Historian explains who stalled technological progress and why

MINSK, 5 May (BelTA) – Russian historian, Director of the Institute for Systemic and Strategic Analysis Andrei Fursov explained who has been stalling scientific and technological progress since the 20th century and why in a recent episode of BelTA’s V Teme [On Point] project.  As the historian highlighted, such late 20th and early 21st-century innovations as computers, mobile phones, and the internet were actually conceived as far back as the 1930s and 1940s. “It is a proven fact: in the 1960s and 1970s, both the Western elite and the Soviet nomenklatura deliberately slowed down scientific, technological, industrial and economic progress. After all, the further uncontrolled development of such progress would have led to the emergence of social groups that could have challenged the established order in the Soviet Union. The same was true for the West,” he stressed.

According to the analyst, it was no accident that the Club of Rome was established in the late 1960s. “It was established by Americans, Western Europeans, and Soviet representatives. This club immediately set a goal of zero economic growth, essentially putting the brakes on economic progress. As a result, production growth rates fell, and labor productivity declined,” he said.

Andrei Fursov also pointed out that these innovations – computers, mobile internet, and phones – are directly linked to the tightening of social control over individuals. “Virtually all of them allow for stricter control over people. There were the second and third industrial revolutions. Then, Klaus Schwab came up with the idea of a Fourth Industrial Revolution, which drew criticism. Opponents pointed out that no industrial revolution is possible given the global economic growth rates of the 2000s and 2010s. Schwab’s response completely redefined what ultra-globalists mean by an ‘industrial revolution.’ He stated that the first three industrial revolutions are about what you do to the world, but the current industrial revolution is about what happens to you. In fact, what ultra-globalists are pursuing now is not an industrial revolution, but rather shifts that alter human biological nature to adapt it to the new post-capitalist system,” he explained.

At the same time, the historian noted that the Soviet system aimed to create a ‘New Man’ without altering human biological nature, but rather through the cultivation of high ideals. “The ultra-globalists have a different idea: to change human biological nature. It is no coincidence that people spoke of the end of human evolution and the beginning of the era of transhumanism. This implies a future of ‘superhumans’ and a biological mass that will be immersed in a virtual world. In this world, humans will exist as if in a kind of ghetto. Notably, according to ultra-globalist plans, a ghetto is not a fenced-off territory. It is a virtual world where a person remains confined, yet feels content,” Andrei Fursov stressed.