Environment and its components. Technosphere is a new evolutionary state of the biosphere

The concepts of man and the technosphere are closely interrelated. After the appearance of people on Earth, they began to adapt to the environment and exert a certain influence on it. Initially, it was insignificant, but gradually increased due to the development of science and technology. As a result, man transformed the biosphere for himself with the help of technical means to meet his own needs. There are 3 stages in the development of the biosphere. The first includes the time from the birth of life on the planet to the time when interference was minimal. The second continues to the present. This stage is characterized by active intervention in the biosphere. The third stage is a future state in which the impact will be controlled by people.

What is technosphere

This is a biosphere transformed by man in order to protect it from the negative effects of the environment.

Over the course of evolution, man has developed various methods of protection from natural dangers, and subsequently from his own activities. As a result, people have greatly improved living conditions and increased life expectancy.

There are other definitions as well. Thus, the technosphere is a set of active and inactive technical objects, as well as products of their activity that exist in space and on planet Earth. The products of activity are changes earth's crust, soil, atmosphere, chemical composition water. Theoretically, the technosphere can infinitely evolve not only deep into the geosphere, but also into space.

The technosphere is a system that obeys the internal laws and laws of structure, functioning, development. That is, it can develop itself. The autonomy of technology is manifested. Robots, automatic lines, computer self-adjusting stations are being created.

The technosphere is a synonym for the noosphere, that is, a new evolutionary state of the biosphere, where the decisive factor in development is human activity.

The pace of development is constantly increasing. The growth of scientific knowledge, the constant improvement of the level of technology have the strongest negative impact on nature, which leads to a number of acute problems. These include a constant increase in the death of many organisms as a result of environmental pollution and others.

State of the technosphere

At present, the pace of transformation has become so rapid that the methods of protection are far behind. After the receipt of various biological and chemical substances, new types of energy, it became necessary to comprehend safety issues, proactively assess future innovations and develop the foundations for the safe development of people.

The spontaneous development of the technosphere entails a threat to the prosperous existence of man. It is necessary to ensure environmental, industrial, industrial, information security in the technosphere, take measures to reduce harm from and natural. The main harm is caused as a result of production. carriers harmful factors in production are biological and chemical machines, energy sources, etc.

Now technology and science are aimed at meeting the needs of people and maximizing exploitation. natural resources. This has disastrous consequences. led to the exhaustion of the deformation of the natural circulation of substances, a change in the regenerative mechanisms of the biosphere.

It is necessary to treat nature as carefully as possible, use various treatment plants, create technical devices that cause minimal harm to the environment, as well as technologies for the disposal and processing of waste, etc.

Definitions of the technosphere

This is an artificial shell of the Earth, embodying human labor,
organized by the scientific and technical mind.
The technosphere is a projection of human civilization, not only directly on the Earth, but also at the energy and information levels of the planet Earth. The Technosphere has become one with the Noosphere, and is its integral part.

1) a part of the biosphere transformed by people with the help of direct and indirect impact of technical means in order to best meet the socio-economic needs of mankind. With a significant limitation - global rationality transformation, taking into account the task of preserving the type of biosphere that is necessary for the life and development of mankind - the technosphere potentially becomes part of the noosphere.

2) A practically closed future regional-global technological system for the utilization and reutilization of natural resources involved in economic circulation, designed to isolate economic and production cycles from natural metabolism and energy flow, a possible component of the future noosphere, .

The question is, how friendly is the Technosphere towards the living natural world? Will the technosphere be able to develop in harmony with natural complexes, or will it be opposed to the nature of the Earth, with all the ensuing consequences and, as a result, the creation of an artificial environment for human life, and partly an artificial natural complex, with the destruction of most of the nature of the Earth.

The technosphere is also a material, informational and energy artificial shell, which is penetrated by the flows of matter (food), energy (thermal and electrical devices and networks) and information (radio, telephone, TV, computer, etc.).

In general, the technosphere is a life-support system, transparent to useful flows of matter, energy and information. The technosphere can free a person from the pressure of the environment, from the need to thin out his organs in response to its challenge. Or vice versa, the technosphere can teach a person to live in harmony with nature.

Everyone who thought about the future of scientific humanity foresaw its cosmic expansion. First, humanity will become planetary - tellurgical. Then solar - covering the cosmos on the scale of the Sun. And finally breaking through solar system, it will become sidereal - stellar. Reaching for the stars, it will spiritualize all the matter of the world.

What will the person bring with him? In the cosmic perspective, does man see himself as a titan, creating worlds or crushing worlds? Without learning how to preserve the peace of the Earth, humanity is unlikely to be able to become the Creator, the Creator in the cosmic perspective.

Technosphere Development Trends

At present, one can distinguish three main concepts for the development of the Technosphere.

1. Noospheric laws, unknown to humanity, will not allow man to destroy the nature of the Earth, the Noosphere will strictly regulate both the population on Earth and other actions of human civilization aimed at destroying the nature of the Earth.

2. The complete destruction of the nature of the Earth in the process of the development of the Technosphere, and the creation of an artificial habitat intended primarily for humans.

3. Harmonious development of the Technosphere in interaction with the nature of the Earth.

Let's take a look at these theories.

1. Laws of development of the Noosphere

Report of Academician V. A. Sadovnichy

When life appeared the biosphere is a self-developing biological system, consisting of many various kinds living organisms that lived on land, in water, in the air and even underground. For a billion years, the Earth's biosphere has managed to reach the highest peaks of self-organization.
In the terrestrial biosphere there are no populations that are unnecessary to it - if some kind of animal or plant begins to evolve "in the wrong direction" - mutations have occurred, say, or natural selection"lost" from the course - the biosphere quickly enough (in the historical time scale) restores the balance.
Extra species die out, and nature has many ways for this, which it uses as needed: from the extermination of some species by others to infections that can “mow down” many individuals in the shortest possible time. The balance of forces in the biosphere has developed, reached perfection...
And here development of mankind, one of the components of the biosphere, reached the level when people themselves began to determine what they need, what they want to achieve. People have created an industry that has nothing to do with the biosphere of the planet. Science arose and began to make discovery after discovery. Man began to learn the secrets of the biosphere and use the knowledge gained for his "personal" purposes. It was then that the sphere of reason arose - the noosphere, about which Teilhard de Chardin and Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky wrote in the last century.

The newborn noosphere was at first an integral part of the biosphere, but gradually acquired independence and began to develop according to its own laws. Biological science has somehow already figured out the laws of development of living unreasonable nature - the biosphere, but the laws of the development of the noosphere in many respects still remain a mystery behind seven seals. Are the concepts of good and evil defining for the noosphere?

In the animal world there are concepts of expediency, instinct. Man, however, cannot be guided by instinct alone, he seems to be striving for goodness, for the light, in human society, concepts of morality, morality, of what is good and what is bad have arisen.
And here also science and technology have added their own previously non-existent features to the development of the biosphere. There are too many people on the planet. Within the framework of the biosphere, long-tested mechanisms would immediately begin to operate, and the number of people (as well as any other population) would be reduced to an optimal level. But advanced medicine, an increase in life expectancy broke these regulatory mechanisms of nature - a person began to establish the laws of his own development for himself. The noosphere took up self-regulation at a different, previously unknown level.

The technogenic danger created by the development of human civilization is of a systemic nature - we cannot count on the mercy of nature or the self-regulation of the biosphere. Everything related to the development of mankind no longer belongs to the biosphere, but to the noosphere, whose laws are not yet known.

Science and all methods of futurology suggest that it is necessary to counteract the achievements of the same science and technology. Is it so? Otherwise, man will destroy nature. Either we or she. Does the development of the noosphere conflict with the evolution of the planet's biosphere?
So the first must be limited in order to save the second. But will we save humanity if we save nature?

2. Natureless technical world

G. Altshuller and M. Rubin claim that - whether we like it or not - Humanity will have to live in a non-natural technical world (BTM). It follows that the design of a non-natural technical world (BTM) will make it possible to identify in advance the tasks that are vital for the existence and development of civilization, and to prepare in a timely manner for their solution. We already live in BTM. We practically never go outdoors: house, subway, bus, workshop or other working room, shops, theaters, gyms...

This is the first, initial stage of the BTM, when the habitat is largely unnatural, but life support is still based on natural systems. The next phase is intermediate. The final phase: the ideal BTM is a world in which the degree of independence from nature (more precisely, from what will remain from nature by this time) is very high (about 90 percent) and continues to increase.

This is followed by the thought - the most seditious, the acceptance as a fact of the fact that no one (with rare exceptions) today wants to come to terms with: "Technically (energetically) the creation of BTM is feasible already at the present level of technology. This is partly a sad conclusion. For there is no strongest factor , which would hold back the extinction of the natural world. Sadly, without nature, you can survive by building BTM. And nature will be quickly finished off."

Consequently, G. Altshuller and M. Rubin conclude, it is necessary today to start learning to live in BTM - an unnatural technical world. In a world where uncontrolled nature simply does not exist. Moreover, if we are destined to live in such a world anyway, then it is wiser to build it according to a plan than to leave it to trends that no one will ever break anyway. "Life cannot be turned back..."

And conclusions:

"For life in these worlds, a different way of thinking is needed - effective, excluding major miscalculations, taking into account the dialectics of a rapidly developing world."

In BTM, it will inevitably be necessary to abandon the material-consumer way of life, material consumption as the main life value. The main vector of BTM should be creativity aimed at deepening and expanding knowledge and enriching the beauty of the world."

The idea of a natural technical world is an attempt to solve common task the survival of mankind. If BTM is created, then particular tasks will be solved.

Instead of protecting the environment, the task of creating a new artificial nature, more favorable to humans than the current one, will be solved. There is no need to regulate the birth rate and seek to reduce the population - in the unnatural technical world on Earth there will be enough space, food and technology for ten, twenty or more billion people. You just have to change yourself first.

3. Harmonious development of the Technosphere in interaction with the nature of the Earth.

The problem of the harmonious development of the Technosphere with the nature of the Earth remains unresolved today.

Modern technologies are hostile and untenable in relation to the nature of the Earth, man himself, with rapidly growing cities, industry, is displacing life from the planet. Population control is also an unresolved problem. Energy resources, the resources of the planet are not unlimited. The Earth is unable to feed and provide everything necessary for the rapidly growing human civilization, which destroys all life around it. current trend The development of civilization is aimed at destroying the nature of the Earth and the planet itself.

But since the Technosphere is an integral part of the Noosphere, the laws of the Noosphere presuppose the reasonable development of the Technosphere in harmony with the biospheric mechanisms of the planet and the nature of man himself.

A person has to learn, realize these laws, the laws of intelligent life on planet Earth, through everything that is happening now on Earth: catastrophes, including man-made, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, climate change, new types of viruses, the emergence of new incurable diseases, the progression of the birth rate of sick and weakened children, the progression of cardiovascular diseases, allergies, and much more.

Technosphere as an integral part of the Noosphere

As an integral part of the Noosphere, the Technosphere (if we consider the Technosphere as an information and energy part of the Noosphere) is to some extent similar to a global computer information network. It is quite possible that the modern Internet network is an image of the Earth's Technosphere at the Noospheric level.

The information-energetic level of the Technosphere occupies an intermediate position between the noospheric guardian cells and the higher levels of the Teachers. The technosphere here is represented in general form by a network of communications connecting all levels of the Noosphere, Isosphere into a single information system.

The technosphere is informationally connected to literally every living person, allowing the person himself to draw information from a single integral collective planetary repository. Each person here is at the same time a microcell of a giant collective mind, and at the same time, in the future, can learn to use the full potential of a single collective planetary mind.

As a materialized material environment, the technosphere of the earth is directly implemented by modern civilization, and is already inseparable from life modern society. The trends in the development of the Technosphere as a whole contradict the laws of nature, and on this stage The development of the Technosphere is the cause of the destruction of nature and life on Earth.

More about the worlds of the parallel structure

Classification of parallel worlds

The term "technosphere", on the one hand, goes back to the teachings of V.I. Vernadsky about the Earth's shells and research in the field of geochemistry, geography, and on the other hand, it indicates that the totality of material means of the practically transformative activity of mankind - technology - has acquired systemic characteristics and created an environment that is out of control and beyond the control of the humanity that created it.

All elements of technology in the technosphere are connected by links of one or another origin and destination. The formation of these links occurs in the course of the change of generations of technology and the multiplication of technologies in the historical process of co-evolution of man and nature.

The technosphere is a synthesis of natural and artificial, created by human activity and supported by it to meet the needs of society.

Understanding the interdependence of humanity, technology and nature as a receptacle for both in the concept of the technosphere is essential for the formation of a new ideology of scientific and technological progress and a worldview in which the utilitarian-consumer approach to both nature and man would be overcome.

Mankind implements a technological way of existence in nature by using its potential for purposeful transformations, changes in it. Its practically transformative activity changes, structures the natural substance, organizes in a special way, reshapes the course of natural processes by creating special objective forms, formations that make up the material sphere of technology.

A new environment is being created, in which one way or another, to the extent necessary for a person, there must be a "natural environment", already dependent and relative, in a different status. Technical activity gives rise to a "second nature", a quasi-nature, as if nature, stable only within the framework of social practice, under supervision and with the participation of a person in its processes.

Voluntarily and involuntarily, the symbiosis of technology and humanity is spontaneously formed in nature as an objective reality.

Mankind does not break with nature, does not break out of it, but reorganizes it, experiencing the plasticity of natural systems and its own biological basis. Here is how the French sociologist J. Ellul (1975) describes this situation: "Technology itself becomes an environment in the fullest sense of the word. Technology surrounds us like a continuous cocoon without gaps that make nature (according to our first direct assessment) completely useless, submissive, secondary, insignificant. Nature has been dismantled, disintegrated by sciences and technology: technology has a complete habitat within which a person lives, feels, thinks, gains experience. All the deep impressions he receives come from technology. The decisive factor is the filling of our thought, as well as our sensibility, with mechanical processes. "

Man technically creates a "second nature" as his immediate habitat. What is changing in nature? What does human object-practical activity bring to nature? How do natural processes change?

The plowing of billions of hectares of land, the transformation of the species composition of plants and animals, the change in the water regime of the planet, the development of the mining and chemical industries.

Power engineers of various branches of production appeared in the 20th century as a planetary force, generating a number of effects that adversely affect natural processes and a person as a biological being. The scale of industrial production and its infrastructure has led to problems of environmental management and limits to the growth of technological civilization.

The current situation was reflected in the appeal to the study of the phenomenon of technology, including in a historical context, on new grounds, which is connected, in particular, with the emergence of the term "technosphere" and attempts to create the concept of the technosphere.

In the Earth sciences - geography, geology, geochemistry - modified fragments of the earth's crust, the geographical environment are usually attributed to the sphere of interaction between nature and society, and a kind of "earth shell", bearing traces of human activity, was called by some researchers the technosphere - the transformed biosphere . There is a point of view that only the material component of the sociosphere - the "technosphere" - can interact with the material system - nature, the geographical environment. Thus, the object of study of geography cannot be wholly attributed to natural science.

According to the teachings of Vernadsky, although he did not introduce the term "technosphere", limiting himself to the concept of noosphere, the geochemical and biogenochemical functions of mankind are associated with its reasonable object-practical activity as Homo sapiens faber.

This line is developed in the works of R.K. Balandin (1982), who formulates the concept of the technosphere as follows: "The technosphere is the field of technical activity of mankind. Its creation is connected with the evolution of the biosphere and living beings, with the appearance of man and tools, with the social progress of society. Mankind in this area becomes a powerful geological force."

Those. The technosphere is a special shell of the Earth, in which the subject-practical activity of mankind is carried out. Through her "fault" technogenesis occurs - the process of change natural complexes under the influence of the industrial activity of society. In particular, technogenic ecosystems arise - ecosystems that have arisen or are significantly changed under the influence of technogenic factors - forest clearings, flooded lands, drained swamps. In geologists, technogenesis (the term was introduced by A.E. Fersman in 1935) is the geochemical activity of human industry, leading to the concentration and rearrangement of chemical elements and their compounds in the earth's crust.

Thus, from the point of view of the natural sciences, the technosphere is mainly of interest as a source, the cause of technogenesis in nature and a modified, artificially natural planetary shell. As LN Gumilyov notes, this shell, being artificial, torn from the natural course of natural processes and supported by human object-practical activity, is "dead" without the latter. In this sense, "from the Paleolithic there remained ... flint flakes, ... scrapers and axes; from the Neolithic - garbage heaps on the sites of settlements. Antiquity is represented by the ruins of cities, and the Middle Ages - castles."

The most adequate picture explaining the mechanisms of interaction between nature and society, in our opinion, is the one proposed by F.I. Girenkom (1987), namely: in the "human-technosphere" link, the technosphere represents and replaces nature, while in the "technosphere-biosphere" link, it represents and replaces society. In the first case, the technosphere acts as a natural element, in the second - as an artificial one. At the same time, social ties are significant in the "man - technosphere" system, which is expressed in the interdependence of productive forces and production relations, while the "technosphere - biosphere" system is natural-artificial, determined by the potentialities of nature and the degree of their development in technology.

Historians of technology, unlike representatives of the natural sciences, take into account the link "technosphere - biosphere" not as a given, like a natural one, but explore the developing world of technology in the system "man (society) - technosphere". From this point of view, the technosphere as an artificial material organization is built into natural processes. The process that precedes the conscious introduction of changes in the artificial environment surrounding a person is design. This approach was developed by N.G. Neuimin in his work "Noosphere: Myth and Reality" (1988).

He identifies one class of anthropogenic objects, actually technical ones, with those being designed, considers three of them. common properties: the same algorithms for their creation, "appearance", "genesis" - from conception through design to implementation; limited spatial and temporal dimensions, structural and functional complexity; controllability and accountability of this class of anthropogenic objects.

Another class of anthropogenic objects is non-engineered anthropogenic objects (NAO). Ya.G. Neuimin identifies three main subclasses of such objects, of which the NAO directly affect the biospheric processes - natural and technical complexes. The technosphere, according to this picture, includes designed anthropogenic objects, and the modern biosphere of the planet is essentially an undesigned natural and technical object. top level-anthroposphere: "in natural and technical anthropogenic systems, natural and artificial, technogenic components are combined, and the latter change their state in qualitative and quantitative terms, increase in scale at a rate completely incommensurable with biological evolutionary processes".This is where the causes of the ecological crisis lie.

Technique and technology, the technosphere as a whole appear like a genie released from a bottle, as an organization that has gone out of control, ceased to be a "projected" material reality, with channels of influence on nature independent of the will of man.

Two examples. Destruction of the ozone layer incompatible with life is the action of pollution (especially fluorochlorocarbons) released decades ago and concentrated over Antarctica (the effect of a cryoscopic trap, the migration of atmospheric pollution to the coldest parts of the atmosphere). During the period of atomic explosions in the atmosphere (1950s), radioactive fallout spread throughout the world, fell in different parts of the world and accumulated (for natural reasons - in accordance with the nature of air flows in the atmosphere) in certain regions. There is a hypothesis that the appearance of the plague of the twentieth century - AIDS - is associated with the replacement of certain elements in the human body with radioactive isotopes and metabolic disorders at the level of RNA and DNA as a result of this contamination.

The worldview, according to which the surrounding world appears as a world of reversible processes, processes that do not disturb a certain balance, and the belief that a person has the ability to establish strict control over all anomalies that can lead to irreversible undesirable consequences, have been dispelled at the present time.

Processes in the technosphere are autocatalytic in nature: by making a small impact on the system, we can generate a chain reaction of consequences, the effect of which will be completely incommensurable with the initial impact. In addition, the overall result in the technosphere is not reduced to the sum of individual effects (the phenomenon of synergy).

In other words, the world of technology, built into the biosphere, purposefully created by mankind in direct practical transformational activity, began to manifest itself as a phenomenon that obeys the objective, i.e. laws that do not depend on the will of people. People who set certain practical goals and achieve them by creating an artificial world of technology cannot foresee all the consequences: activity is wider than knowledge, and life (nature) is wider than activity.

What is what

The word "technique" comes from the Greek Latin ars, which translates as art, craftsmanship, dexterity and goes back to the Indo-European root "tekhn", meaning "carpentry" or "construction".

In Russian, the terms "technics" and "technology" are not synonymous. Using the first one, they primarily mean objective, material devices, a set of objective, material means created to fulfill the production needs of society. Those. these are tools, machines, devices, etc.

The term "technology" denotes the procedural side of production, i.e. the sequence of operations carried out in the production process indicates the type of processes - mechanical, chemical, laser technology, etc.

It is used to refer to a set of processing, manufacturing methods used in the production of products. In addition, technology is understood as the science of the production of a particular type of product.

Such a duality in the understanding of the term "technology" stems from the deep problems of the relationship between cognitive and practical activities, the relationship between the "world of ideas" and the "world of things".

When technology is understood as a set of knowledge about the methods, methods and means of carrying out production processes, this is the plan of knowledge, applied science, the "world of ideas". When technology refers to the concrete real processes themselves, during which a qualitative change in the state of the object of production (labor) occurs, this is the plane of the material, the "world of things". In this last sense, technology appears as an arsenal (set) accumulated in the course of history of ways to transform objects of labor materialized in a certain tooling (tools, equipment, apparatus, machines, etc.), as well as in the qualifications of workers.

It is important to note that the implementation of a particular technology in manufacturing process implies the availability of resources in the form of energy, light, heat, raw materials and conditions in the form of structures, buildings, communications. In an industrial society, their presence is provided by the infrastructure sectors (energy, transport, communications, construction, etc.)

The identified two planes of the concept of "technology" are actualized in the practical-transformative activity of society, thus forming a real integrity. Both real integrity and "ambiguity" in the interpretation of the concept of "technology" lie, ultimately, in the nature of man: in the conscious nature of his purposeful work, in the presence of language and social memory. In this regard, it is appropriate to cite a deep aphorism belonging to one of the founders of the ideology of experimental science, F. Bacon: “Man, the servant and interpreter of nature, does and understands as much as he has comprehended in its order by deed or reflection, and beyond this he does not know and cannot.”

AT English language there are terms techology , technique and techniks . They can be used interchangeably, but the last two are used relatively rarely. The word technology appears more often, including when it comes to general categories, and it is translated into Russian either by the word "technology" or the word "technology", depending on the meaning arising from the context of its use.

The word "technology" in the North American tradition is used to denote real-life means that ensure a certain course of events, and not the systematic study of these means, which would correspond to the literal meaning of the word "technology", which in its original Greek roots means "the systematic study of art" or "crafts". Such word usage, according to J.P. Grant, more adequately to modern technical reality: "Modern technology is not just an expansion of human capabilities at the expense of the power of advanced science, but a completely new idea of what it is to "know" and what it is to "do" in conditions where both have changed in the course of interpenetration. And further "our activity of cognition and our activity of creation have reached a unity that makes it impossible to distinguish between them, which was once so clear".

The scale of the material culture created by mankind is truly enormous. And the pace of its development is constantly increasing. Nowadays, the so-called techno-mass (everything created by man in a year) is already an order of magnitude greater than biomass (the weight of wild living organisms). This is an alarm signal, it requires a thoughtful attitude to the balance of the components of the nature-biosphere-man system.

The level of human impact on environment depends primarily on the technical equipment of society. It was extremely small at the initial stages of human development. However, with the development of society, the growth of its productive forces, the situation has changed dramatically. The 20th century is the century of scientific and technological progress. Associated with a qualitatively new relationship between science, engineering and technology, it colossally increased the scale of society's impact on nature and posed a number of new, extremely acute problems for man.

The study of the impact of technology on the biosphere and nature as a whole needs not only applied, but also deep theoretical understanding. Technique remains less and less interaction with each other, which ultimately

balances living systems of various levels. As a result, the dynamic harmony of the entire supersystem of life - the biosphere - is achieved.

Modern natural science in the course of studying biocenoses introduces a new concept - “co-evolution”, which means the mutual adaptation of species. It is co-evolution that provides the conditions for coexistence and increasing the stability of the biocenosis as a system. Co-evolution is a new promising idea in the natural and social sciences. Indeed, in adaptation (both in nature and in society), the decisive role is played not by the struggle for existence, but by mutual assistance, coherence and “cooperation” of various types, including interconnected by genetic ties.

The development of the biosphere occurs by deepening the interaction of living organisms and the environment. In the course of evolution, the process of planetary integration gradually takes place, i.e. strengthening and development of interdependence and interaction of living and non-living. The process of integration V.I. Vernadsky considered the essential characteristic of the biosphere. Despite all its contradictions, the development of the biosphere is a factor of planetary scale and means the progressive mastery of the life of the entire planet. The existence of life on Earth has radically changed the appearance of our planet and its components - landscape, climate, temperature of the Earth, etc.

The emergence of man as “homo sapiens” (reasonable man), in turn, qualitatively changed not only the biosphere, but also the results of its planetary influence. Gradually, a transition began to occur from a simple biological adaptation of living organisms to rational behavior and purposeful changes in the natural environment by rational beings.

The geosphere itself In general, it reacts passively to human intervention, while living matter actively adapts to new conditions of existence and the presence of man in nature. Thus, the resistance and immunity of many insects and rodents to poisons used by people has increased many times over. Mutational or altered species and populations appear, adapted to man-made and polluted habitats. Many species of animals are changing the forms of their existence, adapting to life in the neighborhood with humans.

Man, as a special form of life and a being with reason, introduces fundamentally new elements into the relationship with nature. It acts as an autonomous integrity within the biosphere. Living matter, transforming the inert and interacting with it, creates the biosphere. Similarly, man, transforming the biosphere, creates the technosphere. But if, during the formation of the biosphere, all biocenoses only maintain systemic integrity by exchanging matter and energy, then a person, in addition to these functions, primarily produces the reification of nature, creating new artificial objects.

However, not all human creations are in harmony with the surrounding reality. And if living organisms created by man, for the most part, fit into common system nature, this cannot be said about other objects created by him: buildings, structures ... In addition, what is made by man, as a rule, does not contribute to the creation of new energy reserves. The endless destruction of minerals and living matter puts the very existence of not only intelligent life, but life as such, on the brink of catastrophe.

Awareness of the current situation was expressed in numerous scientific forecasts and draft solutions environmental issues, as well as in a number of new philosophical concepts. So, V. I. Vernadsky, an outstanding scientist-geochemist, thinking about the interaction of society with nature, introduced the concept of "noosphere". Humanity is part of the Earth's biosphere. The biosphere (Greek bios - life and sphaira - ball, sphere, area) is the sphere of all life on Earth, which includes the upper part of the earth's crust inhabited by organisms, the hydrosphere and the atmosphere. In the course of history, humanity has become the main geological force, powerfully and on a large scale influencing the planetary state. In this regard, Vernadsky concludes that the transition of the existing biosphere to a new state - the noosphere - is inevitable.

The noosphere (Greek noos - mind, mind and sphaira - sphere, area) is such a state of the biosphere when its development occurs purposefully in connection with the activities of people in the interests of the joint evolution of man and nature. In contrast to the religious-idealistic interpretation of the noosphere as an abstract realm of the mind, a “thinking layer” outside the biosphere and above it (by Teilhard de Chardin), Vernadsky considered the noosphere as an objective state of the “society-nature” system, which is taking shape, being formed at the present time. Its creation is connected with the growing role of science in social development, increasing integration public life and reasonable cooperation of states, democratization of the social structure and the formation of environmental consciousness in society.

Vernadsky's ideas about the noosphere were further developed, in particular, in the ideas of the Russian academician N. N. Moiseev about "co-evolution" - the joint, harmonious development of nature and society. The central thesis of this and other concepts is the provision on the responsibility of mankind for its actions in natural world and the need to form a new type of relationship in the "society - nature" system in connection with changes in society itself.

Habitat- this is a part of nature with which society directly interacts in the process of its existence and development. At the beginning of the emergence of mankind, its natural habitat covered only a small part of the earth's surface. Now it includes not only the entire surface of the planet, but also its subsoil, the oceans, near-Earth airspace, as well as part of our solar system.

Built environment- this is such a part of the environment that is created by man in the process of historical development social production and does not exist by itself as nature. It includes the totality of man-made dwellings, settlements, roads, Vehicle, tools, technical devices and means, enterprises and agricultural industries, artificial materials created by man, etc. In different historical epochs, the role and ratio of these elements of the environment were different and influenced people's livelihoods in different ways. Society in its historical development also had an impact on the environment, modifying it. At present, a significant part of people's life activity takes place in an artificial environment (it is not accidental that they are attracted to natural, natural properties as part of an artificial habitat as it develops, an ever greater “separation” from nature).

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Barazenko V.G. "The principle of determinism and modern biology", Moscow 1980

Journal "Man Science Nature", Moscow 1986

"Environment" - broader concept than geographic. It includes, in addition to the surface of the Earth and its interior, a part of the solar system that falls or can fall into the sphere of human activity, as well as the material world created by him. In the structure of the environment, two major components are distinguished: natural and artificial habitats.

natural habitat includes the inanimate and living parts of nature - the geosphere and the biosphere. It exists and develops without human intervention, in a natural way. However, in the course of evolution, a person gradually masters the natural environment more and more. Initially it was just simple consumption natural resources(wild fruits, plants and animals). Then the person began to use and natural sources means of life (minerals, energy sources), transforming them in the course of their practical activities.

For a person, the positive aspects of the development and transformation of natural sources as components of the natural habitat are undeniable. As a result of this activity, a person was able not only to survive as a biological species, but also to acquire what fundamentally distinguishes him from other living beings - the ability to produce tools, create and accumulate material and spiritual culture, purposefully transform the environment.

However, in the course of evolution, man did not stop only at taking material from nature in a direct or transformed form. He would cease to be a rational being if he could not create something of his own, artificial, which has not been in nature until now. As a result, they created artificial habitat - all then, what is specially made by man: a variety of objects of material and spiritual culture, transformed landscapes, as well as plants and animals bred as a result of selection and domestication.

With the development of society, the role and importance of the artificial environment for humans is constantly increasing. Try today to imagine, even for a minute, a human society without large cities, roads, enterprises, houses, cars, household appliances etc. All this is created by man and is the creation of his hands, the result of the activity of his mind.

The influence of man on nature. Technosphere

The level of human impact on the environment depends primarily on the technical equipment of society. It was extremely small at the initial stages of human development. However, with the development of society, the growth of its productive forces, the situation has changed dramatically. The 20th century is the century of scientific and technological progress. Associated with a qualitatively new relationship between science, engineering and technology, it has colossally increased the scale of society's impact on nature and posed a number of new, extremely acute problems for humanity.

The study of the impact of technology on the biosphere and nature as a whole needs not only applied, but also deep theoretical understanding. Technique is less and less only an auxiliary force for man. Its autonomy (automated lines, robots, interplanetary stations, the most complex computer self-adjusting systems) is becoming more and more apparent.

The concept of "a set of technology and technical systems" is only beginning to acquire the right to exist in science. By analogy with living matter underlying the biosphere, we can talk about technosubstance how the totality of all existing technical devices and systems(a kind of technocenoses). In its composition, in particular, include technical devices that extract minerals and generate energy like green plants in the biosphere. There is also a technical block for the processing of the received raw materials and the production of means of production. Next comes the machinery that produces consumer goods. Then - technical systems for the transfer, use and storage of information media. Autonomous multifunctional systems (robots, automatic interplanetary stations, etc.) are allocated in a special block. Recently, technosystems for the processing and disposal of waste have also appeared, which are included in the continuous cycle of waste-free technology. These are a kind of "technical orderlies", acting like biological, natural subsystems. Thus, the structure of techno-substance (as a set of individual technical devices and entire subsystems-technocenoses) increasingly reproduces a similar organization of natural living systems.

Another approach to understanding the structure and role of technosubstance is offered by the Swiss economist and geographer G. Besh. He identifies three major sectors in the world economy: primary (extraction of natural resources), secondary (processing of extracted products) and tertiary (production services: science, management).

By the strength of its impact on the planet, techno-substance in the form of a system of technocenoses is able to compete with living matter at least on an equal footing. The further development of technology clearly requires the calculation of the optimal options for the interaction of the constituent subsystems of a technical substance and the consequences of their influence on nature, and primarily on the biosphere.

As a result of man's transformation of the natural habitat, one can already speak of the real existence of its new state - the technosphere. concept "techiosphere" expresses a set of technical devices and systems together with the field of human technical activity. Its structure is quite complex, as it includes technogenic substance,

technical systems, living matter, upper part of the earth's crust, atmosphere, hydrosphere. Moreover, with the beginning of the era of space flights, the technosphere has gone far beyond the biosphere and already covers the near-Earth space.

It makes no sense modern man talk in detail about the role and significance of the technosphere in the life of society and nature. The technosphere is increasingly transforming nature, changing the old and creating new landscapes, actively influencing other spheres and shells of the Earth, and above all, again, the biosphere.

Speaking about the critical importance of technology in human life, one cannot fail to note the growing problem of the humanization of the technosphere today. So far, science and technology are aimed mainly at the maximum exploitation of natural resources, the satisfaction of the needs of man and society at any cost. The consequences of an ill-conceived, non-complex and, as a result, inhuman impact on nature are depressing. Technical landscapes from production waste, the destruction of signs of life in entire regions, nature driven into reservations - these are the real fruits of the negative impact of a man armed with equipment on the environment. All this is also a consequence of the insufficient interaction of natural and social sciences in understanding this problem.