The Emergence of Two-Dimensional Science in the Information Society

It has increasingly been recognized that a number of countries, primarily the United States and other countries in the West, are at some unique historical crossroad of great significance. This crossroad is usually described as a transition from an industrial into postindustrial phase of society. It is compared in its significance with the previous major societal transition—the change from the pre-industrial into industrial society. Although the transition into the industrial society occurred in most Western countries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most of the world today is still characterized by the pre-industrial society.