BADANIA NAD EWOLUCJĄ WSPÓŁCZESNEGO ŚWIATA. INSPIRACJE W KONCEPCJACH LECHA W. ZACHERA.

The inspiration for the research undertaken by the authors was the thoughts and ideas found in the scientific output of the late Lech W. Zacher. At one of the scientific conferences, we had the honor of hearing for the first time the speech of this distinguished scientist. The paper delivered by the Professor dealt with many contexts of the evolution of the modern world. According to the scientist's opinion, techniques and technology are changing the whole world and each of us. The future is fraught with various states of uncertainty and a significant risk of self-destruction of the world as we know it. It is up to humans to cope with the growing number of problems. The article is divided into two parts, which are closely related. Its first part presents an assessment of economic changes in the world economy between 2000 and 2020. The study formulates a hypothesis, according to which the information technology revolution, as well as institutional and legal changes and the rise of meaning of transnational corporations have led to the activation of the process of disintegration of the existing world economic order. The study assumes that the tumultuousness and the multitudinousness of the phenomena at that time made it much more difficult to control economic processes, especially from the position of national economies. In the second part of the article, the authors present and explain the new geopolitical system taking shape in the world, which is a derivative of the economic changes described earlier. According to the authors, the current state of knowledge and observations of socioeconomic phenomena in the world allow us to formulate a thesis according to which the digital and technologized world described for many years by L.W. Zacher is becoming increasingly chaotic, fluid and unpredictable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]