Noosphere according to Vernadsky
Noosphere (from Greek noos -- intelligence)- sphere of reason; A new state of the biosphere, which is associated with intelligent human activity; everything that is created by the human mind, as opposed to natural.
concept noosphere It was suggested professor mathematicians of the Sorbonne Edward Leroy. He described this concept as a "thinking" shell, which is formed by human consciousness. His theory was supported and expanded Teilhard de Chardin, who shared not only the idea of abiogenesis (revival of matter), but also the idea that the end point of the development of the noosphere would be merging with God. Development noospheric teachings related in first turn With name Vernadsky.
IN AND. Vernadsky in the 1920s drew attention to the powerful human impact on the environment and the transformation of the modern biosphere. He said that humanity as an element of the biosphere will inevitably come to an understanding of the need to preserve all life on Earth and embrace the living shell of the planet with reasonable control, turning it into a single sphere - the noosphere. This new concept was formulated by Vernadsky in 1944. He managed to in general terms outline the foundations of a new doctrine, but his words are still relevant and sound warning: “In the geological history of the biosphere, a huge future opens up before a person if he understands this and does not use his mind and his labor for self-destruction.” vernadsky noosphere environment
IN AND. Vernadsky considers the noosphere to be a historically inevitable stage in the development of the biosphere. Man absolutely inevitably has a reverse influence on the nature that gave birth to him, and as a result, humanity and the natural environment form a single system - the noosphere.
In the works of Vernadsky, a number of specific conditions are indicated that are necessary for the formation and existence of the noosphere.
- 1. Human settlement of the entire planet (This condition is met. There are no places left on Earth where a human foot would not set foot. He even settled in Antarctica).
- 2. sharp transformation funds connections and exchange between countries(This condition can also be considered fulfilled. With the help of radio and television, we instantly learn about events anywhere in the world).
- 3. Gain connections, in volume including political, between everyone countries Earth(This condition can be considered, if not fulfilled, then fulfilled. The United Nations (UN), which emerged after the Second World War, turned out to be much more stable and effective than the League of Nations that existed in Geneva from 1919 to 1946).
- 4. Start dominance geological roles human above others geological processes, leaking in biosphere(This can also be considered fulfilled, although it was the predominance of the geological role of man in a number of cases that led to severe environmental consequences. The volume of rocks extracted from the depths of the Earth by all mines and quarries of the world is almost 2 times higher than the average volume of lavas and ashes carried out annually by all Earth's volcanoes).
- 5. Extension borders biosphere and exit in space(Vernadsky did not consider the boundaries of the biosphere to be permanent. He emphasized their expansion in the past as a result of the release of living matter to land, etc. In the process of transition to the noosphere, the boundaries of the biosphere should expand, and man should go into space. These predictions came true).
- 6. Discovery of new sources of energy (The condition is met, but, unfortunately, with tragic consequences. Atomic Energy has long been mastered for both peaceful and military purposes).
- 7. Equality of people all races and religions(This condition, if not achieved, then, in any case, is achieved. A decisive step towards establishing the equality of people of different races and religions was the destruction of colonial empires at the end of the last century).
- 8. Increase roles folk masses in decision questions external and internal politicians(This condition is observed in all countries with a parliamentary form of government).
- 9. freedom scientific thoughts and scientific searching from pressure religious, philosophical and political constructions and creation in state in tune conditions, favorable for free scientific thoughts(In the USSR, science was under colossal oppression. Now it is free from such pressures, however, due to the heavy economic situation many scientists are forced to earn their living by non-scientific work or go abroad).
- 10. Thoughtful system popular education and climb welfare workers. Creation real capabilities not allow malnutrition and hunger, poverty a also promote weakening diseases(It is difficult to judge the fulfillment of this condition objectively, being in a large country, standing on the verge of hunger and poverty, as all the newspapers write about it).
- 11. Reasonable transformation primary nature Earth With goal do her able to satisfy all material, aesthetic and spiritual needs numerically increasing population(This condition cannot be considered fulfilled, however, steps towards a reasonable transformation of nature in the second half of the 20th centuries began to be carried out. In the modern period, the integration of sciences based on environmental ideas is taking place. global problems, which, given the sovereignty of various states, seems doubtful).
- 12. Exception wars from life societies(Vernadsky considered this to be extremely important for the creation and existence of the noosphere. It has not been fulfilled and it is not yet clear whether it can be fulfilled. The world community is striving to prevent a world war, although local wars still exist).
Thus, the ideas of Vernadsky were far ahead of the time in which he worked. Only now are the illusions of the conquest of nature crumbling and the essential unity of the biosphere and humanity is becoming clear. The fate of our planet and the fate of mankind are the same fate.
Bibliography
- 1. Lectures on KSE, MATI, Maksina T.Ya., 2015.
- 2. Website "Grandars.ru": http://www.grandars.ru/shkola/geografiya/noosfera-vernadskogo.html.
- 3. E-library Librarian.Ru: http://bibliotekar.ru/1vernadskiy.htm.
Introduction
The term "noosphere" was proposed in 1927 by the French mathematician and philosopher E. Leroy. "Noos" is the ancient Greek name for the human mind.
The first culture created by man - the Paleolithic (Stone Age) - lasted about 20-30 thousand years. It coincided with a long period of glaciation. The economic basis of the life of human society was the hunting of large animals: red and reindeer, woolly rhinoceros, donkey, horse, mammoth, tour. Numerous bones of wild animals are found at the sites of Stone Age man - evidence of a successful hunt. Intensive extermination of large herbivores has led to a relatively rapid reduction in their numbers and the extinction of many species.
If small herbivores could make up for the losses from persecution by hunters with a high birth rate, then large animals, due to evolutionary reasons, were deprived of this opportunity. Additional difficulties arose due to the change natural conditions at the end of the Paleolithic. 10-12 thousand years ago there was a sharp warming, the glacier retreated, forests spread in Europe, large animals died out. This created new living conditions, destroyed the existing economic base of human society. The period of its development, which was characterized only by the use of food, has ended. purely consumer attitude to the environment.
In the next era - the Neolithic (New Stone Age) - along with hunting, fishing and gathering, the process of food production is becoming increasingly important. The first attempts were made to domesticate animals and breed plants, and the production of ceramics was born. Already 9-10 thousand years ago there were settlements, among the remains of which they find wheat, barley, lentils, bones of domestic animals - goats, pigs, sheep. The beginnings of agricultural and cattle-breeding economy are developing. Fire is widely used both for the destruction of vegetation in conditions of slash-and-burn agriculture, and as a means of hunting. The development of mineral resources begins, metallurgy is born.
Population growth, a qualitative leap in the development of science and technology over the past two centuries, and especially today, have led to the fact that human activity has become a factor on a planetary scale, the guiding force for the further evolution of the biosphere. Anthropocenoses emerged (from the Greek anthropos - man, koinos - general, community) - communities of organisms in which a person is the dominant species, and his activity determines the state of the entire system. VI Vernadsky believed that the influence of scientific thought and human labor led to the transition of the biosphere to a new state - the noosphere (the sphere of reason). Now humanity is using for its needs an increasing part of the planet's territory and increasing amounts of mineral resources.
The true greatness of Vernadsky is being revealed only now. It is in its deep philosophical ideas looking into the future, closely affecting the fate of all mankind.
He was born in St. Petersburg in 1863, just two years after the abolition of serfdom in Russia, in the family of a professor of political economy, a prominent representative of the Russian liberal intelligentsia of the last century. Five years later, the Vernadsky family moved to Kharkov, where the formation of Vernadsky's personality was influenced by his cousin E. M. Korolenko, a retired officer who was fond of scientific and philosophical research. Most of all, he was interested in the problems associated with the life of each person and humanity as a whole. It is likely that some of the thoughts of E. M. Korolenko, some of the questions he posed, were preserved in the memory of Vernadsky and consciously or unconsciously influenced his scientific work.
The Petersburg classical gymnasium, where Vernadsky studied from the third grade, was one of the best in Russia. Foreign languages, history, philosophy were well taught here. Subsequently, Vernadsky independently studied several European languages. He read literature, mostly scientific, in fifteen languages, and wrote some of his articles in French, English, and German. The scientist retained his interest in history and philosophy for the rest of his life.
Then Vernadsky entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University, where among the professors were the luminaries of Russian science: Mendeleev, Beketov, Sechenov, Butlerov. However, Dokuchaev, who taught mineralogy at the university, undoubtedly had a greater influence on Vernadsky. The young scientist repeatedly took part in expeditions to study the soils of the Nizhny Novgorod province under the leadership of Dokuchaev. But the scope of scientific interests of Vernadsky at that time was not limited to mineralogy. He also studied and achieved some results in geology, crystallography, and history.
At the same time, Vernadsky became genuinely interested in Tolstoy's teachings and shared many of his doubts. However, Tolstoy did not believe that science was capable of satisfying a person's desire to find the "meaning of life", to come to terms with the inevitability of death, to substantiate high moral principles. It is unlikely that such ideas were close to Vernadsky. Unlike Tolstoy, all his life he kept faith in scientific knowledge and sought to find the answer to many questions of life on the basis of a logical analysis of facts, reliable information about the world and man.
In 1885, Vernadsky was left as the curator of the Mineralogical Cabinet of Moscow University. Working at this place, the scientist travels a lot, works in chemical and crystallographic laboratories, and makes geological expeditions. In 1897, Vernadsky defended his doctoral dissertation and became a professor at Moscow University. In 1906 he was elected a member of the State Council from Moscow University. Two years later, he becomes an extraordinary academic. On the initiative and under the chairmanship of Vernadsky, in 1915 a commission was created to study the natural productive forces of Russia at the Academy of Sciences. At the end of 1921, Vernadsky founded the Radium Institute in Moscow and was appointed its director. In 1926, his famous work "Biosphere" was published, after which he wrote a lot of research on natural waters, the circulation of substances and gases of the Earth, cosmic dust, geometry, the problem of time in modern science. But the main theme for him remains the biosphere - the area of life and geochemical activity of living matter.
Having lived to a ripe old age, Vernadsky died in Moscow just a few months before the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War. He had to go through three revolutions in Russia and two world wars. But no less revolutionary discoveries in science fell on his century.
But most importantly, for Vernadsky, science was a means of understanding nature. He was not an expert in any one science or even in several sciences. He brilliantly knew a dozen sciences, but he studied nature, which is immeasurably more difficult than all the sciences put together. He pondered both natural objects and their relationships.
Like many natural scientists who have achieved outstanding success in special areas, Vernadsky came to his philosophical constructions in his declining years, seeing in them a natural generalization of the fundamental principles underlying the universe. But even among the luminaries of natural science, he stands out not only for his innovation and depth of ideas, but also for their striking modernity.
And at the center of this innovation is the revival of the ancient idea of the central role of man, his mind in the entire universe. Its significance for our civilization has long been underestimated. And the main reason for this, paradoxically, was, apparently, in the very successes of classical science, which culminated in the creation by A. Einstein in 1916 of the general theory of relativity,
Intoxicated by unprecedented achievements, most scientists have traditionally seen in man only a talented contemplator of nature, capable of revealing its secrets and satisfying the thirst for knowledge to its fullest. And Vernadsky prophetically saw in man a skilled creator of nature, called, after all, to take a place at the very helm of evolution.
Vernadsky, for all his genius and incredible capacity for work, took decades to build a reliable bridge over the abyss separating natural science from history created by people themselves. And this bridge consisted in the key idea that the transition of the biosphere that arose on Earth into the noosphere, that is, the realm of the mind, is not a local episode in the backyards of the boundless Universe, but a natural and inevitable stage in the development of matter, a stage of natural history. “We are just beginning to realize the irresistible power of free scientific thought, the greatest creative power of Homo sapiens, the human free personality, the greatest manifestation of its cosmic power known to us, the kingdom of which is ahead,” Vernadsky wrote with inspiration.
The unity of the biosphere and man
The central theme of the doctrine of the noosphere is the unity of the biosphere and humanity. Vernadsky in his works reveals the roots of this unity, the importance of the organization of the biosphere in the development of mankind. This allows you to understand the place and role historical development humanity in the evolution of the biosphere, the patterns of its transition to the noosphere.
One of the key ideas underlying Vernadsky's theory of the noosphere is that man is not a self-sufficient living being living separately according to his own laws, he coexists within nature and is part of it. This unity is primarily due to the functional continuity environment and the person that Vernadsky tried to show as a biogeochemist. Humanity itself is a natural phenomenon and it is natural that the influence of the biosphere affects not only the environment of life, but also the way of thinking.
But not only nature influences a person, there is also a feedback. Moreover, it is not superficial, reflecting the physical influence of man on the environment, it is much deeper. This is proved by the fact that planetary geological forces have become noticeably more active in recent times. “...we see more and more clearly the geological forces around us in action. This coincided, hardly by chance, with the penetration into scientific consciousness of the belief about the geological significance of Homo sapiens, with the identification of a new state of the biosphere - the noosphere - and is one of the forms of its expression. It is connected, of course, first of all, with the refinement of natural scientific work and thought within the biosphere, where living matter plays the main role. So, recently the reflection of living beings on the surrounding nature has changed dramatically. Thanks to this, the process of evolution is transferred to the field of minerals. Soil, water and air are changing dramatically. That is, the evolution of species itself has become a geological process, since in the process of evolution a new geological force has appeared. Vernadsky wrote: "The evolution of species passes into the evolution of the biosphere."
Here the conclusion naturally arises that the geological force is not actually Homo Sapiens at all, but its mind, the scientific thought of social humanity. In Philosophical Thoughts of a Naturalist, Vernadsky wrote: “We are just experiencing its bright entry into the geological history of the planet. In the last millennia, there has been an intensive growth of the influence of one species of living matter - civilized humanity - on the change in the biosphere. Under the influence of scientific thought and human labor, the biosphere passes into a new state - into the noosphere.
We are observers and executors of profound changes in the biosphere. Moreover, the restructuring of the environment by scientific human thought through organized labor is hardly a spontaneous process. The roots of this lie in nature itself and were laid down millions of years ago during the natural process of evolution. "Man ... is an inevitable manifestation of a large natural process, naturally lasting for at least two billion years."
From this, by the way, we can conclude that statements about the self-destruction of mankind, about the collapse of civilization, have no solid grounds. It would be, at the very least, strange if scientific thought - the product of a natural geological process - would contradict the process itself. We are on the verge of revolutionary changes in the environment: the biosphere, through processing by scientific thought, passes into a new evolutionary state - the noosphere.
Populating all corners of our planet, relying on state-organized scientific thought and its generation, technology, man has created a new biogenic force in the biosphere that supports reproduction and further settlement of various parts of the biosphere. Moreover, along with the expansion of the area of residence, humanity begins to present itself as an increasingly cohesive mass, since the developing means of communication - the means of transmitting thoughts envelop the entire globe. "This process - the complete settlement of the biosphere by man - is due to the course of the history of scientific thought, is inextricably linked with the speed of communication, with the success of the technique of movement, with the possibility of instantaneous transmission of thought, its simultaneous discussion everywhere on the planet."
At the same time, for the first time, a person really understood that he is an inhabitant of the planet and can and should think and act in a new aspect, not only in the aspect of an individual, family or clan, states or their unions, but also in a planetary aspect. He, like all living things, can think and act in the planetary aspect only in the field of life - in the biosphere, in a certain earthly shell, with which he is inextricably, naturally connected and from which he cannot leave. Its existence is its function. He carries it with him everywhere. And he inevitably, naturally, continuously changes it. It seems that for the first time we are in the conditions of a single geological historical process that simultaneously embraced the entire planet. The 20th century is characterized by the fact that any event taking place on the planet is connected into a single whole. And every day the social, scientific and cultural connectedness of mankind is only intensifying and deepening. “The increase in the universality, the solidarity of all human societies is constantly growing and becomes noticeable in a few years, almost every year.”
The result of all the above changes in the planet's biosphere gave reason to the French geologist Teilhard de Chardin to conclude that the biosphere at the moment is rapidly geologically moving into a new state - into the noosphere, that is, a state in which human mind and the work he directs represent a powerful new geological force. This coincided, apparently not by chance, with the moment when man populated the entire planet, all mankind was economically united into a single whole, and the scientific thought of all mankind merged into one, thanks to advances in communication technology.
In this way:
1. Man, as he is observed in nature, like all living organisms, like any living substance, is a certain function of the biosphere, in its certain space-time;
2. Man in all his manifestations is a part of the biosphere;
3. The breakthrough of scientific thought has been prepared by the entire past of the biosphere and has evolutionary roots. The noosphere is the biosphere, reworked by scientific thought, being prepared by the entire past of the planet, and not a short-term and transient geological phenomenon.
4.
Vernadsky repeatedly noted that “the civilization of “cultural humanity” - since it is a form of organization of a new geological force created in the biosphere - cannot be interrupted and destroyed, since this is a great natural phenomenon that corresponds to the historically, or rather, geologically established organization of the biosphere. . Forming the noosphere, it is connected with this earthly shell with all its roots, which was not to any comparable extent earlier in the history of mankind.
Much of what Vernadsky wrote about is becoming the property of today. Modern and understandable to us are his thoughts about the integrity, indivisibility of civilization, about the unity of the biosphere and humanity. The turning point in the history of mankind, which scientists, politicians, publicists are talking about today, was seen by Vernadsky.
Vernadsky saw the inevitability of the noosphere, prepared both by the evolution of the biosphere and by the historical development of mankind. From the point of view of the noospheric approach, modern pain points in the development of world civilization are seen differently. The barbaric attitude to the biosphere, the threat of a world ecological catastrophe, the production of means of mass destruction - all this should have a transitory significance. The question of a radical turn to the origins of life, to the organization of the biosphere in modern conditions should sound like an alarm, a call to think and act in the biospheric - planetary aspect.
The transition of the biosphere into the noosphere: forecast and reality
Vernadsky, analyzing the geological history of the Earth, claims that there is a transition of the biosphere to a new state - to the noosphere under the influence of a new geological force, the scientific thought of mankind. However, in the works of Vernadsky there is no complete and consistent interpretation of the essence of the material noosphere as a transformed biosphere. In some cases, he wrote about the noosphere in the future tense (it has not yet arrived), in others in the present (we are entering it), and sometimes he associated the formation of the noosphere with the emergence of Homo sapiens or with the emergence of industrial production. It should be noted that when, as a mineralogist, Vernadsky wrote about the geological activity of man, he did not yet use the concepts of "noosphere" and even "biosphere". He wrote in most detail about the formation of the noosphere on Earth in the unfinished work Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon, but mainly from the point of view of the history of science.
So, what is the noosphere: a utopia or a real survival strategy? The works of Vernadsky allow a more reasonable answer to the question posed, since they indicate a number of specific conditions necessary for the formation and existence of the noosphere. We list these conditions:
1. Human settlement of the entire planet.
2. Dramatic transformation of the means of communication and exchange between countries.
3. Strengthening ties, including political ones, between all countries of the Earth.
4. The beginning of the predominance of the geological role of man over other geological processes occurring in the biosphere.
5. Expansion of the boundaries of the biosphere and access to space.
6. Discovery of new energy sources.
7. Equality of people of all races and religions.
8. Increasing the role of the masses in resolving issues of foreign and domestic policy.
9. Freedom of scientific thought and scientific research from the pressure of religious, philosophical and political constructions and the creation in the state system of conditions favorable for free scientific thought.
10. A well-thought-out system of public education and an increase in the well-being of the working people. Creating a real opportunity to prevent malnutrition and hunger, poverty and greatly reduce disease.
11. Reasonable transformation of the primary nature of the Earth in order to make it capable of satisfying all the material, aesthetic and spiritual needs of the numerically growing population.
12. Exclusion of wars from the life of society.
Let us see how these conditions are met in modern world and let's take a closer look at some of them.
1. Human settlement of the entire planet. This condition has been met. There are no places left on Earth where the human foot would not set foot. He settled even in Antarctica.
2. Dramatic transformation of the means of communication and exchange between countries. This condition can also be considered fulfilled. With the help of radio and television, we instantly learn about events anywhere in the world. The means of communication are constantly improving, accelerating, there are such opportunities that it was difficult to dream of recently. And here it is impossible not to recall the prophetic words of Vernadsky: “This process – the complete colonization of the biosphere by man – is due to the course of the history of scientific thought, is inextricably linked with the speed of communication, with the success of the technique of movement, with the possibility of instantaneous transmission of thought, its simultaneous discussion on the entire planet.” Until recently, telecommunications were limited to telegraph, telephone, radio and television, which Vernadsky wrote about. It was possible to transfer data from one computer to another using a modem connected to a telephone line, documents on paper were transmitted using fax machines. Only in last years The development of the global telecommunications computer network Internet gave rise to a real revolution in human civilization, which is now entering the era of information. In 1968, the US Department of Defense took care of linking many of its computers into a special network, which was supposed to promote scientific research in the military-industrial sphere. Initially, this network was required to be resistant to partial damage: any part of the network can disappear at any time. And under these conditions, it should always be possible to establish a connection between the source computer and the information receiver computer (destination station). The development of the project of such a network and its implementation was entrusted to ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency - the Advanced Research Office of the Ministry of Defense. After five years of hard work, such a network was created and called ARPAnet. During the first ten years the development computer networks went unnoticed - their services were used only by specialists in computing and military equipment. But with the development of local networks that unite computers within any one organization, there is a need to link together the local networks of various organizations. From time to time, attempts were made to use the ready-made ARPAnet for this, but the bureaucrats of the Department of Defense were against it. Life required quick solutions, so the structure of the already existing ARPAnet was taken as the basis for the future Internet network. In 1973, the first international connection was organized - England and Norway joined the network. However, the explosive growth of the Internet in the late 1980s was caused by the efforts of the NSF (National Science Foundation - US National Science Foundation) and other academic organizations and scientific foundations around the world to connect scientific institutions to the network. The growth and development of the Internet, the improvement of computing and communication technology is now going on just as the reproduction and evolution of living organisms is going on. Vernadsky drew attention to this at one time: “At a rate comparable to the rate of reproduction, expressed by a geometric progression in the course of time, an ever-growing multitude of inert natural bodies new to it and new large natural phenomena are created in this way in the biosphere.” "... The course of scientific thought, for example, in the creation of machines, as noted long ago, is completely analogous to the course of reproduction of organisms." Where the network used to be limited to computer scientists, government officials, and contractors, now virtually anyone can access it. And here we see the embodiment of Vernadsky's dream of a favorable environment for the development of scientific work, the popularization of scientific knowledge, and the internationality of science. Indeed, if earlier people were separated by borders and vast distances, now, perhaps, only a language barrier. “Every scientific fact, every scientific observation,” wrote Vernadsky, “regardless of where and by whomever they are made, enters a single scientific apparatus, is classified and reduced to a single form, immediately becomes a common property for criticism, reflection and scientific work. .". But if earlier in order to be published scientific work to make scientific thought known to the world, it took years, now any scientist with access to the Internet can present his work, for example, in the form of the so-called WWW page (World-Wide Web - "World Wide Web") for viewing by all network users, and not only the text of the article and drawings (as on paper), but also moving illustrations, and sometimes sound accompaniment. Now Internet is a global community of about 30 thousand computer networks interacting with each other. The Internet already has a population of almost 30 million users and about 10 million computers, with the number of nodes doubling every year and a half. Vernadsky wrote: “It will soon be possible to make visible to all the events taking place thousands of kilometers away.” We can assume that this prediction of Vernadsky came true.
3. Strengthening ties, including political ones, between all countries of the Earth. This condition can be considered, if not fulfilled, then fulfilled. The United Nations (UN), which emerged after the Second World War, turned out to be much more stable and effective than the League of Nations, which existed in Geneva from 1919 to 1946.
4. The beginning of the predominance of the geological role of man over other geological processes occurring in the biosphere. This condition can also be considered fulfilled, although it was precisely the predominance of the geological role of man in a number of cases that led to severe environmental consequences. The volume of rocks extracted from the depths of the Earth by all the mines and quarries of the world is now almost twice the average volume of lavas and ash carried out annually by all the volcanoes of the Earth.
5. Expansion of the boundaries of the biosphere and access to space. In the works of the last decade of his life, Vernadsky did not consider the boundaries of the biosphere to be permanent. He emphasized their expansion in the past as a result of the emergence of living matter on land, the appearance of tall vegetation, flying insects, and later flying lizards and birds. In the process of transition to the noosphere, the boundaries of the biosphere must expand, and man must go out into space. These predictions have come true.
6. Discovery of new energy sources. The condition is fulfilled, but, unfortunately, with tragic consequences. Atomic energy has long been mastered for both peaceful and military purposes. Mankind (or rather politicians) is clearly not ready to confine itself to peaceful purposes, moreover, atomic (nuclear) force has entered our century primarily as a military means and a means of intimidating opposing nuclear powers. The question of the use of atomic energy deeply worried Vernadsky even more than half a century ago. In the preface to the book Essays and Speeches, he prophetically wrote: “The time is not far off when a person will receive atomic energy in his hands, such a source of power that will give him the opportunity to build his life as he wants ... Will a person be able to use this power , direct it to good, and not to self-destruction? Has he matured to the ability to use the power that science must inevitably give him? The huge nuclear potential is supported by a sense of mutual fear and the desire of one of the parties for unsteady superiority. The power of the new energy source turned out to be doubtful, it came at the wrong time and fell into the wrong hands. For the development of international cooperation in the field of the peaceful use of atomic energy, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established in 1957, uniting 111 states by 1981.
7. Equality of people of all races and religions. This condition, if not achieved, is, in any case, achieved. A decisive step towards establishing the equality of people of different races and religions was the destruction of colonial empires at the end of the last century.
8. Increasing the role of the masses in resolving issues of foreign and domestic policy. This condition is observed in all countries with a parliamentary form of government.
9. Freedom of scientific thought and scientific research from the pressure of religious, philosophical and political constructions and the creation in the state system of conditions favorable for free scientific thought. It is difficult to speak of the fulfillment of this condition in a country where, quite recently, science was under the colossal yoke of certain philosophical and political constructions. Now science is free from such pressures, however, due to the difficult economic situation in Russian science, many scientists are forced to earn their living by non-scientific work, others go abroad. International funds have been created to support Russian science. In developed and even developing countries, as we see in the example of India, the state and social system create a maximum favorable regime for free scientific thought.
10. A well-thought-out system of public education and an increase in the well-being of the working people. Creating a real opportunity to prevent malnutrition and hunger, poverty and greatly reduce disease. It is difficult to judge the fulfillment of this condition objectively, being in a large country on the verge of hunger and poverty, as all the newspapers write about it. However, Vernadsky warned that the process of transition from the biosphere to the noosphere cannot occur gradually and in one direction, that temporary deviations are inevitable along this path. And the situation that has now developed in our country can be regarded as a temporary and transient phenomenon.
11. Reasonable transformation of the primary nature of the Earth in order to make it capable of satisfying all the material, aesthetic and spiritual needs of the numerically growing population. This condition, especially in our country, cannot be considered fulfilled, but the first steps towards a reasonable transformation of nature in the second half of the 20th century, undoubtedly, began to be carried out. In the modern period, there is an integration of sciences on the basis of ecological ideas. The whole system of scientific knowledge provides the foundation for ecological problems. Vernadsky also spoke about this, striving to create a unified science of the biosphere. The ecologization of Western consciousness has been taking place since the 70s, creating the conditions for the emergence of an ecophilic civilization.
Now the extremist form of the green movement has turned out to be no longer needed there, since state mechanisms for regulating environmental problems have been put into operation. In the USSR, until the 1980s, it was believed that socialist management would prevent the threat of an ecological crisis. During the perestroika period, this myth was dispelled, and the green movement became more active. However, in the modern period, the political leadership has reoriented mainly to solving economic problems, environmental problems have receded into the background. On a global scale, to solve an environmental problem in the context of a growing population of the planet, the ability to solve global problems is required, which, in the context of the sovereignty of various states, seems doubtful.
12. Exclusion of wars from the life of society. Vernadsky considered this condition extremely important for the creation and existence of the noosphere. But it has not been implemented and it is not yet clear whether it can be implemented. The world community is striving to prevent a world war, although local wars still claim many lives.
Thus, we see that there are all those specific signs, all or almost all the conditions that V. I. Vernadsky indicated in order to distinguish the noosphere from the previously existing states of the biosphere. The process of its formation is gradual, and, probably, it will never be possible to accurately indicate the year or even the decade from which the transition of the biosphere into the noosphere can be considered completed. But, of course, opinions on this issue may differ.
Vernadsky himself, noticing the undesirable, destructive consequences of human management on Earth, considered them to be some costs. He believed in human reason, humanism scientific activity, a celebration of goodness and beauty. Something he brilliantly foresaw, in something, perhaps, he was mistaken. The noosphere should be taken as a symbol of faith, as an ideal of reasonable human intervention in biospheric processes under the influence of scientific achievements. We must believe in it, hope for its coming, and take appropriate measures.
Conclusion
Vernadsky's ideas were far ahead of the time in which he worked. This fully applies to the doctrine of the biosphere and its transition to the noosphere. Only now, in the conditions of an extraordinary aggravation of the global problems of our time, Vernadsky's prophetic words about the need to think and act in the planetary - biospheric - aspect are becoming clear. Only now the illusions of technocracy, the conquest of nature are crumbling, and the essential unity of the biosphere and humanity is becoming clear. The fate of our planet and the fate of mankind are the same fate.
Vernadsky connects the formation of the noosphere stage with the action of many factors: the unity of the biosphere and humanity, the unity of the human race, the planetary nature of human activity and its commensurability with geological processes, the development of democratic forms of human community and the desire for peace among the peoples of the planet, the unprecedented flowering (“explosion”) of science and technology. Summarizing these phenomena, placing inextricably linked the further evolution of the biosphere with the development of mankind, Vernadsky introduces the concept of the noosphere.
It must be borne in mind that the task of creating the noosphere is the task of today. Its solution is connected with the unification of the efforts of all mankind, with the establishment of new values of cooperation and interconnection of all peoples of the world. In our country, the ideas of the noosphere are organically connected with the revolutionary restructuring of socialist society. Democracy, democratic principles public life, the revival of culture, science and folk life, a radical revision of the departmental approach to nature management, etc. - all these are the components of the noosphere.
Striving for the future, therefore, is a characteristic feature of the noospheric doctrine, which in modern conditions must be developed from all its sides.
The gradual development of living matter within the biosphere, to its transition into the noosphere (from the Greek "noos" - mind). The noosphere is understood as the sphere of interaction between nature and society.
According to V.I. Vernadsky, the noosphere ("noos" - in Greek means mind, spirit) is a new state of the biosphere, in which the rational activity of a person becomes a decisive factor in its development. The noosphere is characterized by the interaction of man and nature: the connection of the laws of nature with the laws of thinking and socio-economic laws.
Sometimes you can hear the opinion that the concept of the noosphere introduced by Vernadsky does not contain anything new and is limited to the doctrine of the geographical habitat of mankind. However, such an identification is hardly fair. The categories "geographical environment" and "noosphere" do not refer to coinciding things, they do not overlap in meaning. The geographical environment is that shell of the Earth that affects the conditions of life, production, culture, and everyday life of people. Noosphere - the shell of the Earth, which is affected by production, culture, life of people; this includes the former buried layers of the Earth that have changed under the influence of past anthropogenic impacts, not included in the current geographic environment. The noosphere reflects the planetary impact of social production on the upper shells of the Earth; not all of these changes enter directly into the geographic environment. The destruction of the ozone layer by organic solvents and refrigerants is already underway, but the element of the geographical environment has not yet become, since it does not yet affect production, culture, and forms of communication between people. This is a fact of the noosphere, not of the geographic environment.
The noosphere, according to Vernadsky, requires a qualitatively different approach: global control of planetary processes by a single rational will. This path leads to the ideas of a socialized planned society, without private property, no warrior.
According to Taylor de Chardin, the noosphere was formed on Earth as a result of the impact or reflection of the divine mind, spirit. However, V.I. Vernadsky wrote, substantiating the origin and appearance of the concept of the noosphere: "for the first time in the history of mankind, the interests of the masses of the people - each and every one - and the free thought of the individual determine the life of mankind, are the measure of his ideas about justice. Mankind, taken as a whole, becomes a powerful geological force. And before him, before his thought and work is the question of the restructuring of the biosphere in the interests of free thinking humanity as a whole.This new state of the biosphere, to which we are approaching without noticing it, is the "noosphere".
Today, Vernadsky's teaching on the transition of the biosphere into the noosphere is of particular relevance, which can serve as the basis fundamental research environmental problems. IN AND. Vernadsky foresaw the scientific and technological revolution of the 20th century with all its consequences for the biosphere. He believed that it was in the knowledge of the laws of development of the biosphere that the key to rational use of nature lay.
Before coming to grips with the study of the geochemistry of the biosphere, Vernadsky as early as 1913 characterized the geochemical activity of mankind. He wrote: "In recent centuries, a new factor has appeared that increases the amount of free chemical elements, mainly gases and metals, on the earth's surface. This factor is human activity."
Continuing the activity of living matter, a person carries out such chemical reactions that were not previously on Earth. Iron, tin, lead, aluminum, nickel and many other chemical elements are released in pure form.
The amount of metals mined and smelted by man reaches colossal proportions and increases every year. The extraction of combustible minerals is even more significant. When coal and other fuels are burned, carbon, nitrogen and other products are formed. These are side, unconsciously carried out processes. Among them is the development of certain types of microorganisms that accompany human activity.
"An even greater influence is exerted by man by a complete change in the face of the Earth, which he produces in ever greater and greater large sizes as culture develops and the influence of cultured humanity spreads. The earth's surface turns into cities and cultivated land and dramatically changes its chemical properties.
By changing the nature of chemical processes and chemical products, man accomplishes work of a cosmic nature. Every year it is an increasingly significant factor in the mineral processes of the earth's crust and little by little changes their direction" (V.I. Vernadsky).
Vernadsky persistently emphasized the connection between planetary and cosmic processes. He wrote: “In our century, the biosphere receives a completely new understanding. It is revealed as a planetary phenomenon of a cosmic nature. Mankind, as a living substance, is inseparably connected with the material and energy processes of a certain geological shell of the Earth - with its biosphere. It cannot be physically independent of it either. for one minute." Here, the desire of scientific thought is obvious to find the unity of natural and socio-historical processes, to see and analyze the course of influence. For these purposes, Vernadsky also singled out a special stage in the development of the biosphere associated with human social activity.
Vernadsky began to study the geological activity of man in its similarities and differences with other natural geological forces. The geological role of man was underestimated by scientists. Vernadsky revealed some geochemical and general geological patterns of human activity on the planet. He quite rightly connected the geological power of mankind with technical and industrial progress: "The entire history of technology shows us how gradually a person learned to see the source of power in natural objects that seemed to him dead, inert, unnecessary" (V. I. Vernadsky). In 1938, Vernadsky wrote: “We are present and vitally participating in the creation in the biosphere of a new geological factor that has not been in it in terms of power. ... The creation of the noosphere from the biosphere is a natural phenomenon, deeper and more powerful in its basis than human history. ..". There is no doubt that the contradictions between the technocratic ecological approach of man to the Earth and the biosphere and the constructive biospheric approach will be resolved in favor of the latter, because it is based on a solid theoretical base based on the facts of science…”.
Vernadsky considered the biosphere as one of the geospheres, as a geological shell, and not in the way that some even prominent scientists simply understand it - only as a living film of the planet, that is, a collection of living organisms "free" from the geological past and physical environment. It is important to understand and imagine the indissoluble conjugation of living matter, as Vernadsky put it, with all the material structures of the Earth. This is a completely new understanding of the governing planetary role of humanity.
Man is the pinnacle of cosmic evolution: "With the appearance on our planet of a living creature endowed with reason, the planet passes into a new stage of its history. The biosphere passes into the noosphere."
Vernadsky wrote especially brightly and with inspiration about the impact of human activity on nature in his work “A few words about the noosphere”, created in 1943: “The face of the planet - the biosphere - chemically changes sharply by a person consciously and mainly unconsciously. The air shell of the land, all its natural waters, change physically and chemically by man. As a result of the growth of human culture in the 20th century, coastal seas and parts of the ocean began to change more and more dramatically (chemically and biologically). ... Moreover, man creates new species and races of animals and plants. The noosphere is the last of many states in the evolution of the biosphere in geological history - the state of our days. "Today, the transformation of the biosphere for industrial, agricultural and other purposes is carried out in various ways and not only as a result of human intervention. For example, the ever-increasing number of protected areas of the Earth is an important element of modern period of transformation of the biosphere into the noosphere Vernadsky formulated and expounded it only in its most original form.
The doctrine of the noosphere outlines the ways of using and developing natural forces in the interests of man, increasing the productivity of social production, environmental management, preservation and development of public health. Thus, the interests of mankind formed the basis of Vernadsky's concept.
To date, human activity has reached a global scale of impact on the biosphere, changing the cycle of substances, the water balance of the planet, having a strong impact on soils, vegetation and animal world. Anthropogenic activity has created new toxic sources of pollution of the biosphere, which in the end can create a threat to the existence of man himself.
IN AND. Vernadsky believed in man, in his good will. “Humanity cannot do whatever it pleases. It is limited in its actions, because human history is not the sum of accidents. In its main features, it is natural and directed ... In the geological history of the biosphere, a huge future opens up before a person if he understands this and does not use his mind and his work for self-destruction.
Vernadsky was clear about the social nature of the noosphere. In 1925, in the article "The Autotrophy of Mankind", he wrote: "In the biosphere there exists a great geological, perhaps cosmic force, the planetary action of which is usually not taken into account in ideas about the cosmos, ideas that are scientific or have a scientific basis. ... This force is the mind of man, his striving and organized will as a social being. "The biosphere ... passes into a new evolutionary state - into the noosphere, is processed by the scientific thought of social humanity." We can therefore look at our future with confidence. It's in our hands and we won't let it go!"
The idea of V. I. Vernadsky about the Noosphere - the sphere of Reason, which was developed in the works of French scientists E. Leroy and P. Teilhard de Chardin, became the basis of the doctrine of the Noosphere, which is actively developing in Russia today and can provide qualitatively new ways to solve problems related to with "global threats" - environmental, resource, energy, demographic, orienting the vector of geopolitics to protect the interests of humanity as a whole. A holistic noospheric worldview, based on ideas not only about the Rights, but also about the Duties of Man and the unity of Mankind, is necessary to create a real strategy for solving global problems of our time, capable of uniting the efforts of representatives of science, religion and philosophy with the capabilities of politicians and businessmen different countries peace.
V. I. Vernadsky's idea about Noosphere i. e. the sphere of Reason, developed in the works of the French scientists E. Le Roy and P. Teilhard de Chardin, became a foundation of the doctrine about Noosphere which actively develops in Russia today and can give qualitatively new solutions of the problems connected with 'global threats' – ecological, resource, energy, demographic, focusing a geopolitics vector on protection of the interests of mankind as a whole. of the Person and oneness of Mankind is necessary for the creation of the real strategy of the solution of global problems of the present capable of combining the efforts of representatives of science, religion and philosophy with the opportunities of politicians and businessmen of the different countries of the world.
Entering the new millennium, humanity found itself in a situation like never before. Futurologists and philosophers, politicians and geographers since the 60s. last century called to pay attention to the threat of a number of crises hanging over our planet. Population growth, limited traditional energy sources (oil, gas and coal), limited resources fresh water and minerals, pollution of soil, water and air by substances, many of which until the twentieth century. did not exist at all (for example, pesticides and radioactive waste from nuclear power plants), threatening political trends associated with "globalization", which often means the subordination of the interests of underdeveloped countries to those who managed to get ahead (the concept of the "golden billion") - all these phenomena gave rise to what we today define as demographic, energy, resource, environmental and geopolitical crises. A special science of "globalistics" appeared, the subject of which was the laws of planetary processes and the search for ways to overcome impending crises. Mankind is faced with the enormous task of finding a way out of impending crises, for which thinkers different types, different scientific schools and countries offer their own ways.
One of these ways is presented to us by the doctrine of the Noosphere - the sphere of Reason, the geological shell that arose at a certain stage in the evolution of the Biosphere - the sphere of Life. The initiator of the creation of the doctrine of the Noosphere, as well as the doctrine of the Biosphere, is the great Russian scientist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863–1945). His name is in the forefront of the creators of science of the twentieth century. He is the founder of a whole complex of sciences: geochemistry, biogeochemistry, radiogeology. In 1922, he created the Radium Institute, in 1929 - the Biogeochemical Laboratory, now it is the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. V. I. Vernadsky. Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences since 1912, founder and first President of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (1918), Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1917 and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1925; professor of the universities of Moscow, Kyiv, Paris (Sorbonne); rector of the Tauride University (1920, Simferopol) - this is only a part of Vernadsky's scientific titles. The State Geological Museum, the Tauride National University, the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Non-Governmental Ecological Fund of the Russian Federation, the National Library of Ukraine, avenues in Moscow and Kyiv, a minor planet, Vernadovskaya secondary school in the Tambov region, numerous clubs, academies, unions. The vocation of a naturalist was combined in him with great organizational abilities, in addition, V. I. Vernadsky was a man of the highest moral qualities. Here is how N. V. Timofeev-Resovsky, who knew him closely, wrote about him: “People are very bad, bad, average, good, very good, and there are a number of wonderful people. Among the remarkable people come across very remarkable people, and, finally, among the very remarkable people come across - very rarely - absolutely wonderful people. Here Vernadsky, undoubtedly, was an absolutely wonderful person. Vernadsky is an ideal example of a true Russian intellectual, who combined the qualities of a scientist and philosopher, political and public figure. The main business of his life was the development of a holistic doctrine of the biosphere and the evolution of the biosphere into the noosphere, in which the human mind and scientific thought become the determining factor in development. Vernadsky's ideas about the interaction of nature and society had a great influence on the formation of modern environmental consciousness.
The assessment of the importance of Vernadsky in the scientific world is so high that the famous foreign scientists Nicholas Polunin (Great Britain) and Jacques Grinewald (Switzerland) wrote: “The question arises: should we not think very seriously about the Vernadsky revolution as a term covering its broad concept, which can lead effectively to progress in environmental education and ultimately to progress in the well-being of the world… This is a new target for the efforts of the world scientific community.”
The terms "biosphere" and "noosphere" do not belong to Vernadsky: the term "biosphere" appeared in the 19th century. in the works of the German geologist E. Suess, and the term "noosphere" was introduced into scientific circulation by Edouard Leroy (1870–1954) - scientist and philosopher, professor at the College de France (since 1921), member of the French Academy of Sciences (since 1945) , a follower of A. Bergson, a representative of Catholic modernism. His works are known in the field of mathematics, anthropology and philosophy, which, unfortunately, have not yet been translated into Russian.
He and his friend Pierre Teilhard de Chardin met V. I. Vernadsky in 1923 in Paris. Here Vernadsky, being invited to the Sorbonne, lectured on the evolution of the geological shells of the globe. In the book "Essays on Geochemistry", published in Paris in 1924 on French(it came out in Russian in 1927), he wrote:
“With man, undoubtedly, a new huge geochemical force appeared on the surface of our planet. The balance in the migration of elements, which has been established over long geological times, is disturbed by the mind and activity of mankind. We are currently in a period of changing in this way the conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium within the biosphere. These ideas were discussed at A. Bergson's seminar in 1924, where, apparently, the term "noosphere" originated. On the basis of his lectures, Vernadsky published in 1926 the book "Biosphere", which aroused great interest not only in scientific circles. M. Prishvin and N. Zabolotsky read to her. Gennady Gor wrote: “There are books whose impact on the reader is incomparable. “Biosphere” turned out to be such an extraordinary book for me.”
P. Teilhard de Chardin and E. Leroy, being fans of A. Bergson's idea of " creative evolution”, saw in the thoughts of Vernadsky what they could not find in Bergson - scientific, and not just philosophical arguments. In 1927, E. Leroy wrote: “Beginning with man, evolution is carried out by new, purely mental means: through industry, society, language, intellect, etc., and thus the biosphere passes into the noosphere.” In this publication, the term "noosphere" was used for the first time in a printed publication. V. I. Vernadsky, with his usual modesty, later wrote: “I accept Leroy's idea of the noosphere. He developed my biosphere deeper.” The terms “intellectosphere” (A. Humboldt), “technosphere” (A.I. Fersman), “pneumatosphere” (P.V. Florensky), “semiosphere” ( Yu. M. Lotman). However, it was the term "noosphere" that turned out to be the most meaningful and promising. Vernadsky considered the natural appearance of the noosphere as a general planetary shell, based on the geochemical principle of "growth of geochemical energy" put forward by him. In his works, Vernadsky showed a special scientific style: he made little use of mathematics, relied on "empirical generalizations", which, in his opinion, are the main foundation of science. But the scale of his thought and colossal intuition, courage in generalizations with the correct constructions allowed him to draw the deepest scientific conclusions. For example, the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli did not believe in parity violation, and Vernadsky spoke about the possibility of differences in the forms of space and time in systems with different symmetries long before experiments that proved parity nonconservation in the microcosm (Jiandao Li and Zhenying Yang, Nobel Prize in Physics 1957). The historicism of thinking allowed Vernadsky to move from "geochemistry" to "biosphere" and further to "noosphere".
The second great thinker, whose name is associated with the formation of the idea of the noosphere and its development, is Marie Joseph Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955), one of the brightest thinkers of the 20th century, paleontologist and priest, professor of geology at the Catholic University in Paris and a member of the order Jesuits. He developed ideas about the spiritual evolution of the Universe, the result of which today is the activity of “reasonable man”, and the prospect is the aspiration to the infinite “Omega point”, to the spiritualization and transformation of the Universe, to the union of man with the Creator of the Universe. He wrote that evolution is something much more than a theory, system, or hypothesis. It is the basic knowledge that all theories, hypotheses, systems must now obey if they want to be reasonable and true, and the appearance of Man on Earth in the final is only the logical result of an ordered process outlined from the very emergence of our planet. “Man is not the static center of the world, as he long believed, but the axis and pinnacle of evolution, which is much more beautiful.”
Brilliantly defending his dissertation at the Sorbonne in 1920 on "Mammals of the Lower Eocene of France", he received his doctorate and became a professor of geology at the Catholic University in Paris. Teilhard's evolutionary ideas served as a pretext for a denunciation of his heretical judgments along the line of the Jesuit order. In 1923 he took part in a paleontological expedition to Mongolia and northwestern China. Returning in 1925, he saw that the denunciations were given a move: Teilhard was banned from lecturing. From 1926 to 1946 he worked as a naturalist in the Jesuit missions in China. In 1927, excavations began in a cave near the village of Zhoukoudian near Beijing, which led to the largest discovery in anthropology: the remains of Sinanthropus were found. In July 1937 Japan started a war with China. Teilhard did not have time to evacuate , remained in Beijing, where he kept the collections of the mission for 10 years, celebrated mass daily and kept in touch with the outside world through correspondence.
It was at this time that he wrote his main book, The Phenomenon of Man. Returning to France in 1946, he did not receive permission to print this book. Teilhard was forbidden to speak on questions of philosophy, and in 1951-1954. even come to Paris. Teilhard accepted an offer from the United States to direct excavations in East Africa.
During these years, data were received from there about finds that pushed back the origin of human ancestors to 2–3 million years ago. But he managed to make only two trips: to Africa and Auvergne. A year before his death, he wrote in his diary: "All adventures in the realm of the spirit are Golgotha." On April 10, 1955, he died in New York of a heart attack. The posthumous publication of Teilhard's writings brought new sanctions from the Vatican. In 1957, his books were seized from the libraries of seminaries and Catholic institutions, the decree of the Vatican Chancellery called for the protection of Catholic youth from the influence of Teilhard's works. Nevertheless, Teilhard's ideas inspired many Catholics - he was even compared to Thomas Aquinas, who at one time discovered new ways to combine Christianity with science. Today, Teilhard's ideas are known far beyond the world of Catholic theologians.
Vernadsky and Teilhard are rightfully considered the founders of the doctrine of the noosphere, but it should be recognized that they gave only general ideas for the construction of this doctrine, which is actually being formed today. A great contribution to the development of these ideas was made by N. N. Moiseev, A. L. Yanshin and others. tangible character in connection with the problem of the huge load on the biosphere created by human activities, chemical pollution, demographic problem and geopolitical crisis.
"Bibliography of the Noosphere", published in 1991 by the Foundation. V. I. Vernadsky, already numbered several thousand items. However, there is still no complete and generally recognized doctrine of the noosphere. It is still, unfortunately, little known in the West. For example, at a meeting in Moscow on June 13, 2007, the well-known globalization theorist Francis Fukuyama, in response to my question about Vernadsky and the noosphere, said that he did not know these ideas. But it is necessary to comprehend and develop these ideas! First of all, it is necessary to answer the question: what is the noosphere, does it exist as an objective phenomenon, or is it some kind of abstract category? In answering this question, it is immediately necessary to clarify the frequently encountered misunderstanding related to the fact that different authors put different meanings into the term "noosphere".
Firstly, the noosphere can be defined similarly to the biosphere as a geographic shell of the globe, in which the main role is played by the transformations of matter, energy and information associated with the activities of "reasonable man".
In this scientific-evolutionary sense, the noosphere appeared simultaneously with the emergence of the species Homo sapiens and, like the biosphere, is the subject of study primarily in the natural sciences, and the emergence of the noosphere is just the development of the biosphere by man. This point of view was held, for example, by L. N. Gumilyov.
The second meaning, usually associated with the term "noosphere", is associated with the understanding of the noosphere as a project, an ideal, such an organization of human activity on the planet that would be reasonable in the full sense of the word, provide optimal "co-evolution" (N. N. Moiseev) of the biosphere and humanity, directing development in the interests of Humanity. Such development should be based on the harmonious coexistence of various cultures and peoples, whose “blooming diversity” (K. N. Leontiev) is no less important for the stability of the noosphere than the diversity of species for the biosphere. In this ethical and axiological sense, the noosphere is in its infancy, overcoming enormous difficulties in the process of its formation, emerging “in a thunderstorm and storm”.
In addition, in the mass consciousness there is a certain "esoteric" idea of the noosphere as a "mental field" in which the thoughts of all people fly around the Earth. Such representations are associated with the mythological type of everyday consciousness and have a very distant relation to the scientific understanding of the noosphere.
F. T. Yanshin, a deep researcher of the works of V. I. Vernadsky, revealed in his works a number of provisions that characterize the conditions of the noospheric organization of processes on earth:
1. Human settlement of the entire planet.
2. Dramatic transformation of the means of communication and information exchange.
3. Strengthening ties, including political ones, between the countries of the Earth.
4. The beginning of the predominance of the geological role of man over other geological processes occurring in the biosphere.
5. Expansion of the boundaries of the biosphere and access to space.
6. Discovery of new energy sources.
7. Equality of people of all races and religions.
8. Increasing the role of the masses in resolving issues of foreign and domestic policy.
9. Freedom of scientific thought and scientific research from the pressure of religious, philosophical and political constructions.
10. An effective system of public education and life support. Eliminate the possibility of malnutrition, hunger and poverty, minimizing disease.
11. Reasonable transformation of the nature of the Earth in order to make it capable of satisfying the material, aesthetic and spiritual needs of a numerically growing population.
12. Exclusion of wars from the life of society.
The first half of these conditions has been fulfilled: there are no places on earth that are inaccessible to humans; a planetary network of independent communications appeared - the Internet, new means of processing information and strengthening the intellectual capabilities of a person - computers; the volume of rocks extracted from the depths of the Earth by all the mines and quarries of the world is almost twice the average volume of lavas and ashes carried out annually by all the volcanoes of the Earth; space has become a familiar arena for serious projects; there are powerful international public and political structures that contribute to the unification of mankind. Completely new sources of energy have become available to man. Atomic energy is an obvious example, which is at the same time a dire warning to humanity in its present state. Realizing the dangers of nuclear energy, scientists have already launched a front of work to master alternative energy sources: solar, hydrogen, geothermal, thermonuclear.
The second half of the conditions are far from being realized today. It is here that the main processes associated with the formation of the noosphere take place - first of all, the emergence of a “truly reasonable person”, who has realized his place and purpose in the Universe and knows how to be the master, and not a slave of his animal needs (which include not only food and sex, but also power ambitions, which are the legacy of biological herd instincts associated with determining the hierarchical position in the pack). If humanity manages to overcome the contradictions tearing it apart today, it will be able to get out of global crises. According to the International Nutrition Organization, with the current level of technology development, the planet can feed at least 25 billion people. The dynamics of human growth makes it possible to predict the stabilization of the population within 10–15 billion people.
The doctrine of the noosphere did not arise from scratch and is in the mainstream of the ideas of Russian philosophy. The forerunners of the doctrine of the noosphere are bright and original thinkers, united today as representatives of "Russian cosmism". These include primarily Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov (1828–1903), religious philosophers Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov (1853–1900), Sergei Nikolayevich Bulgakov (1871–1944), Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky (1882–1937), Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874– 1948), followers of N. F. Fedorov - Alexander Konstantinovich Gorsky (1886–1943) and Nikolai Aleksandrovich Setnitsky (1888–1937), Valeryan Nikolaevich Muravyov (1885–1932), as well as natural scientists Sergei Andreevich Podolinsky (1850–1891), Nikolai Alekseevich Umov (1846–1915), Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1858–1935), Alexander Leonidovich Chizhevsky (1897–1964), Nikolai Grigorievich Kholodny (1882–1953), Vasily Fedorovich Kuprevich (1897–1969). Of great interest is the study of the relationship between the “principle of the growth of geochemical energy” by V. I. Vernadsky and the “principle of stable non-equilibrium”, put forward in the 1930s by the Soviet biologist Erwin Bauer (1890–1937), who was shot during the repressions of 1937, “Theoretical Biology which attracts the attention of an increasing number of philosophers and natural scientists today. The “principle of stable non-equilibrium” put forward by E. Bauer makes it possible to understand the fundamental difference between living and non-living systems, without resorting to vitalistic ideas and without introducing “unknowable entities”, but at the same time determining the real qualitative difference between living and non-living systems.
Vernadsky's worldview, proceeding from the fact that science, religion and philosophy are three fundamental and independent forms of Reason, each of which is designed to solve its own problems, did not fit well into the framework of the "only true" teaching of dialectical materialism. These ideas of Vernadsky became available to Soviet readers only from the end of the 1960s. His main work related to noospheric problems, "Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon", written in 1936, became available to the reader only in 1988. Shortly before his death, Vernadsky outlined his ideas in the article "A Few Words about the Noosphere" and hoped to make them accessible to a wide range of readers by publishing it in Pravda. Stalin, however, did not allow this, although he allowed the article to be published in Advances in Modern Biology. In the 80s. noospheric movement in the USSR, and in the 90s. - in Russia began to develop actively.
Noospheric ideas are beginning to penetrate consciousness today politicians and regional leaders. The President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, referring to Vernadsky's doctrine of the noosphere, once even said that "it is on the foundation of this doctrine that the concept of sustainable development is actually built today."
The noospheric worldview, according to our ideas, is based on:
a) a science that knows exactly the limits of its applicability and is based on the requirement of man's responsibility for the planet on which he lives;
b) religious beliefs that do not conflict with the proven data of science, giving general ideas about a person, his fate, rules of conduct and the meaning of his existence in the Universe;
c) a philosophy that requires questioning everything, but only for the sake of establishing the truth (postmodernist concepts, akin to the worldview of the ancient sophists, who fundamentally reject the category of truth, obviously oppose the noospheric worldview).
The critical moment that determines the tragedy of the situation in which our planet finds itself today is the deepest gap between the technical capabilities of man and his moral development. This leads in a number of works to a phenomenon that can be described as "noophobia" - fear of the achievements of science and disbelief in a person's ability to find a reasonable way out of the crisis. Gap between mind and intellect is the main obstacle to the development noosphere. Intelligence is the ability to create goodness and harmony, to find an ethically justified solution based on the knowledge obtained by science about the nature of things. It is by no means limited to intelligence- the ability to effectively solve problems, regardless of their ethical coloring. The task of forming a noospheric worldview, first of all, is to overcome this gap. This problem is much broader than the question of the relationship between science and religion - it affects the deepest layers of human behavior, the “basic myths” that regulate this behavior, regardless of whether the person himself is aware or not of which particular myth guides him. The clash of worldviews of different types without the desire to understand a different point of view (which sometimes requires serious intellectual work and respect for the opponent) sometimes leads to completely ridiculous situations, such as disputes between "creationists" and "Darwinists".
Vernadsky wrote about the relationship between science and religion: “If we look at the entire history of Christianity in connection with its age-old dispute with science, we will see that under the influence of this latter, the understanding of Christianity begins to take on new forms, and religion rises to such heights and descends into such depths of the soul where science cannot follow it... Just as Christianity did not overcome science in its field, but in this struggle determined its essence more deeply, so science in a field alien to it will not be able to break the Christian or any other religion, but will determine closer and will understand the forms of his conduct.
The noospheric worldview requires, along with human rights recognize it too responsibilities towards the world in which he lives.
It requires a universal awareness of the impossibility of living any longer, evading the main task set before man by his Creator at the very beginning of human history, when “the Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15 ).
According to the Bible, man failed because he neglected the instructions of the Creator and was tempted by the prospect of becoming "like gods, knowing good and evil", instead of honestly fulfilling his task - "keeping and cultivating" first the garden, then, as one might think, his own planet, and further - the entire physical Universe, which without a person is doomed to death, as it became clear to physicists who discovered in the middle of the 19th century. the second law of thermodynamics is the law of entropy growth in closed systems. Only the graceful energies of the Creator can resist this law, in relation to which the Universe can become an open system only when a person realizes his cosmic role, and the mind and creative ability of a person are the conductor of these energies into the world.
The noospheric worldview as its main axiom recognizes the special role of man in the Universe as a being with reason and will, whose life has meaning and purpose, and is not an empty game of the elemental forces of nature. In this it differs essentially both from skeptical positivism, which fears and avoids the very posing of such questions, and from the atheistic pessimism of such thinkers as F. Engels and F. Nietzsche, who ultimately failed to offer anything higher than the pagan idea of "eternal return." The well-known "anthropic principle" in cosmology provides arguments in support of the noospheric worldview, although, of course, it cannot serve as "proof" of the existence of the Creator. "Scientific proof" of the existence of the Creator would actually destroy the right to free choice of the individual, turning Faith into Knowledge. The main postulates of the worldview are not proved, as well as the dogmas of faith, but it can be argued that the postulate about the distinguished role of Reason and its bearer - Man - in the Universe is compatible both with the biblical worldview and with the conclusions modern physics. For faith, in the first place are not “proofs”, but the feat of choosing exactly those views that best suit the quality of the Personality who chooses his faith.
Human life, according to this postulate, is not meaningless, it leads him to the path of serving the Creator, who does not want the destruction of his beautiful creation, about which the Bible says six times: “And God saw that it was good” (Gen. 1:7, 10 , 12, 18, 21, 24), and on the seventh day, after the creation of animals and man, “very good” (Gen. 1:31).
Man, however, God “settled in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). "Russian cosmism" comprehended the task of man as the guardian of not only the Garden of Eden, but the entire Universe, in which man is the bearer of Reason, the conductor of the Divine Logos to the world, without him doomed to "thermal death".
The solution of this problem is difficult, it requires a conscious appeal to the forces of grace, which always, without promising an easy life, help a person if this appeal is sincere. But it is precisely this path that opens the gates for endless growth and allows us to hope to fulfill the demand: “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mat. 5:48) - instead of the miserable dream of “being like the gods”, which really turns a person into a devourer and a spoiler " sweet insect." To realize this task, humanity needs a true "metanoia".
This word, usually translated as “repentance”, means by no means just some kind of experience about one’s sins, but a “change of mind”, a transformation reason from a means that invents ways of self-justification and satisfaction of its often completely absurd needs, to the central part personality, connecting it with the Creator, one of whose names is the Greek word "Noos" - Reason. Metanoia is the mother of the Noosphere, the first condition for its formation. Problems that until recently seemed purely academic are gaining relevance and relevance today. This applies not only to Russia, but also to the whole world, which, despite all the centrifugal forces that separate people and scatter them into different layers and strata, is becoming increasingly aware of its integrity and the need to move to the noospheric path of development.
Global Studies: Encyclopedia - Moscow: Raduga, 2003. (Global Studies: Encyclopedia - Moscow: Raduga, 2003).
Kutyrev, V. A. Reason against man. - Nizhny Novgorod, 1999. (Kutyrev, V. A. The mind against the man. - Nizhny Novgorod, 1999).
Vernadsky, V. I. Selected works on the history of science. - M., 1981. - p. 52. (Vernadsky, V. I. Chosen works on the history of science. - Moscow, 1981. - P. 52).
The term “noosphere” itself arose in 1926 in Paris during the discussion of the report of V.I. Vernadsky, where he outlined the concept of the development of the biosphere. It was proposed by the French researcher E. Leroy. There is no unambiguous interpretation of this term.
The noosphere is a new, evolutionary state of the biosphere, in which the rational activity of man becomes the decisive factor in its development. For the first time V.I. Vernadsky used this term in a letter to B. Lichkov in 1936: “I accept Leroy's idea of the noosphere. He developed my biosphere deeper. The noosphere was created in an era when human thought embraced the biosphere and changes all processes in a new way, and as a result, the active energy of the biosphere increases.”
Publicly V.I. Vernadsky used the term “noosphere” in 1937 in his report “On the Significance of Radiogeology for Modern Geology”, where he wrote: “The noosphere is the last of many states of evolution of the biosphere in geological history - the state of our days .... Now we are experiencing a new geological evolutionary state of the biosphere , that is, we enter the noosphere. In the same article, V.I. Vernadsky showed that the factors of the last restructuring of the biosphere are scientific thought and the collective labor of mankind, which has long since become a powerful geological force.
Considered proposals of V.I. Vernadsky allow a more reasonable answer to the question of what the "noosphere" is, since they indicate a number of specific conditions necessary for its formation and existence.
Conditions necessary for the formation and existence of the noosphere.
Human settlement of the entire planet.
Dramatic transformation of the means of communication and exchange between countries.
Currently, there are quite a lot of means of communication - radio, television, e-mail, the Internet, cellular communications, etc.
Strengthening ties, including political ones, between all the states of the Earth.
The predominance of the geological role of man over other geological processes occurring in the biosphere.
Human activity has changed the composition of river and sea waters, affects the safety of the Earth's ozone layer, so humanity can be considered a powerful geological factor.
Expansion of the boundaries of the biosphere and the exit of man into space.
Discovery of new energy sources.
At present, the energy of atomic decay is used for peaceful purposes, and research is also being carried out to obtain the energy of controlled thermonuclear fusion, for which atoms of light chemical elements - hydrogen and helium are used.
Equality of people of all races and religions.
Increasing the role of the masses in resolving issues of foreign and domestic policy.
Freedom of scientific thought and scientific research from the pressure of religious, philosophical and political sentiments and the creation in the social and state system of conditions favorable for free and scientific thought.
Improvement in the well-being of the working people. Creating a real opportunity to prevent malnutrition, hunger, poverty and reduce the impact of disease.
A reasonable transformation of the primary nature of the Earth in order to make it capable of satisfying all the material, aesthetic and spiritual needs of a numerically growing population.
The exclusion of wars from the life of society.
Thus, we see that there are almost all those specific signs that V.I. Vernadsky, which make it possible to distinguish the noosphere from the previously existing states of the biosphere. According to his statements, the noosphere is a qualitatively new form of organization arising from the interaction of nature and society.
In recent years, the noosphere is understood as the planetary and outer space (natural environment), which is transformed and controlled by the human mind, which guarantees the all-round progressive development of mankind.
The noosphere is characterized by a close relationship between the laws of nature and the laws of thought, as well as socio-economic laws.
Returning to Vernadsky, the noosphere is such a state of the biosphere when its development is purposeful, when the Mind has the ability to correct the development of the biosphere in the interests of the human of the future. Therefore, it is more appropriate to talk about the era of the noosphere, when a person will be able to reasonably manage his power and ensure such interaction with the environment that will allow the development of man, nature, and society.
Noosphere and development of society.
Analyzing the possibilities of the ever-increasing power of civilization, V.I. Vernadsky came to the conclusion that humanity, as part of living matter, will have to take responsibility for the future development of the biosphere and society. The future of humanity requires the active intervention of Reason in the fate of society and the noosphere as a whole. In the interests of the future of all mankind, the biosphere must change. The geochemical cycles of the biosphere and its ability to meet the needs of mankind must change in accordance with changes in the nature of society, and perhaps the nature of man himself. Moreover, the transition of mankind to the era of the noosphere V.I. Vernadsky considered it as one of the acts of "adaptation" of mankind.
The transition of the biosphere to its new state will be accompanied by the development of new principles for coordinating their actions and the new behavior of people with a new morality, and will require a change in standards and ideals. In essence, this is the central problem facing humanity today: how to ensure the joint evolution of the biosphere and man, and with it the further development of civilization?
Thus, the teachings of V.I. Vernadsky was the final link, which:
united the evolution of living matter with the world of inanimate nature;
threw a bridge to modern problems of the development of society;
led us to a new vision of the processes taking place in society.
