Abstract
<jats:p>Modern humanities scholarship offers a wide range of approaches to the periodization and interpretation of the historical development of humankind. These approaches can generally be divided into two main directions. The first includes theories based on the idea of linear and progressive historical development, reflected in the works of Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, and Karl Marx. The second direction consists of non-linear interpretations of the historical process, presented in the works of Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky, Konstantin Nikolaevich Leontiev, Arnold Joseph Toynbee, and Oswald Spengler. These scholars interpret the development of civilizations as a complex, multi-variant, and often cyclical process. Both approaches possess considerable explanatory potential, yet each also has certain limitations. This article proposes an alternative approach to understanding the historical process based on the theory of human cultural evolution. The proposed framework does not reject earlier theoretical models but rather seeks to integrate and expand upon their key ideas. Within this concept, three successive stages of historical development are identified. The first stage — the two-wave stage — is associated with the formation of oral speech and the dominance of visual perception in the transmission of information. The second stage—the two-dimensional stage—is connected with the emergence of writing and the spread of textual communication. The third stage—the binary-machine stage is characterized by the development of digital technologies and the emergence of various digital assistants. The article analyzes the key features of each of these stages and compares them according to several criteria, including the political and legal structure of society, the socio-economic system, the sphere of culture and art, and the development of science, education, and enlightenment. </jats:p>