Expansion of the Sociocultural Continuum: Existential Challenges of the Future in the Context of Axiology

Futures studies currently take into account the principles of equality and tolerance, which have formed the basis for the postmodern intellectual space, and are aimed to critically examine the status of humans, their place in the world and the outward appearance they will have in the predicted future. The inclusion of actors of the natural world and the sphere of artificial intelligence in the sociocultural continuum pushes us to revise the values that make up the axiological core of civilization. The revision of the humanistic ideal and the anthropocentric worldview, in its turn, prompts us to rethink the norms of law, politics and human existence in general. Projects of the future propose building systems that ensure equality of value attitudes for all intelligent beings, all living beings and some non-living beings that have significance. The ideal image of a human is thus supplemented with non-human characteristics, which leads to the conclusion about its anti-humanistic orientation. Equality of the extended circle of agents of axiology holds the pitfalls of creating new inequalities, and the place that humans will occupy in the new hierarchy of values is the existential challenge of the future. Research tools characteristic of micronarratives proved rather ineffective when applied to the problems on a universal human scale. Micronarratives do not take into account the predicted risks following the endowment of non-human actors of axiology with agency. Research conducted at the level of cultures and civilizations gravitates towards the classical approach: establishment of cause-and-effect relationships, immersion in a cross-cultural context, and maximum generalization of individual positions when answering essential questions. The plasticity of the axiological space makes it possible to promptly create scenarios of the future that include the challenges of tomorrow in human existence.