actively promote the transformation of Industrial Civilization, to promote the progress of human civilization, to meet Global Civilization and even Great Civilization.

Zhouying Jin contends that if human beings who share an earth cannot correctly grasp the direction of human evolution; if they cannot alter their destructive relationship with nature, and abandon “people-centred” and ‘’self-centred” thinking everywhere; if they cannot alleviate the threat of war and terrorism “as soon as possible” through the sublimation and perfection of human nature, and create a more advanced civilization; if they cannot deal with the planet’s common crises - climate change, species extinction, land and food shortages, water pollution, etc.; in short, if they cannot correctly learn the lessons of the current global catastrophe caused by the COVID-19; if they cannot promote the real awakening of all mankind; and cooperate to establish a new world order and accelerate the pace of civilizational transformation, then indeed the human race is doomed to move toward self-destruction long before the dangers posed by gene-enhanced Super-beings or robots endowed with artificial intelligence robots ever emerge.

Primary audience will be at university level across a broad range of subjects and disciplines, wherever students are studying topics connected to the future of mankind and the world.

Foreword I

Theodore Jay Gordon

Foreword II

Hazel Henderson

Foreword III

Randeep Sudan

Foreword IV

Guangbi Dong

Foreword V

Lane Jennings

Acknowledgements 

Introduction

1. Deep Concern over the Direction of Technology Development

2. The Crisis in Human Civilization Driven by the Theory of Scientific and Technological Omnipotence

3. What Is Technology?

4. What Kind of Civilization Should Human Beings Pursue?

5. The Difficult Task of Creating a Global Civilization

6. Can Humans Eventually Create a Great Civilization?

7. Integrate the Values of Global Civilization into the Practice of Sustainable Development—The Example of China

8. The Responsibility of Our Generation

References 

Notes on the Author

Sujets

• Essays
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Cultural studies
• Morality
• Sustainable development
• Anthropology
• Progress

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 30 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789386189
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Future of Humanity Second Edition
Intellect China Library
Series editor: Hiu M. Chan
The Intellect China Library series brings together important research from Chinese scholars that has never before been available in English. Focusing on art and contemporary culture the series covers a wide variety of subjects including film studies, visual arts, performing arts, and media and cultural studies. The series aims to foster academic debate and promote closer cross-cultural exchanges by introducing important works of Chinese scholarship to readers.
Other titles in the series:
Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2015 (2016) Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2016 (2017) Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2018 (2021) Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2019 (2022) Beijing Film Academy Yearbook 2020 (2022) Film Studies in China: Selected Writings from Contemporary Cinema (2017) Film Studies in China (Volume 2): Selected Writings from Contemporary Cinema (2020)
Cultural Industries in Shanghai: Policy and Planning inside a Global City (2018)
Dance Studies in China: Selected Writings from the Journal of Beijing Dance Academy (2022)
The Future of Humanity
From Global Civilization to Great Civilization
Second Edition
By Zhouying JIN
T RANSLATED BY
Lane Jennings and Ying BAI
First published in the UK in 2022 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2022 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2022 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy editor: MPS Limited
Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas
Production manager: Jessica Lovett
Typesetter: MPS Limited
Translated by Lane Jennings and Ying BAI from the second Chinese edition, The Future of Humanity-From Global Civilization to Great Civilization , By Zhouying JIN (Changsha: Hunan Science and Technology Press, October 2021, ISBN 978-7-5710-1189-5).
Print ISBN 978-1-78938-616-5
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78938-617-2
ePUB ISBN 978-1-78938-618-9
Part of the Intellect China Library series
ISSN 2059-1985 / Online ISSN 2059-1993
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This is a peer-reviewed publication.
Contents
Foreword I
Theodore Jay Gordon
Foreword II
Hazel Henderson
Foreword III
Randeep Sudan
Foreword IV
Guangbi Dong
Foreword V
Lane Jennings
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Where is humanity headed?
Concerning human evolution
What is technology?
On future civilization
Sustainable development and human beings
Understanding China
Let s hope human beings can truly awaken

1. Deep Concern over the Direction of Technology Development
The syndrome of technology worship
Anxiety disorder due to technology
Concerns over the direction of human evolution
The technological revolution now unfolding
The imminent disaster facing science and technology

2. The Crisis in Human Civilization Driven by the Theory of Scientific and Technological Omnipotence
Human-machine civilization?
If we let things go on unchanged, what will happen?
Five Wars among three categories of species
Are we qualified?
Respect for life, reverence toward nature

3. What Is Technology?
Technology in the broad sense
Soft technology has been ignored for a long time
The significance of understanding soft technology
What determines the direction of technological innovation?
The integration of hard and soft technologies in the field of human life and its risks
Human beings must regulate technology-Never allow intelligent robots to control humans
It s not enough just to regulate and control

4. What Kind of Civilization Should Human Beings Pursue?
The essence of Industrial Civilization
Exploring the future evolution of humanity from social-humanity perspectives
What kind of civilization should human beings pursue after industrial civilization?
The Global Civilization
Also worth thinking about

5. The Difficult Task of Creating a Global Civilization
The transformation of civilization has a long way to go
The development mode of each country can and should be unique
Basic principles
Beyond Global Civilization, prospect of the Great Civilization
The process of Great Civilization

6. Can Humans Eventually Create a Great Civilization?
The power of education and persuasion
Human beings can and should agree on common values
Ideal human societies have certain characteristics in common
Human beings have never stopped striving to create an ideal society

7. Integrating the Values of Global Civilization into the Practice of Sustainable Development-The Case of China
Redefining sustainable development-a paradigm shift for human survival and development
Sustainable development and China s practice
Striving to build an innovative country: Moving from imitation to innovation
Realizing sustainable development by adopting a systematic solution
Strategic management of green development theory and practice in China

8. The Responsibility of Our Generation
Reaching a consensus is key
Changing thinking mode is the precondition for achieving consensus
Education is fundamental
A better future cannot be predicted, but it can be created
Tolerance and visionary thinking
Be bold to take responsibility
Transmitting the goal of realizing the Great Civilization to the next generation

References
Notes on the Author
Foreword I
Theodore Jay Gordon 1
In this colossal work, Professor Jin pursues the answers to a simple question: What kind of global civilization should human beings pursue? This question has preoccupied scholars, philosophers, and politicians for centuries. The question may be simple, but the answers are certainly not simple at all. Answers may lie in the domain of soft technology, a field that Professor Jin has pioneered. Soft technology is that field of human endeavor outside of the world of things. Our world's future will be derived from both hard and soft technology but up until recently, we have been preoccupied with the hard side that has not only given us great conveniences and luxuries, but also disaffection, uncertainty, and insecurity.
The book does not deal with the building of mere nations; rather it deals with the building of whole new civilizations, spanning centuries, and asks what is important to happiness. In the process, touches on subjects as diverse as alien intelligence, immortality, morality, and China's possible role in bringing about a better world.
Hard technology is the domain of tools, machines, and equipment. Soft technology is focused on thought and non-scientific knowledge; it is the realm of motivation, values, and behavior. Knowledge about the brain is hard technology; knowledge about the mind is soft technology. The weapons of terrorism are hard; techniques for making their use less compelling are soft. Hard and soft technologies have contributed to the current state of social affairs; both are essential to Professor Jin's search for what she calls the “Great Civilization”.
Civilizations evolve, shaped by the past, shaped by billions of decisions—trivial and monumental, by science, by random and unexpected events, by the changing aspirations of humankind and its institutions, and by appetites holy and secular, vectored toward some unknowable future state. The path has often been driven by avarice, the quest for power, and unreasoned ideology. In nature, organisms evolve and survive by adapting; at the scale of civilizations, simply adapting to our evolutionary fate may give us survival, but is that sufficient?
To change from that fate to something better requires images of what society could be and ought to be, and a determination to set out in that direction. Assuming we have a helm, by what star do we navigate? We need ambitious goals and steering mechanisms to get us there.
Professor Jin asks if we can do better than simply accepting our fate by deliberately choosing goals and policies to shape our future; this has long been the mantra and promise of futures research but rarely has anyone attempted it at the scale of civilizations.
Can we ever agree about the attributes of a Great Civilization? Scholars and poets have tried. James Hilton's Lost Horizon (1988) described a fictional Shangri La, an Asian lost paradise cut off from the world, where the world's wisdom was preserved; Thomas Moore's Utopia (2001) was a tolerant and lawful place where rationality prevailed; Plato's Republic (1991) focused on educated philosopher kings, justice, and moderation; and Francis Bacon's New Atlanti (2012) described a utopia that valued knowledge, dignity, and research. In today's literature, dystopias are more common, from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (2006) to George Orwell's 1984 (1950), perhaps reflecting the fast pace of material invention and our slowness to develop policies regarding their use, and of our generally more uncertain times. A common theme since Alvin Toffler's Future Shock in 1970 has been that hard technology is advancing so quickly leaving no time to adapt, but today that notion seems a bit quaint. There is a much more ominous sounding note as the threats of nuclear proliferation and terrorism capable of mass destruction become real in a world that still lacks any unified political or moral structure, enlightened foreign policy, or rational decision making to mitigate such threats. We seem to be stuck in an industrial society that responds only to power, greed, hedonism, and