Abstract. The informational essence of civilizations and the process of globalization requires clarification of the concept of information. The difference between information generated by human society and all other types of information is shown. Changes in the environment and the increase in the planet’s population have led to a new reality to which all civilizations are forced to adapt. Globalization is no different from the self-organization of civilizations, but has a planetary rather than a local character. The fractal structure of civilizations and the process of globalization is considered, which has greater adaptive capabilities in comparison with non-fractal systems. Fractality imparts order to information about the experience of self-preservation of society, stored by civilization, due to which information is more firmly stored in memory and easier to retrieve from it.
Key words: globalization, civilizations, information, self-organization, BRICS, fractals.