By Alexander Perepechko

Published on February 17, 2015

To be honest, I am late with this post because I was waiting for Obama’s 2014 State of the Union Address (delivered in 2015). In his speech, the President did not signify that his vision of the technosphere and anthropos had changed. He pointed out that fast economic growth combined with several new ecological regulations demonstrate the successful development of the technosphere. He repeated in fact one of last year’s key proclamations. In the 2013 State of the Union he declared that “we can make meaningful progress on [climate change] […] while driving strong economic growth” (2013). As for the anthropos, in the 2014 State of the Union Address the President praised the melting pot of cultural groups and expressed excitement about identity politics. He named new minority groups: religious, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. It seems as though the continuing reformatting of human society requires that more groups be created on various criteria. Glued together by the strength of the American work ethic and the scope of American dreams (State of the Union, 2014), a growing number of ever-changing, old and new, real and surrogate groups symbolizes the march of the human progress in the United States.

Based on our earlier analyses and this new text, we infer that these days development of the West is not the progress described by Kant – it is not a change for the better in terms of science, technology, and modernization. Progress does not increase exponentially. No exponential curve of economic growth or scientific development can continue indefinitely. In other words the technosphere has limits of growth.
Continue reading Why did Obama not find ways to reach consensus among clashing political elites? (Part 3) →