When will the 20th century begin? What awaits humanity until the end of the 21st century.

Under the auspices of UNESCO, February 21 is celebrated as International Mother Language Day. This date was established to promote the idea of linguistic diversity. Every 14 days, one language dies on Earth.

BRIDGE TO THE ANCESTORS

There are currently about 6,700 registered worldwide spoken languages. Practice shows that every 14 days one language dies, because its last few speakers pass away. There is a danger that by the end of this century, half of them could disappear forever. What, in principle, does humanity lose with the death of language and what are the reasons for the extinction of languages today?

A similar fate could befall, for example, the Ket language, which is spoken by fewer than two hundred people. This language can be heard in several settlements on the upper Yenisei in Siberia.

Too few people speak this language to consider its death something socially significant. But, like all other languages, the Ket language is a storehouse of uniqueness. His grammar is surprisingly complex and filled with a variety of verb forms. In addition, the speakers of this language themselves, through speech, communicate with their ancestors, with the past and traditions.

The loss of language gives rise to the deepest silence. The director of the Institute for Endangered Languages, Dr. Gregory Anderson, describes the silence this way:

“You communicate in your thoughts with your ancestors, but they did not speak English.
This creates a gap in your story. This is exactly what happens to those whose native language is no longer spoken and they switch to one of the dominant languages. People who speak one of the dominant languages - English, Spanish or Russian - cannot imagine this.”

Gregory Anderson's view very closely reflects the situation with the Ket language, which serves not only as a bridge to their ancestors, but also as a connection with other peoples.

Research has demonstrated that the Ket language has family ties with American aboriginal languages such as Navajo.

According to scientists, this connection is already of anthropological value, helping to restore the real picture of the prehistoric migration of people across the ice from Asia to America. In this regard, linguists are horrified by the prospect of the disappearance of languages such as Ket.

LINGUISTIC POLICY

According to the National Geographical Society USA, every two weeks one language disappears on the planet. At this rate, at the end of the 21st century, humanity will be missing almost three and a half thousand languages. The greatest linguistic impact will occur in places where the multilingual environment is traditionally concentrated, for example, New Guinea, Caucasus or Siberia.

Leading language experts note that the problem is exacerbated by one prevailing circumstance: only 5 percent of existing languages are well documented, and 95 percent are not.

And the overall picture with languages is very, very gloomy. Almost a third of the world's languages have no more than a thousand speakers. Only one hundred people speak Tirah in Afghanistan. Of people, those who know the language lomavren in Armenia, no more than fifty.

Scientists very often encounter the fact that local knowledge of medicinal plants and ecology was described in little-known languages. With their passing, these languages take with them many scientific secrets and discoveries.

The reasons why languages are being forced out of everyday life have many components. According to Dr. Gregory Anderson, the very phenomenon of language death is rooted in one specific problem.

“Economic activity,” says the scientist, “is carried out under conditions of dominance of the language of the majority or one ethnic group. This group is associated with socio-economic development and wealth accumulation. This is where the conscious accession of the minority to the majority occurs. If the conscious factor does not work, then joining arises as a result of social pressure on the minority.”

In Siberia, linguistic policy led, according to Gregory Anderson, to catastrophic consequences.

IN Central Asia When former Soviet republics such as Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan gained independence, they strengthened the status of their official languages.

But small languages in this region, including the group of Pamir languages, have very weak support even at the secondary school level compared to at least the program that existed in the USSR.

Education

When did the 21st century begin: 2000 or 2001?

November 14, 2017

And although the concept of “century” is introduced in history lessons at school, often not only children, but also adults get confused when it is necessary to correctly determine the beginning and end of this time period.

A little theory

In history, the term “century” usually refers to a period of time lasting 100 years. To understand how to determine what year the 21st century, like any other, began, you need to know one small nuance of the generally accepted chronology. Everyone knows that the time of origin of all events is chronologically divided into two periods: before our era and after. But not everyone knows what date stands at the turn of these two eras.

Have you ever heard of 0 year? Unlikely, because 1 BC. e. ended on December 31, and the next day began a new one, 1 AD. e. That is, 0 year simply did not exist in the generally accepted chronology. Thus, a period of time one century long begins on January 1, 1 year, and ends, accordingly, on December 31, 100. And only the next day, January 1 in the year 101, a new century begins.

Due to the fact that many do not know this seemingly insignificant historical features, for quite a long time there was confusion about when and in what year the 21st century would arrive. Even some TV and radio presenters called for celebrating the New Year 2000 in a special way. After all, this is the beginning of both a new century and a new millennium!

When did the 21st century begin?

Calculating in what year the 21st century began, taking into account all of the above, is not at all difficult.

So, the first day of the 2nd century was January 1, 101, January 3, January 1, 201, January 4, 301, and so on. It's simple. Accordingly, when answering what year the 21st century began, it should be said - in 2001.

Video on the topic

When will the 21st century end?

Understanding how the chronology of time is maintained, one can easily say not only what year the 21st century began, but also when it will end.

The end of the century is determined similarly to the beginning: the last day of the 1st century was December 31, 100, 2 - December 31, 200, 3 - December 31, 300, and so on. Finding the answer to the question posed is not so difficult. The last day of the 21st century will be December 31, 2100.

If you want to calculate what year the new millennium starts from, you should follow the same rule. This will avoid mistakes. Thus, the third millennium according to the Gregorian calendar, adopted by the vast majority of world states, began on January 1, 2001, simultaneously with the beginning of the 21st century.

Where did the general misconception come from?

In Russia, the chronology adopted today was introduced by the decree of Peter I. And before that, the count was carried out from the creation of the world. And after the adoption of the Christian chronology, instead of 7209, the year 1700 came. People of the past were also afraid of round dates. Along with the new calendar, a decree was issued on the cheerful and solemn celebration of the new year and the new century.

In addition, we should not forget that with the adoption of Christian timekeeping in Russia, the calendar remained Julian. Because of this for everyone historical events before switching to Gregorian calendar(1918) determine two dates: according to the old and new styles. And because of of various durations year adopted in each of the two types of calendars and a difference of several days appeared. And therefore, in 1918, with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, after January 31, February 14 came.

Source: fb.ru

Current

2000 I think
In 2000...
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/XXI_vek#2010-.D0.B5_.D0.B3.D0.BE.D0.B4.D1.8B
January 1, 2001.
severe case... in 2000
2001...I think)))
in 2001 of course
January 1, 2001
In 2001. If, of course, the question is without a trick. .
Zhanna, who has a serious case?)))
January 1, 2000
unfortunately in 2000
On January 1, 2001, the XXI CENTURY began!
Since the 18th century, they began to use the counting of years “BC” (a. D. - ante Deum - “before the Lord”). This counting of years, it is called historical or chronological, has one important feature. The first year BC (1 BC) is closely adjacent to the first year AD (1 AD). There was no gap between them in the form of a zero year. After all, probably no one has ever heard of any event that took place in the year 0. When distinguishing between two eras, Dionysius the Less simply could not use zero as a boundary point, because in the 6th century European mathematicians did not know the concept of “zero”. So, it turns out that January 1, 1 AD. e. occurred immediately after December 31, 1 BC. e. , only a “moment” separates them.

But if there is no zero year, then the years should be counted as you usually count some objects, for example, children's counting sticks or matches: 1, 2, ... 9, 10; 1, 2, ..99, 100; 1, 2, ..999, 1000, etc. It is clear that 10, 100 and 1000 refer to the first ten, the first hundred, the first thousand, respectively. Similarly, the number 2000 closes the second thousand, and the third thousand begins with the number 2001. And naturally, January 1, 2001 will be the first day of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium. It just so happens that a person begins his life from zero, and the calendar CENTURY begins from one.
in 2001. The year 2000 refers to the 20th century, and only on January 1, 2001 the 21st century began
It’s simple: which bottle does the second box of vodka start with - the 20th or the 21st?
Whoever answers this question will understand that the 21st century begins on January 1, 2001
The year number is in a sense the age of Christ.
When a child is 5 years old, we say: “Vasenka is in his sixth year.”
When we enter the year 2000 (that is, Christ enters the year 2000), this means that a full 1999 years have passed. When the last year of 2000 ends, the century will end.
The twenty-first century began on January 1, 2001.
This is absolutely accurate!
In 2000, new centuries come with zeros....
The year 2000 is the 20th century... the new century came with the New Year, which means January 1, 2001))))
year 2000 - Last year XX century.
of course 2001

Attention, TODAY only!

A little theory

The term “century” in history usually refers to a period of time lasting 100 years. To understand how to determine what year the 21st century, like any other, began, you need to know one small nuance of the generally accepted chronology. Everyone knows that the time of origin of all events is chronologically divided into two periods: before our era and after. But not everyone knows what date stands at the turn of these two eras.

Due to the fact that many are unaware of this seemingly insignificant historical feature, there has been confusion for quite some time about when and in what year the 21st century will arrive. Even some TV and radio presenters called for celebrating the New Year 2000 in a special way. After all, this is the beginning of both a new century and a new millennium!

When did the 21st century begin?

Calculating in what year the 21st century began, taking into account all of the above, is not at all difficult.

So, the first day of the 2nd century was January 1, 101, the 3rd was January 1, 201, the 4th was January 1, 301, and so on. It's simple. Accordingly, when answering what year the 21st century began, it should be said - in 2001.

When will the 21st century end?

Understanding how the chronology of time is maintained, one can easily say not only what year the 21st century began, but also when it will end.

The end of the century is determined similarly to the beginning: the last day of the 1st century was December 31, 100, the 2nd was December 31, 200, the 3rd was December 31, 300, and so on. Finding the answer to the question posed is not so difficult. The last day of the 21st century will be December 31, 2100.

Where did the general misconception come from?

In addition, we should not forget that with the adoption of Christian timekeeping in Russia, the calendar remained Julian. Because of this, for all historical events before the transition to the Gregorian calendar (1918), two dates are determined: according to the old style and according to the new style. And due to the different lengths of the year adopted in each of the two types of calendars, a difference of several days appeared. And therefore, in 1918, with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, after January 31, February 14 came.

If we rely on the decree of Peter I, the new century should begin in 2000.

How long is it actually until the beginning of the new century and the new millennium?

Will 2000 be a leap year?

How many calendar days in the 21st century you will have to subtract to convert the date to old style?

The end of the twentieth century is getting closer and closer. In the press, on the radio, on television, forecasts are heard loudly and forcefully: what the 21st century will be like - the beginning of the third millennium AD.

And preparations for the solemn meeting of this significant date are already in full swing. Some American company bought Pacific Ocean island and is going there to photograph the beginning of the century: the first rays, the first sunrise of the emerging year 2000. There is a clock on the Great Wall of China that counts down the seconds until the year 2000. Every day the radio station “Echo of Moscow” solemnly announces the number of days remaining until the beginning of the year 2000. The date is round, even very round!

All this is probably good and interesting, but it is not clear why the beginning of a round date is associated with the beginning of a new century?

And many people think that the 21st century begins on January 1, 2000. However, this deeply rooted belief is absolutely wrong.

The beginning of the new millennium AD (according to the Gregorian calendar, now adopted in most countries of the world, including our country) falls on 24.00 hours on December 31, 2000 or 00.00 hours on January 1, 2001.

Let's try to convince the reader of this. A century is a hundred years. The counting, of course, starts from year 1 (there is never a zero year). Any century ends when a full hundred years have passed. Therefore, the hundredth year is the last year of the outgoing century. The 101st year is the beginning of the next century. January 1, 1901 marked the beginning of our twentieth century, and its last day will be December 31, 2000. And finally, from January 1, 2001, the 21st century and the new - third millennium AD - come into their own.

To all these arguments one can sometimes hear the following objection. When a person turns, for example, 30 or 40 years old - a “round” date - then he moves from “twenty-year-olds” to “thirty-year-olds” or from “thirty-year-olds” to the group of “forty-year-olds,” etc. Thus, this is an anniversary this is a milestone. So why is the meeting of the year 2000 not a milestone, not a transition to a new century?

The objection may seem quite logical. But at the same time, this particular example clearly shows the reason for the widespread confusion.

And it is that a person’s age begins to grow from zero. When we turn 30, 40, 70 years old, this means that another ten years have already been lived, and the next one has arrived. And calendars, as we have already said, start not from zero, but from one (like counting all objects in general). Therefore, if 99 calendar years have passed, then the century is not over yet, because a century is 100 full years.

This is the only way to calculate chronology, which is necessary for any state, any society. The work of industry, transport, trade, financial affairs and many other sectors of life require time measures, accuracy, and order. Chaos and confusion, uncertainty in these matters are unacceptable.

The history of calendars began a long time ago. Many peoples contributed to their development. When measuring time, humanity has identified three most important concepts: era, year, century. Of these, the year and era are the main ones, and the century is a derivative. The modern calendar is based on a year (more precisely, a tropical year), that is, the period of time between two successive passages of the center of the Sun through the vernal equinox. Determining the exact length of the tropical year was very important, and this task turned out to be difficult. It was solved by many outstanding world scientists. It was determined that the length of the tropical year is not constant. Very slowly, but it is changing. In our era, for example, it decreases by 0.54 seconds per century. And now it is 365 days, 5 hours 48 minutes 45.9747 seconds.

It was not easy to determine how long the year lasted. But when everything was accurately calculated, we were faced with even greater, one might say, insoluble difficulties.

If there were an integer number of days in a year, no matter how many, then it would be easy to create a simple and convenient calendar. Even if there were halves, quarters, eighths of a day. They can also be folded into a whole day. And here it is 5 hours 48 minutes 46.9747 seconds. There’s no way you can make up a whole day with these “additives.”

It turns out that a year and a day are incommensurable. The remainder of division is an infinite fraction. Therefore, it turned out to be quite difficult to develop simple and convenient systems for counting days in a month and in a year. simple matter. And although many different calendars have been compiled from ancient times to the present day (ancient Egyptian, Chinese, Babylonian, Vietnamese, Muslim, Jewish, Roman, Greek), none of them can be called sufficiently accurate, convenient, or reliable.

A leap year, that is, consisting of 366 days, does not exist in nature. It was invented based on the fact that the “remainder” of the 365 days of the tropical year - 5 hours 48 minutes and seconds - is very close to 1/4 of a day. In four years, a whole day is accumulated - an extra day in a leap year.

Judging by many sources, the Egyptian Greek Sozigenes was the first to think of this. The leap year was first introduced into the calendar by the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar from January 1, 45 BC.

This calendar became known as the Julian calendar. It firmly entered into life at the beginning of our era and operated for many centuries. Not only the Roman Empire and Byzantium lived according to this calendar (from where it came to Rus' in the 10th century with the adoption of Christianity), but also all the countries of Europe, America, and many states of Africa and Asia.

In the 4th century it was necessary to make a number of changes to Julian calendar. Christianity was strengthening, and the church considered it necessary to regulate the dates of religious holidays. A firm correspondence (for the 4th century) of the solar Julian calendar with the lunar Jewish calendar was established. So that the Christian Easter in the 4th century could never coincide with the Jewish one.

In the 6th century, the Roman monk Dionysius the Small conceived the idea of introducing a new Christian era, the beginning of which comes from the Nativity of Christ, and not from the creation of the world, as in the Jewish era, or from any other events, as in various pagan eras.

Dionysius justified the date from the Nativity of Christ. According to his calculations, it fell in the 754th year from the founding of Rome or in the 30th year of the reign of Emperor Augustus.

The era from the Nativity of Christ is firmly established in Western Europe only in the 8th century. In Rus', as in Byzantium, for a long time, several centuries, they continued to count the years from the creation of the world.

Meanwhile, as a result of an inaccurate determination of the duration of the Julian year - 365 days and 6 hours, while in reality the year is 11 minutes and 14 seconds shorter - by the end of the 16th century (after amendments made to the calendar in the 4th century), a difference of 10 days had accumulated . Therefore, the spring equinox, which fell on March 21 in 325, already occurred on March 11. In addition, the holiday of Christian Easter began to approach Jewish Easter. They could get together, which according to church canons is completely unacceptable.

The Catholic Church invited astronomers, who more accurately measured the length of the tropical year and developed changes that needed to be made to the calendar. By decree of Pope Gregory XIII from 1582 Catholic countries They began to introduce a calendar, which was called the Gregorian.

The count of days was moved forward 10 days. The day after Thursday, October 4, 1582, was prescribed to be considered Friday, but not October 5, but October 15. The vernal equinox returned again on March 21st.

In order to avoid such mistakes in the future, it was decided to exclude 3 leap days from the number of leap days every 400 years. So that in 400 years there are not 100 leap years, but 97. To do this, we must not consider as leap years those hundred-year years (years with two zeros at the end), in which the number of hundreds (the first two digits) is not divisible by 4 without a remainder. Thus, years 1700, 1800, 1900 were not leap years. The year 2000 will be a leap year, but 2100 will not.

The length of the year according to the Gregorian calendar is at least a little, 26 seconds, but still longer than the true one. This will lead to an error of one day in only 3280 years.

Already in the 80s of the 16th century, the new chronology was introduced in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Luxembourg, and the Catholic cantons of Switzerland. It was much more difficult for Protestants and Orthodox Christians to accept it.

The use of different calendars, especially in countries that communicate closely, caused a lot of inconvenience, and sometimes just funny cases. For example, England adopted the Gregorian calendar only in 1752. When we read that in Spain in 1616 Cervantes died on April 23, and in England Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, we might think that two greatest writer world died on the same day. In fact, the difference was 10 days. Shakespeare died in Protestant England, which during these years still lived according to the Julian calendar (old style), and Cervantes died in Catholic Spain, where the Gregorian calendar (new style) had already been introduced.

Calendar reforms in Russia proceeded as usual, and often with a great delay compared to Western European countries.

In the 10th century, with the adoption of Christianity in Ancient Rus' The chronology used by the Romans and Byzantines came: the Julian calendar, Roman names of the months, a seven-day week. The years were counted from the creation of the world, which, according to church concepts, occurred 5508 years before the birth of Christ. The year began on March 1. At the end of the 15th century, the beginning of the year was moved to September 1.

By decree of December 15, 7208, Peter I introduced Christian chronology in Russia. The day following December 31, 7208 from the creation of the world, was prescribed to be considered the beginning of the new year - January 1, 1700 from the Nativity of Christ.

In issuing this decree, Peter was not afraid of the round date - 1700, which at that time many in Europe were awaiting with fear. With her in Once again after 1000 and 1100 AD, after 7000 from the creation of the world and other “round” dates, they waited with trepidation for the end of the world and God’s Judgment over all living and dead. But these mortally frightening years came and went, and the human world remained the same as it was.

Peter ordered the Russians to solemnly and cheerfully celebrate January 1, 1700, “to congratulate them on the new year and the new century.” This is where he made a mistake and misled the people that the new century supposedly begins with two new numbers and two zeros. This mistake, apparently, has become firmly entrenched in the consciousness of many Russians.

So, Russia switched to the Christian calendar, but the Julian calendar, the old style, remained. Meanwhile, most European countries have lived according to the Gregorian calendar for more than a hundred years. The difference between the old and new styles is: for the 18th century - 11 days, for the 19th century - 12, for the 20th and 21st centuries (in the 21st century - due to the fact that 2000 is considered a leap year) - 13, in the 22nd century it will increase to 14 days.

In Russia, the Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1918 by the first Soviet government not affiliated with the church. An amendment of 13 days was introduced: after January 31, 1918, February 14 immediately came.

Since the mid-twentieth century, the Gregorian calendar has been used by almost all countries of the world.

The 21st century is likely to be a time of fundamental change for Russians. Do accurate forecasts for such a long period is quite difficult, however, many experts are trying to predict what events can be expected from the 21st century.

Growing risk of global warming

The American group NOAA Climate Attribution studied the causes of the abnormal heat wave that covered the entire European part of Russia in 2010. In their research, the Americans also “looked into the future.” The climate models used showed that if the concentration greenhouse gases will grow steadily, then by the end of the 21st century the risk of extreme heat in the Russian Federation will increase tenfold.

With further increase average annual temperature In Russia, the tundra may completely disappear. Russians will be more likely to suffer from malaria, intestinal infections, asthma and respiratory diseases, which will lead to certain changes in the healthcare system.

Due to thawing permafrost large areas may simply be unsuitable for life. But this process also has favorable sides: winters will become less severe, and the number of fertile lands will increase.

Universal translators everywhere

As a result of the race between DARDA and Google, mini-computers will be created that will “understand” human speech and “speak” various languages. There have long been projects to develop internet-connected contact lenses that would display subtitles, translating unfamiliar text from websites, movies and any virtual environment.

These technologies will significantly speed up bureaucratic procedures in business and government, make travel easier for ordinary Russians, allowing them to easily communicate in an unfamiliar country and make new friends.

Alternative energy sources

With the current consumption of fossil resources, leading countries such as the USA, Russia and China will feel the energy problem by the end of the 21st century. This crisis has long been obvious to scientists, so the emergence of developments related to the transition to alternative energy resources will not be long in coming.

According to Vagit Alekperov, head of LUKoil, Russia has powerful wind potential. With proper incentives from the government, 10% of all energy can be freely sourced from wind. New technologies for industrial enterprises will be developed at the Alternative Energy Center, which is scheduled to launch in 2017.

The implementation of these projects will significantly reduce energy prices and improve the environment. The problems of residents of remote areas and villages, whose connection to central gas networks or electric highways is currently impossible, will also be solved.

Perhaps a new round of colonization?

According to scientist Joel Cohen, by 2050 the number of people living in cities will grow to 6.3 billion. First of all, this will affect developed countries with huge territories. Since there are practically no unoccupied land areas left, there may be a need for further colonization: first towards the World Ocean, and then into space.

There are still enough territories in Russia for internal development, and due to global warming their number may also increase (due to the areas near Bely and Kara seas, as well as parts of Siberia).

Nevertheless, by 2040 the Russian government plans to deploy the first inhabited base on the Moon with the possibility of mining. The project will include three stages: from banal exploration to the construction of an astronomical observatory on the Moon and objects for monitoring the Earth. If this event is successful, new lunar projects will be implemented every 3-4 years.

Increase in crime

Due to the high rate of urbanization, the city will “inflate” like balloon, although the Columbia Center for International Resolution is already saying that modern megacities are too “chaotic.”

Traditional mechanisms for resolving internal conflicts will lose their effectiveness. Vivid example– many African cities where the government either still somehow controls the situation, or has completely lost control over it.

The rise in crime will force Russia to tighten criminal legislation, increase the number of prisons and radically change the structure law enforcement. Life imprisonment will be the main punishment. If these measures are ineffective, the death penalty may be reintroduced.

Technological boom

The development of technology will affect literally all industries. American consulting Global company The Business Network has compiled a detailed report that states that robotics will absorb most manual work by the end of the 21st century.

Total automation will greatly change the labor market in the Russian Federation. Experts predict that 60% of Russians will move into the field of information technology and services, while only 10% will remain to work in industry and agriculture.

Less global changes will touch genetic engineering, textile and computer industries. Russians will no longer be surprised by huge tomatoes, hybrid animal species or self-cleaning clothes. By the end of the century, widespread space travel, since their cost will be equal to a ticket for trip around the world. This project is already being developed with the joint participation of NASA and the European ESA.

New requirements for medicine

In 2017, Russia plans to legalize biomedical cell products. Thanks to this technology, scientists will be able to restore burnt skin, treat complex cancer diseases and insert artificial cartilage. At the end of the 21st century, doctors plan to completely abandon donor organs, replacing them with cloned analogues.

The development of nanomedicine will lead to the discovery of drugs for AIDS, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. More specialists will be needed to treat obesity and depression, since most professions of the future will be associated with intellectual work with a minimum of physical activity.

Due to environmental deterioration, many experts predict the emergence of new diseases and viruses. They will need to be dealt with quickly to eliminate the risk of a pandemic exceeding the number of victims of the Black Death or the Spanish Flu.

There has never been and never will be a shortage of predictions for the future, although if you look closely, from century to century they are all similar to each other, differing only in details. This is not surprising, since everything is based on human experience, and it is approximately the same everywhere at all times. This is why the boldest and darkest predictions of the great science fiction writers come true. Another portion of forecasts, of course, not too funny, was prepared by the Naked Science website, and there is no doubt that they will all come true sooner or later.

Some are tops, others are roots

Professor of history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Yuval Noah Harari, author of the book “Sapiens. Short story of humanity” believes that by the end of this century humanity will split into biological castes. In his opinion, throughout human history, inequality between people has only increased. But all this time, the achievements of human thought - humanism, liberalism, socialism - corrected the unfair distribution of goods in society as best they could. Since the people have at all times been the main productive force, the elite was forced to at least somehow take care of their education, health and well-being.

However, machines and robots are slowly but surely pushing people out of the productive sphere, depriving them of a permanent income, while the rich are only getting richer. If things continue like this, then in the next century inequality in society will reach a historical maximum, Harari believes.

Economic inequality will give rise to biological inequality. Some people will be able to improve physically and mentally with the help of new biotechnologies, while this will not be available to others.

Without work and without ideal

Fears of mass unemployment due to the development of technology have never been justified, since some professions have always been replaced by others - new ones. But this is unlikely to always be the case.

At some point, the majority will not be able to retrain, understand the updated requirements, and new vacancies will no longer be available to them. As an example, Harari cites the profession of a virtual world designer. Will, say, a 40-year-old taxi driver or an insurance agent be able to apply for it, since young people usually master new professions. The process when older people work until retirement in their previous jobs, and young people take new ones, will only accelerate over time and many workers will find themselves unclaimed almost instantly.

Harari believes that by the middle of the 21st century, a so-called “useless class” will form: not just the unemployed, but people who are in principle unable to fill the few available vacancies that will appear in new industries.

True, this will not make them poor, as they will be able to live off an unconditional basic income. But the problem, according to the historian, will be that without action and specific goals, people will begin to go crazy. A person needs to experience emotions, a sense of satisfaction, and achieve some goals.

Harari suggests that people who have not found employment in the economy - in real world, will find their life goals in virtual worlds. It’s not for nothing that he talks about the profession of a virtual world designer as one of the popular professions of the future. This compensates the useless class for emotions that its representatives will not receive in the real world. Video games will become the meaning of life for the “useless class.”

Computer justice

So, the introduction of robots and automatic machines leads to technological unemployment. However, whether people will keep their jobs or not will be decided not by engineers or the robot itself, but by economists, guided by the principles economic efficiency. If using human labor is more profitable than the labor of robots, then humans will be preferred. Union Square Ventures Managing Partner Albert Wegner believes people will save competitive advantage before robots, but only due to the fact that they will cost the employer less than machines.

Wegner cites the London taxi as an example. To drive the famous black cab on the streets of the British capital, you need to study for four years and remember the location of all 25,000 streets in London. The exam required me to plot a route from memory and name all the streets on it. This is why seven out of ten taxi driver students quit their studies. Now there is no such need: the final destination of the route is entered by the user himself, and everything else is up to the program. The driver's qualifications fall, more applicants appear for this position, and therefore the level of wages falls.

If a machine takes over part of a person's work, Wenger believes, the worker will be paid less, and this can be much more effective than completely abandoning human labor.

Robots are already trading on the stock exchange. IBM Watson suggests diagnoses and the most optimal courses of treatment; the doctor can only agree with the computer or not. The world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, is coming under the control of artificial intelligence, and in about five years, three out of four management decisions The company will host a supercomputer.

As a result, control of the world may be given to super-powerful artificial intelligence, and people will only serve the machines and carry out the commands of the artificial intelligence. We can only hope that the supercomputer will be fair to humans...

Nothing of your own!

Research suggests that more and more US citizens under the age of 35 are refusing to purchase real estate and their own car, instead they are renting apartments and using taxis. They have already been nicknamed the “tenant generation.” An entire IT industry has already been created, the most famous companies in which are Uber and Airbnb services. This is called the “sharing economy.”

The Guardian journalist Ben Tarnoff is confident that in the near future people will do without their own things at all. It's about not about houses and cars, but about, for example, a winter coat that is returned to the landlord in the summer, about a bed that you exchange for a larger one if you do not sleep alone, and about other things that you only own when you need them.

This situation was described back in 1969 by the great science fiction writer Philip K. Dick in his novel Ubik. In his book, a person pays for literally everything: to make coffee or open the refrigerator door... Dick's ideas are being implemented today

For example, the Toyota company has developed the following service: those who buy its car on credit and do not make the next payment on time will not be able to use it - it will not start. Penalties are imposed instantly, remotely and without the mediation of government services...

This means that soon it will become expensive to own property and you will be forced to share it. It’s better to have nothing at all and rent everything if you have the money. Seems convenient? Yes, but on the other hand, this means that almost 100% of the world's wealth will end up in the hands of a few mega-billionaires...

I'll sell my soul. Inexpensive

Already today, technology makes it possible to track our every step, collect any information about us and analyze it so that on the Internet we are already offered to buy something that only interested us a minute ago. On the one hand, it's convenient, but on the other...

Author of the book “Everything is under control. Who is watching you and how” Simson Garfinkel believes that in the future we should fear not Orwell’s “Big Brother”, but hundreds of “little” companies spying on us from everywhere, collecting information about our every step, every event in our lives: purchases , illnesses and injuries, social circle, problems with the law and so on.

Personal information has become a commodity, and a hot commodity at that. Garfinkel leads interesting example. Information about financial condition one American family was sold to 187 credit bureaus. But due to the error tax authorities This information was unreliable and for seven whole years the banks refused loans to the spouses!

Microsoft's The Consumer Data Value Exchange found that 99.6% of Internet users are willing to sell personal information about themselves for a fee, and San Diego-based Luth Research is willing to buy that data to resell to its customers. This means that in the future, selling personal information could become a source of income...