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Global trends and forecasts of the 21st century
The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to become one of
the turning points in the transformation of the
world order, as well as many political, social and
other relations in the World System. Undoubtedly,
we live in a fast-changing world, when it is imperative
to look beyond the horizon of current events in
order to understand what tomorrow may bring. In
the present article some forecasts of technological,
political, as well as social and economic development
of the world are presented in a systematic
manner. The authors present short-term
(10–15 years), medium-term (20–50 years) and longterm
(50–100 years) forecasts (with alternative scenarios)
based on the theories of long cycles and
respective technological paradigms, as well as on
the theories of global aging, production principles,
production revolutions, Great Divergence and Great
Convergence. It is also important for the topic of
the article to show that measures taken against the
COVID-19 can significantly accelerate the development
of social self-regulating systems, which will
become one of the important parts of the
Cybernetic revolution.