Hanso Jonaso atsakingos politikos vizija technologinėje civilizacijoje

The aim of the article is to reconstruct Hans Jonas’ vision of ethics for the technological civilization and to highlight the challenges that are faced in the attempt to provide an ontological grounding for such ethics. The attempt to develop the ethics of responsibility is inseparable from the affirmation of paternalistic political positions, which leads towards apologetics of total governmental control. In the face of dangers created by modern technology, Jonas argues that attempts to safeguard the existence of humanity are best served by a government that controls all aspects of life. Jonas maintains that in the face of various dangers created by modern technologies, a relationship with them, which is based on fear, becomes pragmatic and rational. A positive evaluation of fear leads towards reactionary political tendencies. Philosopher’s imperative is based on the duty to protect „genuine” human life, however, his vision of total technocratic government could lead to an absolute dehumanization of humanity. It is therefore concluded that Jonas‘ vision of ethics is incompatible with the political ethics of liberal democracy.

Government R&D Investment, Knowledge Accumulation, and Regional Innovation Capability: Evidence of a Threshold Effect Model from China

Innovation is the primary driving force of development and the strategic support for building a modern economic system. For enterprises, continuous innovation capabilities can effectively deal with uncertainties in the business environment and can enhance business competitiveness. Macropolicies can stimulate economic development and can try to promote enterprise innovation, but there is still widespread debate in academia about whether these policies successfully promote or, in fact, inhibit innovation. Looking at the provincial panel data from China between 2009 and 2018, the authors of this paper explored the complex nonlinear mechanism of government R&D investment in driving regional innovation capabilities from the perspective of knowledge accumulation. The empirical results show that, when the level of knowledge accumulation is used as the threshold variable, there is an obvious threshold effect between government R&D input and regional innovation capabilities. As the level of knowledge accumulation crosses the threshold, the influence of government R&D investment on regional innovation capabilities undergoes a structural mutation, shifting from an insignificant inhibitory effect to a significant promotional effect. The above conclusion has strong robustness. This article provides useful policy enlightenment for China to promote the development of scientific and technological civilization and the construction of an innovative country.

Natural Fiber-based Green Composites: Processing, Properties and Biomedical Applications

Since the advent of modern technological civilization, tremendous pollution has been done in our environment by disposing of waste material in the environment unconsciously. Some waste materials are biodegradable and some of them are non-biodegradable. Biodegradable waste, originated from plants or animals can be decomposed by the natural organism (bacteria, fungi, etc.) and not be adding to pollution. This degradation process may be rapid or slow but the environmental risks are low. On the other hand, non-biodegradable waste, obtained from inorganic components cannot be decomposed by the natural organism and acts as a source of pollution. These wastes are being generated by humans and every year billions of tons of wastes are being dumped into the environment which puts our environment in danger. Even if it is late, mankind has realized that unless the nature is out of danger, he himself will be endangered. As a result, environmental consciousness has increased worldwide. This growing ecological and environmental awareness leads the world to develop eco-friendly materials. As the population grows day by day, it is not possible to reduce waste. So, it is wise to focus on developing new materials that would produce biodegradable waste. Recently the attraction on the biocomposite (known as green composites) materials has significantly increased because it is generated from natural fiber which is biodegradable and it has the potential of being a substitute for conventional non-biodegradable products. Biocomposites are used in various industrial sectors, including the bio-medical industry. In this paper, the overall idea of natural fibers, extraction and surface modification methods of natural fiber, Natural fiber-based biocomposites, fabrication and properties analysis of biocomposite,and recent applications of biocomposites in the bio-medical sector have been reviewed. The primary incentive for developing and using biocomposite is to build a new generation of eco-friendly materials by replacing synthetic ones.

NEW FORMS OF EMPLOYMENT ON THE EUROPEAN LABOR MARKET IN THE CONTEXT OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES AND THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The aim of the article is to discuss the most important changes in the forms of employment on the European labor market in the context of technological, civilization and cultural changes, but also in connection with the coronavirus pandemic and other economic crises. The authors put forward the main thesis that changes in the forms of employment take place due to the transformations of markets and generational changes related to the Z and Smart generations, which are entering or will enter the labor market in the near future. In this context, a general overview of the most important forms of work performance, already operating on the European labor market, has been made, highlighting their most important aspects and differences.

The Need For Reconstruction of Family Domestic Duties Based On Equality Facing The Digital Technology Era

This study analyzes household problems amid the advances in digital technology civilization. The impact of digital technology covers broad aspects of human life, making it a necessity. Humans take advantage of digital technology facilities to meet their needs effectively and efficiently. However, technology brings negative aspects, such as changes in behavior, lifestyle changes, and communication patterns that characterize society’s social systems. Furthermore, there are shifts in relationships patterns between parents and their children, as well as from spiritual (fitrahwi) to patterned bonds with digital mechanisms. This problem needs to be solved by reconstructing domestic family duties based on equality norms. The orthodox-conventional approach restructures and modifies family management by considering religiousness, family psycho-social, and socio-culture based on moderation and humanistic justice promotion. Reconstruction is the rearrangement of the family management system by combining constructive old patterns with modern elements. As a result, the family acquire resistance to face the wave of technological civilization.

The Transformative Role of Crisis in the Context of Contemporary Anthropological Problems

The focus of consideration of human transformation sets up optics to track multi­ple configurations in the formation of its modern forms at the intersection be­tween realities from heterogeneous areas – the logic of the polysemy of the hu­man identity crisis. Identity configurators mediate, for example, between an inter-element macrophysical order greater than the resulting individual and an intra-element microphysical order smaller than that individual (G. Simondon) Or the relationship between the transcendent and the immanent, forming the ex­perience of transdisciplinarity (Ya. Svirsky). This mediation between the ultimate (contradictory, conflicting, contrasting) realities (events, situations) is the begin­ning of the formation (individuation) of a particular individual. Such a vision raises questions. Does the transformation of a person always take place against the background of crisis phenomena similar to the modern crisis of technological civilization, which are manifested in the relationship of a person between his ex­ternal and internal nature? And what, then, do we mean by conceptualizing the term crisis? The article attempts to show the crisis as a converter of the course of evolution of the biosocial nature of man. The conceptualization of the term crisis is formed through the grasping of a variety of ambivalent semantic interpreta­tions, which are guessed in the situational analysis of the case studie, between the judgments about the essence and existence of modern man in his ontological presuppositions.

Inventing Nostalgia for the “Golden Age” of the National Middle Ages and Fear of the Future

The author analyses features and trends within the development of medievalism and futurism in Japanese mass culture. Mass culture in Japan arose as one of many consequences of political, social and cultural modernization. Medievalism and futurism simplify ideas regarding the past or the future (futurism) and incorporate their elements into the mass culture. These cultural phenomena are analyzed in the context of the imagination of communities, the invention of traditions, and the simulation of classical heritage within a Japanese context. The author analyses cultural situations in which the intellectual discourse of mass culture develops along ethnic lines, while also acknowledging the contribution of modern technological civilization. Medievalism in the identity of modern Japanese mass culture actualizes the myth of the ethnographic "golden age" of medieval culture’s feudal daimyo and samurai sub-culture. By contrast, futurism actualizes cultural phobias that are inspired by feelings of insecurity about the future of civilization. It is assumed that medievalism and futurism as forms of cultural escapism in Japanese popular culture arose as a consequence of the trauma of forced de-archaisation and de-feudalization, forced military and economic modernization, and the miraculous success of Japan’s economic growth and expansion in the post-war era. The author believes that these factors actualized social discomfort and stimulated escapist practices. The author analyses these phenomena within the context of mass culture, believing that a consumer society requires reflection upon the national past in order to yield a visualization of its continuity with earlier social institutions.

Existential Necessity for Dominance of the “Quality” Category in Socio-economic Development of the Russian Federation as Part of the Global Anthropogenic World

The evolution of man-made technological society to the scale of the global system has changed the whole nature of social reproduction. The modern global biosocium “rests” on the quasi-closure of the main subsystems of our planet — the biosphere and planetary matter, their quantitative limitations. It is impossible to remove (resolve) this contradiction under the dominance of the category “quantity”, in the conditions of the promoted flywheel of the consumption society. The aggregate “amount” of public reproduction already crosses the boundary of the category “measure”. Therefore, the development of the global technological biosocium (noosphere), its relationship with the biological and basic planetary subsystems enters the zone of existential bifurcation, in which the likelihood of the appearance of the effect of a “butterfly” capable of destroying all humanity increases sharply. The authors justify the acute existential need for the priority of the “quality” paradigm in the social reproduction of the Russian Federation by its special position in the global world, the bifurcation state of the entire anthropogenic technological civilization and the socio-biological nature of man

Can life be standardized? Current challenges in biological standardization

The concept of standard strongly evokes machines, industries, electric or mechanic devices, vehicles, or furniture. Indeed, our technological civilization would not be possible – at least in the terms it is structured today – without universal, reliable components, whose acknowledged use results in competitive costs, robustness and interchangeability. For example, an Ikea screw can be used in a wide set of structurally dissimilar furniture and an app can be run in many different smartphones. The very concept of standardization is linked to the industrial revolution and mass production of goods through assembly lines. The question we will try to answer in the present paper is the extent to which standards and the standardization process can be accomplished in the biological realm.