Sociodemographic aspects of scientific and technological progress: Attitude and opinions of Russians

In this article the author, using examples from the recent past on data of the all-Russian polls, remarks on changing human environment innovations, which provide scientific and technical progress. The article investigates the impact assessment of the results of scientific and technical achievements, positive and negative predictions of the effects of an increasingly wide application of high-tech products in everyday life. A comparative sociological analysis of the studies' results, conducted in Russia and foreign countries regarding the impact of progress on humanity, is shown. The author's conclusions are presented: Russians refer to the achievements of scientific-technical progress as positive, but not so optimistic as, for example, Americans. The respondents are afraid of the intervention of new technologies in natural evolutionary and genetic processes, substitution of human relations to relations of order "technology and people", the proliferation of military equipment in civilian life. The author pays special attention to the role of women in environmental issues, which exhibits a strong response to the threats of environmental pollution and, as a rule, more critically perceive the environmental situation