Noospheric economy as a planetary active economic sphere of civilization development

Anthropogenic development of civilization, the increased strength of the economy, more and more manifest the negative trends of globalization have emerged as major factors of biosphere constants’ changes of our planet. Competition for resources has intensified, an unprecedented bundle of world according to income has happened, a systemic crisis of Human spirituality as a result of his alienation from Nature has appeared. As a result, humanity appeared to be under the threat of civilization crisis, and reached, figuratively speaking, its “growth limits”. In the XXI century there can already arise conditions in which the further development of human civilization would be impossible1.

All the foregoing, indicates that the world is under the conditions of objective transfor- mational imperatives – the need to move to implementation of the new planetary noosphere paradigm of its social and economic development – ensuring of the harmonization of macro system “Nature – Man – Society”, where the Man and the Nature become the value and intrinsic value of social reproduction taking into account international civilization laws, standards, principles and trends, but with preservation of the natural history of their spiritual and material culture.

The supporters of noosphere doctrine, based on Vernadsky’s theory on the noosphere, believe that the survival of civilization, the preservation of the biosphere is possible only with the harmonization of relations between human society and nature as a whole on the basis of global thinking and responsibility of the

Man and his mind for the livelihoods of people in the world, embodied in the relevant socio-economic management practices. In other words, the solution of problems of noospheric social reproduction must proceed from the understanding that the people are included not only in socio-economic, sociocultural, scientific, technical, socio-historical, but in the evolutionary – genetic planetary (global) noospherical process. The more fully rational abilities, intellect, culture and spiritual qualities of the individual are developed, the more responsible and creative he applies to the case, the deeper and more systemic he predicts long-term consequences of his actions on nature and society, the more complex problems he raises, and may solve to improve his livelihoods .

Noting the importance of developing people’s abilities, their intellectual, cultural and spiritual qualities, it is important to bear in mind that these qualities as a product of non-material production in comparison with the material culture are not only eternal, but consistently collected and are the foundation on which it is possible to have a new quality improvement of the material and non-material production. This classical circumstance was essentially disregarded when discussing the most important components of the country’s wealth. Meanwhile, it is the mind as essential and cognitive human activity, the ability to think logically and creatively in his activities and own life that helped him, having separated and systematized work, to master new ways of farming and increase productivity, find the application of oil reservoirs which did not bring any benefit to mankindfor thousands of years, and identified the leading force of scientific and technological progress. Due to the mind the Man invented new ways of transportation and distribution of goods, a new strategy of behavior in the market, new opportunities for communication between people. You can endlessly enumerate the objects created by the creator – the mind, which remained unused until the Man because of his cognitive activity, the ability to think logically and creatively saw something help full in them.

The mind increases the cost of products, introduces new resources into circulation. Its significance for social development is no less significant. Even Adam Smith had given many proofs in favor of that prudence of an ordinary person leads not to anarchy, as it was commonly thought, but to the birth of a new order. Therefore, a clear Noosphere thinking is the first duty of every intelligent man and society, because society is not something given by nature, it is the result of human livelihood. It is the human mind that creates society.

The mind organizes the entire system. It promotes innovation, improves the organization of socio-economic activities, increases production efficiency and makes needs satisfaction better. It helps to predict and plan for not only the immediate, but also for the long term. The mind can coordinate the interaction of all elements of the system: finance, information, energy, materials, equipment, manufacturers, resellers and consumers. With its help, people can define the policy objectives and the means of their achievement and thereby improve its application.

The mind is subordinate to company’s targets whose life is longer than human life. Much in this world depends on the forecast and deliberate intervention in the course of events – the use of the mind increases the probability of success in the selection of program-target methods of government management of social and economic processes.

The undisputed and growing evidence and “tangibility” of intellectual activity, especially its nucleus – the area of the mind (noosphere) as a perennial and intensively reproducible global (national and international) resource of intellectual activity and a driving force for sustainable socio-economic development necessitates the use in a system of categorical social reproduction a special term “Noospheric economy”. Its understanding objectively follows from the role and significance of the noosphere in the civilization process, the essence of which in its reproductive paradigm is to ensure the reproductive harmonization of macro-system Nature – Human – Society and maintaining it for future generations.

The term “Noospheric economy” is interpreted by us as a reasonable environmental and man-saving method of social reproduction of nature, people, goods, works and services by improving the system of corporate innovation planetary industrial relations and largely postindustrial productive forces with the relevant performance criteria: creative development of the human person, the maximum employment of working population and the growth of human longevity, preservation of nature for future generations, the qualitative growth of GDP and its reasonable distribution among the relatively rich and poor members of society .

It should be noted that Noospheric economy as a reality in one way or another has been functioning at all stages of development of productive forces and production relations. It determined the level and pace of technological progress, economic growth and the level of civilization in general, and in fact – a global conflict of civilization development of man and mankind on our planet as a socio-economic and biological phenomena. It passed several stages of its formation on the typological classification of the level of development of productive forces and production relations – primitive, slave, feudal, Asiatic, capitalist, but by the typological characteristics of the level of development of productive forces and technology it has recorded itself as a pre-industrial, industrial and postindustrial ways (social economic system) of social reproduction.

At all stages and in all ways (systems) of social reproduction the Man’s mind appeared in various forms of knowledge and incarnated in the man’s intellect, his professionalism (human development) as well as in technologies and technological lifestyles of STP. In fact, the Man’s mind and its planetary accumulation ensured development of the world’s productive forces, technology and industrial relations, which altered the ways of national social reproduction, its targeted priorities and values.

However, despite the seeming evidence and understanding of the place and the role of the noosphere in civilized socio-economic development now, this main economic factorimperative remains outside of conscious inclusion in industrial relations, particularly through the use of commodity-money relations and its direct cost evaluation. Meanwhile, as the essential phenomenon the mind, being accumulated in various forms of knowledge – science, education, information, technology, culture, spirituality, psychology and others, increasingly “claims” about the need to “isolate” (“dispose”) itself from a purposeful activity and directly fix itself in the quality of specific intangible product – the valuable asset of noosphere (intellectual) value.

A distinctive feature of the noospheric economy is growing knowledge-intensity of GDP and implementation of the continuity of education through the growth of its technology contents a priority human need. Continuity of education through improving its knowledge-intensity provides the growth of workforce quality and the possibility of long-term growth of the organic structure of production and, consequently, increasing its intensification, innovation and efficiency through STP. Reproduction in the relationship of scientific knowledge and science education as a commodity is a priority process of civilization development.

A characteristic feature of the noospheric economy is the recognition of the fact that along with the creation of a new product – knowledge the role of diffusion and transfer of the mind increases. This implies increased attention to the “distribution on world knowledge” (the spheres of the mind) and “national innovation systems”, which are the actuators and structures of the planetary mind in the economy as a commodity.

Based on the content set forth and the target function of socially oriented noospheric economy, it is clear that it is worthwhile to consider social reproduction as the unity not on the two (I, II), as it is now generally accepted, but as the three combined units:

I C 1 + V , + M , = П , ;

II C 2 + V 2 + M 2 = П 2 ;

III C3 + V3 + M3 = П3; у C + V+M=П where: I is the production of means of production, including natural resources; II – production of consumer goods, including gifts of nature; III – production of man as a social product (intelligence, knowledge, science, education, culture, services); С, V, М, П – reproduction of respectively permanent funds, variable funds, surplus product and gross national product.

This very approach to the grouping of sectors of social reproduction allows describing the socio-economic some development as a reasonable, stable and interconnected innovative process of funds accumulation and reproduction of material and intangible product.

As it follows from the three sector schemes of social reproduction departments, in which the Noospheric paradigm of socio-economic development is organically linked, the need for a continuous and balanced functioning of these units providing reproduction of social product and funds accumulation, is obvious. However, the role and place of consumption funds and savings here is not entirely clear, if we approach these categories from traditional positions.

Typically, consumption, as well as accumulation is associated with material wealth as society’s end in itself and is opposed to accumulation, by analogy with Karl Marx’s approach to it, who considered consumption as anything that does not serve the cause of capital. “He cannot accumulate – he wrote – who eats all his income, instead of spending a good part of it to hire additional productive workers, yielding more than they are worth” (Marx K., Engels F., Collected works. Vol. 23. P. 602). And this situation is quite true for the capitalist social reproduction, if you do not take into account the importance of eternal and historically specific relationship of economic and social progress of society in general in social reproduction.

If consumption is considered in terms of our interpretation of the noosphereic social production, where the real wealth of society should be the person's identity, consumption is the accumulation of variable funds in all spheres of social production. It is the consumption as the accumulation of variable funds that is a prerequisite and condition of the reproduction of basic ratio of noospheric reproduction – on occasion, first of all the development of the mind of the people themselves, not only on the production of material goods, which is lawfully indicated now by many researchers (Elmeev V.Ya. Reproduction of society and man. M., 1988. P. 187; Subetto A.I. Research economy at the beginning of the XXI century – to new grounds of synthesis of economic science in the noospheric system. SPb – Kostroma, 2009. P. 78).

Hence it follows the need of understanding the consumption as all that serves the accumulation of variable funds, but, naturally, “dies” in the development of human personality, his intelligence, health and longevity, and secondly, the new interpretation of the theoretical and methodological aspects of savings and assets.

We proceed from the fact that a specific of accumulation category, on the one hand reflects something in common characteristic of all the concrete – historical (specific) public enterprises, and on the other – its verity is in a certain type (kind, method) of socio-economic activities. At the same time complexity of this problem lies in the fact that it is the accumulation that objectively “forms” the unity of the natural material and immaterial bases of the progressive way of life, but our consciousness, thought and mind is not always able to reflect, systematically cover the process and determine the appropriate forms to its socio-economic and environmental activities. Ignoring this possibility, the dialectics of its development, it is impossible to understand the “secret” of the objective natural birth of the true values of social production, and moreover to develop a more effective mechanism for its management.

The whole theory of society’s development, in our opinion, is the application of the theory of accumulation in its most consistent, complete, thoughtful, rich and concrete form to each of the stages of societal development.

The reported ideological and theoretical assumptions lead to a reasonable conclusion that one cannot try uncover accumulate by studying the individual, especially one of its manifestations, for example, through the “accumulation” funds, its relationship with the consumption fund, or the process of expanded reproduction of material wealth. This very side is not paid attention by many researchers. Singling out the “financial activities” as the only cornerstone of the common ground of social life, they do not take into account the proposition that the accumulation reflects the eternal and historically specific relation of “economic” and “social” progress of society in general, their inseparability.

The existing interpretations of “savings”, although some of the mare close to the truth, have to varying degrees, one methodological and substantive inaccuracy, consisting of the fact that they are united by the desire to reflect the natural-material manifestation of the accumulation process, rather than its substance. Accumulation here is not any category which systematically reflects the objectively flowing within society a continuous process of development of the means of production, public relations, intelligence, knowledge, consciousness, thinking, human and society culture, the harmonization of nature, society and man. Thus the most important thing is overlooked – it is the integrity of accumulation, within which there may be contradictions between the material and spiritual, economic and social, human and ecological processes of accumulation.

That is why it is important that in view of contemporary political-economic theory there constantly were aggregate content and the integrated result of the accumulation, the “end product” of which serve not only things, benefits, services, and not only the mind, knowledge, consciousness, thought, culture, but the man himself in his relations with other human beings and nature, i.e. society, nature and people in general.

In this sense, of the enduring methodological importance is the idea of Marx that “if we consider...the society as a whole, the outcome of the social process of production is always the society itself, i.e. the man himself in his social relations. Everything that has solid form, such as product, etc., appears in this movement only as a moment, as fleeting moment” (Marx K. and Engels F. Collected works. Vol. 46. Part 2. P. 222).

Therefore, understanding of the internal dialectics of accumulation, the subject of the forces application and the product of which is nature, society and people are indispensable for a correct interpretation of its essence. In this regard, the accumulation in the noospheric economy is not something that is “close”, “near” or “above” the social production or the productive forces or the production relations, or man or his final labor results, but all these together. It is first of all a form of synergistic existence of “socio-economic matter”, it provides its self-movement, as a biosocial process, a systematic basis, material and spiritual synergetic driving force of a natural socio-economic development of society.

In the politico-economic sense today, it is important and necessary to consider accumulation in the system of social reproduction as a process of accumulation of progressive post-industrial human (planetary) industrial relations implicated in the harmonious socioeconomic development of the triad “Nature – Man – society”. Its material and spiritual basis is a man of work, its source is scientific work in all areas of socio-economic activities.

Based on the conceptual provisions of the holistic nature of accumulation in the postindustrial noospheric economy it is important to define an adequate general socio-economic form of its functioning. Moreover that, in essence, for the considered type of economy a scientific universal functional social-economic form has not yet been identified, although when considering the nature of accumulation, as well as in the presented diagrams and matrices of three-sector model of the reproduction process one can trace the objective possibility of use of such categories as “funds” as a functional social economic form.

The validity of this approach makes us study the problems of capital intensity of production in full intensification and innovative production. This category allows you not only to establish and express a common link and hierarchy of objectives, sources, factors and forms of savings in the noospheric economy, but also to create a possibility to carry out the construction of a system of planned management of activities efficiency in all spheres (economic and social) as well as regional, sectoral and enterprise levels mainly through funds-economic methods of management.

To make this opportunity real, we should, above all, rethink the existing theoretical heritage of understanding of the category of funds, determination of their socio-economic content. Typically, researchers concerned with the funds, reduce their content to the individual material elements of the productive forces, more precisely, only to the so-called objective factors of social production - the means of production in the form of productive assets (fixed and circulating) and major non-productive assets. There is no unity in the definition of these categories as well. There is no interpretation of “generic”, general category of funds neither in textbooks, nor in economic dictionaries, scientific literature, encyclopedias.

The conceptual interpretation of the funds, in our view, can be given, if it is approached by analogy with the conceptual interpretation of the capital, while abstracting from the common assertion that the “productive assets and capital are the real media, respectively, of the socialist and capitalist relations of production” which confuses the essence of funds as a socioeconomic category.

Only natural resources, means of production and people can be universal real carriers of any mode of production and the type of accumulation. Funds as well as capital are the socio-economic form of accumulation by their socio-economic nature of particularly indus- trial relations, which are represented in these and other accumulated real elements and give them a specific social character. In this respect, Marx noted: “The Capital is not a thing, but a certain, social, owned by specific historical formation of society relation of production, which is represented in the thing and give this thing a specific social character” (Marx K. and Engels F., Collected works. Vol. 25. Part 2. P. 380).

By analogy with this definition of capital we can express socio-economic content of the funds: funds is not a thing, but a definite social relation of production, which is represented in the thing and gives this thing in the noospheric socially oriented economy its social character. At this interpretation the funds as opposed to capital for its socio-economic essence exclude person’s estrangement from the real factors of production, and maintain social justice based on the totality of scientific work, equivalent to sharing the results of labor and conservation attitudes toward nature and man.

Funds, in our opinion, by their material composition should be different from the capital quantitatively. The difference should be up not to include in its composition the labor force, which is currently the case, but the fact that this category, by contrast, included along with material factors, not only manpower, but the employee as its labor resource media.

This requirement stems organically from the considered essence of accumulation in the noospheric economy. It should be noted that in practice for labor collectives now it is more important and necessary the desire to have in their composition, not only manpower, but the worker as a person creatively and actively participating in the production process. Moreover, the composition of the funds, based on the considered essence of accumulation, should include not only labor, financial, information, energy resources and the means of production, but also natural resources. In other words, funds should reflect the relations of production in the social reproduction of noosphere economy to the entire accumulation of national wealth.

The inclusion of labor and natural resources together with the means of production in the funds is crucial to improve efficiency in the noosphere economy. They allow implementing real economic calculations at all hierarchical levels and in all spheres of activity. They really can induce regions, businesses, individual producers to seek beneficial result not at the least cost to make a profit, that characterizes the essence of capital, but while avoiding any wastage of resources (funds) for more newly created value (income), the conservation of nature for future generations. This is a fundamental difference from the capital, because the comparison of all the newly created value (income) with funds (resources) of companies or the region will provide an objective comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of each participant in production.

However, to justify the funds as a form of savings in the noospheric economy it is equally important to understand that they, like capital, are the movement of value, but not a thing at rest. In the process of accumulation the funds commit a continuous motion – rotation, assuming constant connection to the value of renewable resources, production conditions and the employee. It has three stages that can be schematically represented as follows:

ТР ТР1

Д – Т СП … П … Т¹ ← … Д¹ … Т¹ СП¹ _← ПР ПР¹

where: Д, Д1– money; T, Т1 – goods; TP, TP1 – human resources; СП, СП1 – means of production, ПР, ПР1 – natural resources.

For the normal turnover of funds its consistency and continuity is important. If the movement of funds is delayed on the first phase, there can be formation of treasures, and inflation of the cost (money) that obstructs the flow of production of goods and services; if it happens on the second phase, not functioning physical factors will always be at one extreme, and unemployed workers at the other; and if it happens on the third –there will be the accumulation of unsold products, creation of conditions for their deficits and formation of treasures.

The production of all newly created value and consumer value, as well as human development and improvement of industrial relations, i.e. accumulation of funds, is the leading trend of the cycle noospheric socio-economic development. The steady increase and qualitative improvement of the funds becomes a condition for the realization of this trend.

Funds in their motion tend to a constant change and inter conversion, which is caused by specific historical conditions of their operation, regardless of sectoral and territorial boundaries. This is in turn explained by the fact that the whole nature of accumulation in noospheric economy, as well as of the funds is defined by humanism to man and nature, the equivalent exchange of scientific work, civilization needs of every individual and society as a whole, and the exception of exploitation in the production relations. Consequently, if these traits do not get a steady trend to progress, it is totally unacceptable to argue about the functioning of the category of funds and especially their acquisition.

It should be noted that for the substantive characteristics of funds in terms of their movement, and to provide a more precise functional relationship with the existing classification of the main areas of social reproduction it is no less important to clarify their existing names relatively to independent core types. In particular, it would be rightfully to call the funds, which fulfill the circuit in the production of tangible products, economic funds, which in turn should be divided into basic economic funds and current economic funds. The funds which exercise the circuit in the production of social product (use-value that satisfies the nonmaterial (spiritual) human needs, that is the product of labor, received today in the so-called intangible (spiritual) sphere of production), should be advisably called social funds, which in turn should be subdivided into basic social funds and current social funds.

The terms “economic funds” and “social funds” are supposed to use in the meaning in which they cover all industry sectors of the so-called today tangible or intangible (spiritual) production. In this case the economic and social funds represent only relatively independent types of funds, functions of which are the content of relatively independent, but not separated with rigid boundaries from each other business sectors, providing social and economic development. They represent only specific functional forms of funds, which in their cycle do not only consistently take all three forms – money, production and com- modity, but also interact with each other, with the ongoing processes of integration, such as science, education, culture and production.

Interaction and integration of economic and social funds in the process of circulation occur only under the condition that their different phases, without delay, come not only from one to another only within the cycle of economic and social funds, but the funds in general, as it were, vertically, through their boundaries. This process can be summarized as follows:

ТР                                  ТР1

I    Д – Т ← СП … П … Т¹ … Д¹ … Т¹ ← СП¹

ПР                               ПР1

ТР                                  ТР1

II Д – Т ← СП … П … Т¹ … Д¹ … Т¹    _← СП¹

ПР                               ПР1

where I and II are the cycles of economic and social funds respectively.

This important aspect of the funds movement is not yet paid attention by the economic science. No accident that in our mind, especially the ordinary one, the results of commodity production in the material sphere are often absolutized and fetished, and intangible, spiritual sphere acts as its tax cosumer, dependent, spendthrift, sponger. Hence is the persistence of the residual approach in the socio-economic practices to the development of social sphere.

The aspects of the funds accumulation considered above do not only expand the representation on the content side of the noosphere reproduction. They to some extent are the key to improving the scientific methodology and techniques of the planetary and regional economic sphere.

Using the Noosphere philosophy of management in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, it is important to give up many hopelessly outdated, but still used dogmas that defined the life of the Soviet Union and ultimately led to its disintegration. For greater anti-crisis stability, ensur- ing dynamic growth, improving the whole life of our people it is necessary to start with the formation of the new – namely, noospheric philosophy and economic thinking, especially among the representatives of four major institutions of society – government, science, education and religion. However, it is equally important to review the subject of economic science and education, which can no longer be limited to the study of reproduction problems of only goods, works and services, and even more of capital. Science is designed to study human activity on the Earth in all entirety of its manifestations in all periods of biological cycle of the individual. This implies that economic science must include in its subject matter the knowledge of all other sciences and fields of activity, that is, to act as a synergic science that shapes people’s innovative, noospheric outlook, ability to think globally but act locally – in the interests of the country and the people. Noospheric thinking and actions require identifying a new criterion of economic effectiveness. Instead of the profit indicator, cost-effectiveness values, return, etc. calculated on its basis, the new criterion should be the indicator of revenue – the newly created value (GDP),with a scientific, rational distribution by uniform state standards and principles for all participants in the production: 33.(3)% of income (GDP) is a tax, 33.(3)% is payroll, 33.(3)% – fund for development (16-17% – depreciation and 16-17% – profit). At the same time it is necessary to change the system of accounting and statistical records, simplify taxes, reduce the tax burden, making it the same for all able-bodied (33.3% of revenue). Proceeding from the need to fill all three economic models with noospheric content, it is due to change the depreciation policy and pay policies, pricing, accounting and structure of production costs, banking, monetary and investment policies; all these should be linked to market valuation of income and GDP. Thus, the economy should be human and nature measuring system of market social reproduction.

The economic mechanism should ensure the transformation of capital into the category of “funds”, the strengthening the competitiveness of our economies in the global space, which implies a rejection of the use of principles such as reliance only on self-reliance, especially in science, large-scale import substitution, achieving a surplus at any cost, in particular, through the use of tariff protection.

In the future, through the development of socio-ecological-economic management mechanism it is due to reach the increase of morality in society: it must be such as to naturally decrease the levels of bureaucracy, social parasitism, dependency, economic raiding, especially the intellectual one. This mechanism is designed to greatly enhance the prestige of moral intelligence and productivity, to create conditions for full employment with decent pay levels and adequate pensions for people.

Anti-crisis economic model of life assumes priority intellectual accumulation, which should be reflected in legislation. To this thesis have become more substantial it is important to overcome the absolutization of a material dependence of people and the fetish of profits, money, object-proprietary form of production and accumulation, where people worshiping wealth, are not truly free agents and creators of social relations, but their role is indicated by faceless concepts of “factors”, “people”, “mass”, “officials”, when a person serves only to material production, adapting to it himself and the nature. Alas, today it is not the personality who dominates but the cult of power, money, benefits, positions, capital value, the show is run by the desire for social parasitism, occupation of property and money by raiding, fighting for power, for “plum job”.

From the standpoint of capitalist ideology the nature, scientific and technological progress, talent, intelligence, industrial relations, etc. are non-economic categories. Moreover, almost all social activities, in fact, are reduced to unproductive labor, to parasitism in relation to material production. This ideology defines the political and economic installation and operation of Byelarusian, Russian, Ukrainian politicians, public administrators, educators and others, in other words, the carriers, as they say, of common sense. However, as we have seen, the pragmatics of the first water are not given either to save the world nor change it for the better. And here it is to the point to recall the words of a genius scientist that the man “is the inevitable manifestation of a large natural process”, that “transforming his systemic nature, he at the same time transforms and develops the physical, intellectual and other intrinsic (noospheric. – P.N.) forces dormant in him” (V.I. Vernadsky. Scientific thought as a planetary phenomenon).