Technologization of a modern person - the threat of identity
I think that each of us who reads these lines, understands well how deeply and comprehensively the technique has penetrated into our daily life, as well as how much its influence increases on the whole of human civilization, determining the vector of its development. Bringing with it new opportunities and prospects, technical progress creates new risks and threats.
Most often, such risks and threats are understood as all kinds of environmental and technological disasters directly related to technical progress. But, in my opinion and the opinion of many modern philosophers, there is another, a special kind of risk - existential risks (Existence is one of the basic concepts of existentialism, meaning the way of being of a human person). These are the risks associated with the direct penetration of modern technologies into the inner world of man. Penetrating that, they change the perception of the world by a person, change the usual picture of the existence of a human person.
The beginning of such threats was the emergence of industrial production. Since the advent of which began the widespread technologization of the labor process and the perception of man as a technological unit. The behavior and thinking of man, it became reduced more and more to the machine rhythm of production. The subsequent technological technological development of leisure only aggravated the situation, thus completing the formation of a special style of behavior and thinking of modern man, in which the technological (functional) approach is applied to all forms of human existence.
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Modern man, being both a manufacturer and consumer of technology, has become a kind of link in the technological chain. And this radically changed the idea of ​​human freedom. A huge number of new dependencies have appeared and now human survival, in addition to the natural needs of man, also depends on a huge number of technological devices (computer equipment, mobile phones, TVs, etc.) - from here and those forms of dependence about which it was told above. The threat in this situation is that technologism often replaces the natural manifestations of human nature. In a world where everything must be clearly and on time planned, designed and done, a person begins to look for technologies where there should be present - normal, natural communication, mutual understanding, etc. In such a world, a person consumes a lot of intellectual products on the topic: how to make friends, how to influence others, how to stop worrying, how to make a million, how to raise children and even how to become happy, etc. He is looking for “technology of success”, “communication technology”, “sex technology”, “decision-making technology”. Those. a person perceives himself as a kind of technical device that can be designed or reconstructed or programmed. On the one hand, this is a new manifestation of the freedom to create oneself. On the other hand, there is still some difference between “create” and “design”. Technology impact implies an algorithm that is suitable for all. Thus, the freedom to create oneself in a technized society appears rather as the freedom to follow the already existing standards and algorithms (or even worse - programs created by someone - this is almost voluntary slavery).
As a result, industrial structured production is the basic structure that influences the type of social relations. Features of production determine the peculiarities of behavior and thinking of people participating in it. Production, ultimately, sets the value system. Production brings to the fore the principles of "rationality, efficiency," the implementation of which most closely corresponds to the functioning of a machine, technical device. Formation of a person in such a system is associated with moments of rationalization, mastering useful knowledge and skills; and disciplining, that is, a kind of transformation of a person into a certain obedient robot, subordinate to the schedule, schedule, given to the program.
A society with such a system of values ​​that defines the image of a person as an “employee” and “tool” also makes human existence meaningless. The main reason for this is the further development of production technologies. Improving technology frees people from work. But work in modern society is the only thing that gives meaning to existence, the current society does not know any other meanings. This raises the following question: what remains of human life if one autonomous function after another is either captured by a machine or surgically destroyed and possibly genetically altered?
The man himself drove himself into a technological trap. Striving for freedom through building up his own domination over nature, society and himself, he cannot become free, since the instrument of liberation has become the source of the disappearance of freedom. Modern man can not conceive the concept of freedom except through increasing technical capabilities. Building up these opportunities creates new forms of dependence.
The further development of civilization only on the basis of automatically progressing progress in science and technology means only the buildup and aggravation of already existing problems. A new understanding of the existing reality is needed, suggesting a new answer to the question of what a person is. And from whether we will be able to see ourselves in some other quality, irreducible to being a cog in a machine, the direction of further civilizational development depends.
Most often, such risks and threats are understood as all kinds of environmental and technological disasters directly related to technical progress. But, in my opinion and the opinion of many modern philosophers, there is another, a special kind of risk - existential risks (Existence is one of the basic concepts of existentialism, meaning the way of being of a human person). These are the risks associated with the direct penetration of modern technologies into the inner world of man. Penetrating that, they change the perception of the world by a person, change the usual picture of the existence of a human person.
The beginning of such threats was the emergence of industrial production. Since the advent of which began the widespread technologization of the labor process and the perception of man as a technological unit. The behavior and thinking of man, it became reduced more and more to the machine rhythm of production. The subsequent technological technological development of leisure only aggravated the situation, thus completing the formation of a special style of behavior and thinking of modern man, in which the technological (functional) approach is applied to all forms of human existence.
')
Modern man, being both a manufacturer and consumer of technology, has become a kind of link in the technological chain. And this radically changed the idea of ​​human freedom. A huge number of new dependencies have appeared and now human survival, in addition to the natural needs of man, also depends on a huge number of technological devices (computer equipment, mobile phones, TVs, etc.) - from here and those forms of dependence about which it was told above. The threat in this situation is that technologism often replaces the natural manifestations of human nature. In a world where everything must be clearly and on time planned, designed and done, a person begins to look for technologies where there should be present - normal, natural communication, mutual understanding, etc. In such a world, a person consumes a lot of intellectual products on the topic: how to make friends, how to influence others, how to stop worrying, how to make a million, how to raise children and even how to become happy, etc. He is looking for “technology of success”, “communication technology”, “sex technology”, “decision-making technology”. Those. a person perceives himself as a kind of technical device that can be designed or reconstructed or programmed. On the one hand, this is a new manifestation of the freedom to create oneself. On the other hand, there is still some difference between “create” and “design”. Technology impact implies an algorithm that is suitable for all. Thus, the freedom to create oneself in a technized society appears rather as the freedom to follow the already existing standards and algorithms (or even worse - programs created by someone - this is almost voluntary slavery).
As a result, industrial structured production is the basic structure that influences the type of social relations. Features of production determine the peculiarities of behavior and thinking of people participating in it. Production, ultimately, sets the value system. Production brings to the fore the principles of "rationality, efficiency," the implementation of which most closely corresponds to the functioning of a machine, technical device. Formation of a person in such a system is associated with moments of rationalization, mastering useful knowledge and skills; and disciplining, that is, a kind of transformation of a person into a certain obedient robot, subordinate to the schedule, schedule, given to the program.
A society with such a system of values ​​that defines the image of a person as an “employee” and “tool” also makes human existence meaningless. The main reason for this is the further development of production technologies. Improving technology frees people from work. But work in modern society is the only thing that gives meaning to existence, the current society does not know any other meanings. This raises the following question: what remains of human life if one autonomous function after another is either captured by a machine or surgically destroyed and possibly genetically altered?
The man himself drove himself into a technological trap. Striving for freedom through building up his own domination over nature, society and himself, he cannot become free, since the instrument of liberation has become the source of the disappearance of freedom. Modern man can not conceive the concept of freedom except through increasing technical capabilities. Building up these opportunities creates new forms of dependence.
The further development of civilization only on the basis of automatically progressing progress in science and technology means only the buildup and aggravation of already existing problems. A new understanding of the existing reality is needed, suggesting a new answer to the question of what a person is. And from whether we will be able to see ourselves in some other quality, irreducible to being a cog in a machine, the direction of further civilizational development depends.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/127080/
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