The Concept of Noonomy as a Methodological Platform for Predictive Socio-Economic Research (Review of the monograph Bodrunov S. D. “Noonomy” )

Abstract

The significance of the concept of noonomy developed in the works of Professor S. D. Bodrunov, including his monograph “Noonomy”, is wider than just a hypothesis that paints a picture of promising shifts in the socio-economic structure of society. Since this concept is based on the study of a number of real trends in the development of material production and human knowledge – both technological and socio-economic, to the extent it creates theoretical and methodological prerequisites for the study of the further evolution of human civilization.Highlighting the patterns of this evolution is the growth of knowledge intensity of production, increase of knowledge capacity of product, the trend to the predominance of the weight of knowledge on material costs in the cost structure of production, the displacement of people from the immediate process of production – the concept of noonomy allows you to see a number of intermediate steps leading, ultimately, to the formation of a non-economic society and non-economic way of productive activity. One of these steps is the formation of a new industrial society of the second generation (NIO.2).Those deep technological shifts that lead to the formation of NIO.2, carry with them not only new opportunities for human development and meeting its needs, but also the growing risks of technogenic pressure on nature, and reckless interference in the nature of man himself. Economic rationality turns into inflating simulative needs in the pursuit of sales expansion and profit, leading to an increasing absorption of resources. There is a movement to the civilizational crisis, to the point of bifurcation, beyond which the resolution of these problems should be achieved by changing the criteria base of economic activity by moving away from economic rationality, and a corresponding change in the social structure.The identification of these distant strategic development prospects in S. D. Bodrunov's works allows us to take an appropriate look at the immediate pragmatic goals. In particular, the solution of the problem of reindustrialization of Russia appears, from this point of view, not only as a tactical necessity, but also as a necessary prerequisite for entering the strategic highway of development.