Visualizing Socio-techno-natural Processes: Issues and Challenges E.A. Dergacheva1 eadergacheva2013@yandex.ru 1 Bryansk State Technical University, Bryansk, Russia Contemporary models and systems of data visualization, implemented on the basis of information technology, individually cover social, technological and natural processes of the world development. Modern world is developing in the conditions of transformational transitional processes, when the artificial shell, the technosphere, created by the society becomes the leading life-support system instead of the biosphere. It is a full-fledged participant in the exchange processes between a globalizing technogenic society and transforming nature, which allows us to talk about forming socio-techno-natural laws of developing the world and life. There are no integrative visual models in the world that represent evolutionary changes in three systems simultaneously – society (and man), the technosphere and the technologically transformed biosphere, on the basis of which it is possible to predict the formation of a sustainable future for humanity in connection with the expansion of socio-technonatural processes. The generally recognized visualization methodology must be supplemented by the methodology of the philosophy of the world socio-technogenic development and the change in the evolution of life for a better visual representation and explanation of the transformation processes taking place in the changing world that is becoming post-biospheric. Interdisciplinary philosophical view allows capturing the world in the integrity of its diverse characteristics and at the same time forming a problem field for visualizing transformational processes. The fundamental role of the integration link belongs to information technology, which allows us to represent visually heterogeneous data with the aim of further developing models for the safe development of mankind in the technosphere. Keywords: socio-techno-natural globalization, social-technogenic development, technosphere, biosphere, visual model, regularities. in the biosphere to an artificial, post-biosphere one that is 1. Introduction evolution of life without a biosphere as a self-developing system [5]. The philosophy of socio-technogenic development of the Visualization is a powerful tool for pictorial presentation of world and integrated socio-techno-natural processes allows us to the transformation processes taking place in the world. Detailed analyze the changing nature of biological evolution and the information about changes in social, technical, and natural- scientific picture of the world as a whole [4]. biological systems become most acute when it is visually Nevertheless, visual modeling and its tools are still far from reproduced, which makes it possible to convey fundamental and presenting integrative models of socio-techno-natural processes, applied research data to potential audiences as fast and as i.e. presenting evolutionary changes simultaneously in three efficiently (compared to textual reproduction), to introduce to the systems – society (and man), the technosphere and the interested audience scientists’ thoughts and discoveries. This technologically transformed biosphere. A broad socio- applies to social and humanitarian, as well as natural, and philosophical view allows us to embrace the world in the technical sciences. Information visualization is mainly the integrity of its diverse characteristics and at the same time to territory for presenting applied research data, which, unlike the form a problem field for visualizing transformational processes. fundamental ones, accounts for up to 90% of all scientific work This largely transdisciplinary approach challenges the field of carried out in the world. A wide range of visual interpretation of information technology by the visual representation of the data on heterogeneous socio-economic, technical, technological transitional processes of social and technological nature and environmental changes is the core of visual analysis and occurring in the world. Visualizing these phenomena, which are modeling of global and local processes. Moreover, visualization the stratum of modern systemic globalization, is extremely is not just a means of displaying indicators, but is a complete tool necessary with the aim of their subsequent interdisciplinary of identifying trends and prospects for the phenomena understanding and revealing hidden regularities. development. Visualization tools contribute to activating the It is enough to pay attention to the vector of the artificial thinking processes of scientists of different scientific direction of life, which has been growing rapidly over the last specializations, direct them into the mainstream of new research third of the century, when, against the background of a 75% issues. Thus, visualization helps to develop interdisciplinary decrease in the number of flying insects in the world and the loss research themes and cooperation. of half the number of birds, a tremendous three-fold increase in At the beginning of the XXIst century philosophy as an area the mass of the artificial urban environment is recorded [20]. 4.2 of interdisciplinary research is increasingly involved in billion people live in this environment at the end of the second understanding the relationship between mankind and the decade of the XXIst century and this figure is more than half of technosphere, created by people on the basis of scientific and the world population. technological progress, and at that the mass of the new, artificial The difficulties of such a task of visualizing the most shell of the planet approaches the size of the remnants of living complex development processes are concluded in the need to matter of the biosphere. Now the planet is dominated by intensify interdisciplinary research based on philosophy as interconnected social and technological transformation processes integrative knowledge with the inclusion of information that lead to changes both in the social structure of the world and technology tools. are accompanied by the biosphere degradation. Such a comprehensive expansion of the artificial intervention created by 2. Methodology mankind is accompanied by a complex integration of the processes of social, technospheric and natural biological The success of any research work on visualizing a large evolution, which is reflected in the processes of systemic social amount of data with a complex structure depends on the right and natural globalization [10]. The growing technogenicity of the tools, which can reduce the information load on a person, focus processes and problems that make up the modern globalization the attention on really important interrelations, identify leads to a change in the centuries-old biological evolution of life unambiguous conclusions and even make predictions for the Copyright © 2019 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). future. Naturally, here we are talking about well-known graphical visualization methods which are linear methods, histograms, pie charts, maps, trees that display relations, data distribution, their composition in socio-economic, technological and natural-biological systems for the purpose of their subsequent comparison. The visualization methodology is described in detail in the works C. Сhen, D. Huang, M. Tory, Ed. Tufte, A.E. Bondareva, V.A. Galaktionova, A.A. Zakharova et al. [2, 3, 13, 18]. In their works, special attention is paid to the interpretation of images presented during computer modeling, which is of undoubted importance for analyzing and forecasting integrative socio-techno-natural processes. Nevertheless, the information technology toolkit captures the connections and reflects the dependencies “delivered” by the “Big” science. Specialization of the latter is extremely heterogeneous in the vast world and domestic thought. This, in particular, according to the data presented by the Centre for Fig. 2. USA: distribution by themes of priority research Strategic Planning of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is (according to the data of the Central Statistical Bureau of the indicated by the scientific specialization index calculated for Russian Academy of Sciences, 2016) countries of the world based on publications in the WOS and Scopus databases (2016). So, Russia is characterized by the In general, the most priority areas of science for the highest degree of narrowly disciplinary specialization of developed countries of the world in 2010-2020 are researches in scientific research in the natural sciences, humanities and nano-, bio-, information, cognitive technologies, supported by technical sciences (in particular, physics, chemistry, earth the potential of the social sciences and humanities, and such sciences), which is characteristic of the state of science of the sciences as environmental engineering, applied physics and world countries of the 80s of the last century, i.e. forty years ago environmental biotechnology are becoming the main focus of (Fig. 1). attention. This integration of sciences and technologies is called the NBIC (C)-convergence (according to the methodology of M. Roco & W. Bainbridge [17], M.V. Kovalchuk [15]) and puts on the agenda the question of the need for a convergent nature of education [1] in the context of its highly specialized orientation, leaving aside the general picture of the world changes [14]. But all these integrative relations are inconceivable without their comprehensive transdisciplinary understanding, which is also realized through philosophy. The latter combines scientific and extra-scientific knowledge, the social experience of mankind, hypotheses, sociocultural values, prognostic ideas, which subsequently “descend” through the floors of narrowly disciplinary science, finding their confirmation. Until the beginning of the 19th century the way of life of the agrarian society was associated with living in agricultural settlements and manual work, while more than two-thirds of all activities were based on attracting the muscular energy of domestic animals. But the powerful rise of industrial-urban development radically changed priorities in the alignment of productive forces in the world economy. Now, up to 99% of the work performed by society is connected with technical energy, while two centuries ago, the same amount of work was performed by human and animals [6]. For almost ten thousand years of agricultural history, the economic society significantly changed the surrounding natural world, which was accompanied Fig. 1. Russia: distribution by the themes of priority research by the biosphere cultivation, local environmental crises and the (according to the data of the Central Statistical Bureau of the gradual rise of civilizational development. However, over the last Russian Academy of Sciences, 2016) two or three centuries of industrial and technological development, the natural world has changed much more in its The “flagships” of the modern world – the USA, a number of hydrospheric, atmospheric, and especially lithospheric shells countries in Western Europe, Japan and China have the most than in the previous centuries of agrarian management, which developed interdisciplinary relations for the science. It is was partially reflected in visualization models. important to note basing on the analysis of publications that Among the visualizations of 2018 that most clearly reflect interdisciplinary scientific activity in the United States is evenly the anthropogenic impact on natural-biological systems, we note distributed across all scientific areas, while the highest degree of the plastics pollution of the world oceans, presented in the attention is focused on the human sciences, the human health, interactive pictures of the “National Geographic publication”; and medical technologies (Fig. 2). In China, there is a slightly infographics of the “Guardian publication” of seven endangered different picture and publications in the field of chemistry, species of animals, the number of which occupies only a train energy and ecology have an advantage. carriage; earlier dates of spring coming on the planet and the appearance of the first leaves on trees compared with the data of fifty years ago, which is a consequence of climate changes et al. This information is presented in Washingtonpost (Fig. 3). These visualizations make people think about the apocalyptic nature of of a technosphere that guides the world along the steps of the technogenic transformations, understand the acuteness of the social and natural evolution of life [6]. tragedy occurring on the Earth. At the same time, in these nature All these and many other facts of the changing dynamics of visualizations, the analysis of developing life is built without the joint evolution of society, the technosphere and biosphere, taking into account the systemic technological changes in the indicate that the universally recognized visualization world. methodology needs to be supplemented with the methodology of social and technogenic development of the world and life for a better visual representation and explanation of the transformation processes taking place in the world, of a changing picture of the world, becoming a post-biosphere one [7]. This will allow seeing the prospects and threats of developing life on the Earth on a large scale of global socio-techno-natural trends [5, 10]. Thus, with the help of visualization models, the reader is given an opportunity to consciously realize the catastrophic technological processes occurring in the world. Infographic warns the reader, makes him or her involved in the possibility of making the contribution to the common cause of preserving the biosphere as the only yet possible area of maintaining vital activity on the planet. And this task is all the more important, as through vision a person perceives up to most of information, subsequently processing it into knowledge. How realizable is the task of developing an interdisciplinary visualization methodology is a question and a problem of the near future. But Fig. 3. Infographics showing the number of Javanese rhinos one thing is clear - this is a challenge not only to information remaining on the planet (The Guardian, Environment gallery, technology, but to the whole range of related sciences aimed at 09.17.2018) achieving the goals of sustainable social and natural development. Now the planet is a developing technosphere, it is an expanding network of urban settlements mainly made from 3. Results and discussions artificial materials, tools and objects, synthesized substances and technological electromagnetic radiation. Living in such an The UN Conferences on Environment and Development of environment is associated with the lifestyle and socialization 1992 and 2012 were the largest milestones in the history of processes of the majority of the world population [10]. discussing the problems of achieving the sustainability of co- Many of these and other technocratic factors of changing the evolutionary development of the society and nature, preserving world on the basis of machine technology demanded transferring the biosphere for future generations. Documents proposed at the the philosophical thought to new understanding of ongoing conferences are widely reflected in visualization models. global processes based on the advanced achievements of the However, the theory of sustainable development in all the variety scientific thought. Along with the directions of the biosphere and of research approaches has remained only a good wish so far, noosphere philosophy that appeared in the 20th century, scientific since for a third of a century of its existence, the world has taken and technological progress, post-industrial (and information) the extremely dangerous path of social and technogenic society, at the turn of the century there arises a new development of life. multidisciplinary scientific and philosophical direction of The imperfection of theories of sustainable development is research that is the research of social and technological due to fragmentation of research issues, based on the two main development of the world, social and natural processes and concepts of globalization entrenched in international global changes in the evolution of life. Bryansk State Technical studies – economic and socio-ecological (socio-natural) concepts University has formed a scientific school led by Professor E.S. in a variety of author's points of view [11, 12]. In these theories, Demidenko, which prepares specialists in various fields to reflect the emphasis is on the social conditioning of globalization on the new frontiers of the interconnected development of the processes, while biological regularities, as advocates of socio- society and nature. Among the areas being actively developed by economic theories believe, are studied by purely natural sciences. the school are new patterns of socio-technogenic development, If we are guided by the methodology of data analysis tasks creating new paradigms in the philosophy of the technosphere, using analytical visual models [18] and analyze only social (and changes in the evolution of life, socio-techno-natural economic) systems and processes, then the set of intermediate globalization, a technocratic market economy, etc. [8]. states of such models, taking into account leading corrective The philosophy of socio-technogenic development of the questions, hypotheses, and data verification results, will world builds its arguments on the methodology of a systemic ultimately help us to make up the final visual image of the model, socio-natural approach based on the ideas of V.I. Vernadsky considering only the social laws of its development. Therefore, about the noosphere and the changing historical parameters of visualization models that consider in isolation socio-economic, the society and the biosphere during their interaction. At the technical, technological and natural-biological laws of beginning of XXth century V.I. Vernadsky was one of the first development give a one-sided view of global processes and who paid attention to the interconnected development of social problems, which undoubtedly limit the possibilities of carrying and natural processes, optimistically considered that the society out sustainable development and forecasting programs. was creating a new world - the noosphere in the form of an At the same time, in modern conditions, when the improved biosphere based on the collective mind, science and technosphere becomes an active intermediary between a labor of associated humanity [19]. At the beginning of the XXIst globalizing society and transforming nature, we should talk about century the social-natural approach finds development in the integrative socio-natural models of data visualization, which works of E.S. Demidenko and followers of the theory of the allow us to identify and analyze complex, integrated laws of the world social and technogenic development, philosophers and world social and natural development and the evolution of life. scientists of the leading universities of the country and abroad [4, The facets of technogenicity of the socio-natural evolution of 9, 16]. Now we can state that the noosphere is formed in the guise life, its transition to post-biosphere, semi-artificial life forms – transgenic, cloned, biotechnological, the replacement of natural Natural biological life, undergoing significant technogenic biogeochemical metabolic processes with artificial cycles of transformations, passes into the artificial urban conditions of its substances, the global technogenic transformation of the human development, in which at the beginning of the current century being as a biosocial organism are not comprehensively reflected about half of the biomass of terrestrial animals and about a third in the documents of sustainable development, integral indicators of plant species cultivated by the society live. For Russia, a and data visualization models. relatively optimistic scenario of industrial and technological At the beginning of the XXIst century, with the development development is still preserved, since there are significantly more of convergent nano-, bio-, informational, cognitive and social than half of the biosphere resources on its territory, while the (i.e. NBIKS) technologies, a technogenic society is actively USA has 5% of biosphere forests and soils in agriculture [5]. transforming natural biological systems. The main developers of More than 150 thousand new toxic chemicals enter the such technologies are transnational corporations that produce biosphere annually; the effect of most of them on the animals, genetically modified living organisms on a commercial basis and plants, and humans has not been studied at all [4]. All these distribute them. Global business players are deliberately technological innovations adversely affect the person himself, expanding technogenicity in the forms of creating biological life, which, along with other diseases, has led to the growth of the involving in the market economy and reproduction of the disease “cancer” by three times in the last two decades of the new technosphere other agrarian societies which are in technical and century [5]. And here we are already dealing with the socio- technological dependence on the world developed countries. techno-natural laws of changing the biology of the modern Thus, there is a globalization of the industrial-technogenic model world, which requires immediate visual reflection in order to of development, and with it a qualitative change in the natural consciously approach models of market utilitarian-pragmatic environment. progress, to search for new patterns and ways to prevent The new socio-philosophical interdisciplinary concept of the apocalyptic development scenarios. The laws of changing the socio-technological globalization developed and substantiated by social world are still subject to the financial interests of business the author allows us to consider in a unity the interconnected owners who exploit the wealth of nature. Therefore, the changes in the society (and its economy), the biosphere and man in propaganda of the social and environmental responsibility of the context of the transition of life into a technospheric-urban technocratic political and economic elites only veils the selfish environment. Such understanding of planetary changes provides interests of business. opportunities for the active study of modern socio-technogenic Among the brightest global socio-techno-natural processes transformational processes in the complex by all sciences – social, of our time, requiring the immediate development of visual technical, and natural. More generally, an interdisciplinary models, an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, caused by the approach to global and local processes will make it possible to plan activities of the American oil corporation, should be given as an programs for the safe socio-economic and socio-techno-natural example. However, such a man-made accident led to a cooling development of the world and Russia [10]. of the warm North Atlantic Gulf Stream and a decrease by one The all-round expansion of artificial things made by third of its capacity [21], which turned into a sudden cooling in mankind, as shown in the studies of Professor E.S. Demidenko the winter period in Western Europe in 2011-2012. In order to and the author of the article, leads to a change in the centuries- conceal the size of the crime, a new life form created on the basis old biological evolution of life in the biosphere to the post- of information technology was released into the bay called the biosphere one - without the biosphere as a self-developing artificial bacterium Cynthia, which is capable of self- system. Among the main global “markers” of the change in the reproduction. After the absorption of petroleum organics, the cell direction of the evolution of life on the Earth, it is necessary to began to penetrate into the bodies of marine fauna, as well as note the most significant marker for its predictive development - people swimming in the bay, which led to ulcerations on the skin this is the destruction and even death of the biosphere as a global and diseases of the internal organs that were difficult to treat [10]. life system in which humanity developed [5]. The biosphere is The ways of spreading new artificial life in the ocean are poorly deprived of the woven variety of living matter that has developed studied, but cases of its presence in the Mediterranean and Black over 4 billion years: plants, animals, microorganisms, soil cover. Seas have already been recorded. Visual modeling of the socio- It is evidenced by the loss of more than two-thirds of the world techno-natural processes will allow us to analyze both the goals forests, the facts of going into oblivion over half of living and the conflicting consequences of technogenic organisms in the XX-XXIst centuries, as confirmed by the transformations. infographics of the living planet index (Fig. 4). 4. Conclusion The issue of choosing a safe development of life, implemented on the basis of constructing conceptual and strategic models of visualization, should not be discounted from a technologically developing society. To overcome negative technocratic trends, it is necessary to use all the tools of information technology, conduct interdisciplinary fundamental research by the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences with the support of the State Duma and the Government of Russia with the involvement of regional science communities. On the basis of such scientific integration and construction of visual models, proposals for the UN will be carried out with the aim of solving the problem of sustainable development of the society Fig. 4. Global Living planet index from 1970 to 2014 and the biosphere. (according to the data of WWF.Living Planet Report – 2018). The average number of 16,704 populations, 405 species 5. Acknowledgments monitored worldwide was reduced by 60%. The white line shows the index value, and the shaded areas are the statistical I express gratitude to the professor Doctor of Philosophy E.S. significance of the trend (from 50 to 67%) [20] Demidenko, head of the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Philosophical School of Research on the Social and Technogenic Development of the World, Socio-techno-natural Processes and Changing the Evolution of Life, to my scientific adviser, for the [14] Kolesnik, T.A.: Technocratic nature of education in the cooperation and help in choosing the direction of scientific market. Economy in the conditions of social and research. technogenic development of the world: proceedings of the 2nd International Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference on 6. 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