The Future as a Field of Responsibility: Challenges of Modern Civilization and the Search for a Spiritual Dimension

Annotation

This article examines humanity's fundamental aspiration to foresee and construct the future. The author analyzes the profound crisis of technogenic civilization, where the dominance of science and technology leads to a paradox: the accumulation of power is accompanied by a loss of control over consequences, generating environmental threats and risks associated with the development of artificial intelligence. The information society intensifies this tendency, blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual and turning knowledge into a commodity. The article identifies an anthropological crisis stemming from the loss of spiritual guidelines and the replacement of ethics with pragmatism. Among the global threats identified are nuclear war, ecological collapse, and digital inequality. The solution requires a transition to holistic, ecological thinking. Special attention is paid to the role of religion and ethics as necessary counterbalances to technogenic one-sidedness. Buddhism is considered a relevant alternative to Western consumerism, offering a path of mindfulness, non-violence, and the reduction of egoistic attachments. It is concluded that the future is not predetermined by technological dynamics but constitutes a field of ethical responsibility. Technological progress has no meaning without moral development. It is emphasized that the formation of spirituality requires sustained efforts in upbringing at all stages of education. The salvation of civilization is possible through a new «project of meaning,» entailing a rejection of unrestrained growth in favor of the values of life, compassion, and unity. True progress consists in the harmonious combination of reason, conscience, and responsibility towards future generations, where technologies do not replace humanity.

Keywords

• Technogenic civilization
• future
• religion
• Buddhism
• spirituality
• responsibility
• environmental crisis
• artificial intelligence
• ethics
• globalization
• mindfulness
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Acknowledgments

the work was carried out within the framework of the state assignment of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia «Comprehensive philosophical study of the phenomenon of the future in the traditional Buddhist picture of the world» (FZSN-2025-0004, registration number 125121914670-7) for the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Kalmyk State University named after B. B. Gorodovikov».

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