Each era of society makes its own conceptual framework for development, defines a paradigm. Alvin Toffler defined the stages of human history as three waves: the first wave is the agrarian civilization (10 thousand years ago); the second wave is the industrial revolution, which, as a result, formed the industrial society (300 years ago); the third wave is the beginning of the new civilization. N.D. Kondratiev characterized the dynamic processes taking place in the society by dividing them into evolutionary (irreversible) and wavy (reversible). The role of scientific and technological innovations is defined in the cyclic, i.e., wavelike nature of the changes. Pitirim Sorokin also noted the cyclic nature of social and technological changes. It marked one of the first ways of transformation of the industrial society and laid the foundations of the theory of innovation in the socio-cultural sphere. Daniel Bell introduced the concept of "post-industrial society" and described the transformation taking place in the second half of the 20th century as the third technological revolution. Basing on D. Bell's studies, Inozemtsev identified three periods of development of the society in accordance with the types of activities: pre-economic (pre-labour activity), economic (purposeful activity - work); post-economic (creativity). The concept of N.N. Moiseev is based on environmental, noosphere characteristic. He considers the development of modern society in the context of a society based on collective intelligence. However, he notes that the rapid development of information technology is a revolutionizing innovation, but it also gives rise to new threats. The Modern School of Russian Cyclism formulated the concept of the future of the world and ways to reach it. It is based on the cyclic patterns of genetic dynamics of the society and the civilized approach to the past, present and future of the humanity. M. Castells and C. Kelly identified the emergence of a new dominant social structure - the network society, new economy - informational/global and new culture - real virtuality. Thus, the analysis of the key concepts defining the paradigm of modern development has led to the following conclusions: first, the wavelike cyclic nature of human development paradigm defines its characteristic paradigm of individual and social being; second, the paradigm of modern social development primarily combines the characteristics of a large complex organization of status communities, signs of a new type of socio-economic system and culture, and the assignment of the phenomenon to its historical time; third, the positive aspects of the transition to a new stage of development are expressed in the trends of humanization and socialization of economy, manifested in a combination of objective needs of the society with personal interests and development of person's artistic and creative activity; fourth, the paradigm of modern social development is at an early stage of formation, but today we can affirm that modern society is an integral socially oriented humanistic society based on interaction with nature, whose determining factor is the collective mind and rational human activity.