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The present article is devoted to social evolution both as a part of macroevolution and as a specific process that have led humanity to outstanding successes and heights (while creating in the meantime serious crises and major problems). The article examines important theoretical aspects of social evolution within the framework of a more general approach, which we call evolutionary studies. The authors give a definition of social evolution, examine its most important mechanisms, compare it with biological evolution, introduce the concept of social aromorphosis, and analyse the concept of unilinear and multilinear evolution. We show that only by considering the evolution as multilinear one can identify the major trends and patterns of social evolution and evolution in general. The authors view social evolution both as changes in a relatively local and not so long-term perspective and as a larger process that we call social macroevolution. In our understanding, social macroevolution is a special dimension of social evolution that encompasses a series of the most important and milestone transformations that have led to the emergence and development of the World System (and, accordingly, a theory that focuses on their analysis). The genesis of the World System and a number of its further changes are the key elements of the social macro-evolutionary process. Moreover, the emergence of the World System was not only the most important result of the entire previous course of social evolution, but also became, in a certain sense, the threshold beyond which it is absolutely necessary to distinguish social macroevolution as a special supra-social part of social evolution (i.e., the part that no longer relates to the level of only individual society). The main trends of macroevolution, such as the irreversibility of evolution, its particular direction, variability, are expressed both in the systemic features and in the transformations of the World System. The article was prepared as a part of the research work of the state task of the RANEPA.

The Social Impact of Computers should be read as a guide to the social implications of current and future applications of computers. Among the basic themes presented are the following: the changing nature of work in response to technological innovation as well as the threat to jobs; personal freedom in the machine age as manifested by challenges to privacy, dignity, and work; the relationship between advances in computer and communications technology and the possibility of increased centralization of authority; and the emergence and influence of artificial intelligence and its role in decision

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Russian Economies of Codes -- One. Before the Collapse: Programming Cultures in the Soviet Union -- Two. From Lurker to Ninja: Creating an it Community at Yandex -- Three. For Code and Country: Civic Hackers in Contemporary Russia -- Four. At the Periphery of the Empire: -- Five. Kazan Connected: -- Six. Hackerspaces and Technoparks in Moscow -- Seven. Siberian Software Developers -- Eight. E-Estonia Reprogrammed: -- Nine. Post-Soviet Ecosystems of IT -- Ten. Migrating Step by Step: -- Eleven. Brain Drain and Boston's "Upper-Middle Tech" -- Twelve. Jews in Russia and Russians in Israel -- Thirteen. Russian Programmers in Finland: Self-Presentation in Migration Narratives -- Contributors -- Index