Lecture
A person is too complex to be considered in one "information projection". And yet, despite the mountains of literature, homo informativus is not well understood.
A person is immersed in information in any of his hypostasis - genetic, physiological, mental, social, space. It is surprising that the manifestations of higher forms of human activity associated with consciousness correlate with lower forms of vital activity and even with manifestations of such inorganic phenomena as quantum and gravitational fields, physical vacuum (Nalimov V.V., etc.). Therefore, to understand the person information is useful to know the informational basis of his life.
One of these bases is protein biosynthesis from DNA molecules (DNA → protein). The "technology" of translation (recoding) of DNA nucleotides into a protein has been worked out by nature for so long that the efficiency of a protein translator achieved is admirable. Broadcasting is the same information process. Not a single "early" anthropic translation technology (linguistic, computer) can be compared in efficiency with an organic translator. How did the "unreasonable" nature in peak of the rational man manage to create such a translator? Isn't the meaning introduced by translation and corresponding language conventions into ordered sequences of DNA and protein polymers, a product of not regular, but random relations between nucleotides in DNA molecules, between nucleins and amino acids in protein molecules?
The phenomenon of chance, perceived at first by natural scientists and philosophers as a result of ignorance of necessity (case is "a complex of complex causes" (A. Poincaré), "case is the appearance that God accepts to remain incognito" (J. Cocteau)) has acquired the status of reality in the physics of the microworld and thermodynamics, genetics, systems engineering, computer science, and others. M. Eigen (Eigen M. "Self-organization of matter and evolution of biological macromolecules", 1980.) believes that although evolution began with random events, the DNA nucleotide code as a language has nventsiya did not come at the expense of only one chance. Eigen's understanding of the origin of the DNA code is a probabilistic choice according to the stability criterion of one of the possible alternatives for “cooperative pairing” of nucleotide bases. The choice of exactly the alternative nature that we observe in the living cell is a matter of chance as a combination of complex interactions of specific enzymes (from the standpoint of biochemistry), specific forces (from the standpoint of biophysics), and non-enzymatic nucleicine interactions. If predetermined interactions were absent, then language conventions between DNA and protein could emerge from their random combinations and gain a foothold as a result of natural selection based on the principle of information value. The selected linguistic convention of the genetic code on the value information scale probably possessed a greater “selective value” compared to competing conventions. We suppose such a presumption is legitimate, as legitimate resultant “man-law” correspondences are valid on many of their original random combinations (As a true scientist, Eigen cautiously does not exclude the possibility that his hypothesis of a random start of translation is valid, and warns of the need to accumulate empirical data for convincing evidence.). Randomness, probabilistic choice is not characterized by a lack of experimental data, but by the objective stochasticity of statistical relationships.
Example 1. A child faces a probabilistic choice of a language convention before choosing a native language. In which language he first utters "mom", depends on the case as a set of complex reasons for its origin, movement in space relative to a random habitat in which he once (a moment in time) begins his language self-study. It may turn out (again by chance) that there will be several such language conventions (native languages) in a child.
Example 2. The randomness of the beginning of translation in the understanding of Eigen has an analogy in computer science in the development of translators for programming systems. The same programming language operator as a sequence of characters of this language in different translators can correspond to different binary sequences of computer code. The reason is the free will of the author of the translator. After all, the translator is the same program. How many authors - so many programs.
Despite the probable probable genesis, the nucleotide sequences in the DNA molecules are nonrandom, which is easily detected by modern chemical methods. Nucleotides in DNA helices follow each other in a specific order for each organism (the mechanism of heredity), but not for a population of organisms. In the population, i.e. on average, in all organisms of the same species, this order is random, but is naturally close to equally probable.
DNA nucleotide recoding into polypeptide protein structures (protein synthesis) is carried out according to the "DNA nucleotides → triplets (codons) nucleotides → informational RNA (i-RNA) → amino acid → polypeptides → protein (DNA - Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid; RNA - RiboNucleic Acid.)" Scheme . Here the diversity of nucleotides is 4 (the volume of the alphabet of the quaternary genetic DNA code). Each triplet has a length of 3 nucleotides and is nothing more than a DNA molecule, a genetic coded message - a codon; accordingly, the triplet-codon diversity is 4 3 = 64. Of the 64 codons, only 20 are used in the next translation stages - in terms of the alphabet of amino acids involved in protein synthesis (According to some, 22 amino acids are involved in protein synthesis, and possibly more, we take for definiteness 20.). And the variety of protein structures synthesized from 20 amino acids from through polypeptide chains of a length of hundreds to thousands of molecules, according to some estimates (Gukhman VB "Informatics in the system of philosophical evidence", 1998) has a value of about 10,130 ... 10,100 . Even if a small fraction of these structures is really valuable for life, their diversity is enough for each biological individual (including every human being ) within its species to be as unique as the unique melodies composed by the composers from just 7 tones, 5 semitones and 3-5 octaves of the music staff, as unique literary works, composed of the final alphabetic alphabets.
The apparent complexity of a human body, like any biosystem, is inherited through a genetic program. Having once studied the results of the work of this program (and even better, its own), it is possible with a high degree of confidence to predict the structure and functionality of any future physical person. Consequently, a bodily informational person is not complicated, his internal bodily information is replicated in his ilk, and as this information is cognized in individual test specimens we can recognize it indirectly in all others. In this sense, a human body can be said to be objective.
It is quite another thing - a spiritual person. It is self-programmed by its (and nobody else's!) Program for generating information in the presence of the medium. Self-programming (self-organization and self-study) is unique, not replicable, unpredictable - this, we believe, is the essence of the personality's uniqueness and the inoperability of the analogy method applied to spiritual man. The degree of perfection of the program for generating information, the development of the thesaurus and its knowledge base, the degree of activity of knowledge depend, first of all, on the intensity of information metabolism and the information content of the environment. Incomparably less affected by the genetic program. In other words, the complexity of a spiritual person is mainly due to the informational complexity of the environment and the subjective program of information generation. Imagine a child at that wonderful age when knowledge does not mean it. Can something significant come to his mind? If he has reached maturity, but all his life he has been carefully guarded from the “bad influence of the street,” that is, the habitat, being completely isolated from it, can he come up with something worthwhile? And finally, what will happen to the mind of this unfortunate? Summary: a spiritual person is subjective.
The foregoing gives us reason to believe that the thesis about the behavioral simplicity of a person (G. Simon - see "topic 4, section 4.4.2"), if true, then for a human being, but not for a spiritual person.
The informational simplicity of proteins can be reduced to the informational simplicity of the genetic code, which is practically optimal for "mortal" information systems fighting for existence ("see topic 7, section 7.2"). Studies have shown (Ichas R. "Biological Code", 1971.) that, for all its merits, this code, which does not provide for separators between its code combinations (triplets), should be extremely vulnerable to the effects of interference derived from gene (enzyme) errors control the transcoding (transcription) of DNA molecules into m-RNA molecules. When decoding at least one erroneous triplet, a landslide “domino effect” occurs, leading to an error track covering the entire message (i-RNA molecule). And yet nature did it for the sake of the speed of the protein synthesis process. After all, each dividing symbol requires energy and time for its transmission. If we imagine that between two neighboring triplets there is one punctuation mark - the separator, then the total length of the mRNA molecule (with the same number of triplets) and, accordingly, the time of its synthesis will increase by one third. And taking into account the subsequent translation of i-RNA into a chain of amino acids, the total time of protein synthesis will increase by two thirds. Accordingly, the time of development of embryos and young cells, the time of regeneration of cells and organs will increase. Also, the energy costs of biosystems for protein synthesis should increase by 2/3. Plus, the material costs for the construction of dividers. In short, nature (or the Creator?) Was faced with a choice, and the choice was made in favor of the efficiency of the code, even to the detriment of its reliability - nature had to abandon the punctuation marks between triplets (codons). Is this the hidden primary reason for the unreliability of all those language codes that inherit the genetic code?
Nature's focus on the speed of the protein synthesis algorithm is also confirmed by the fact that several ribosomes (“polysome”), synthesizing the same polypeptide chains, are processed in parallel with one molecule of i-RNA. Moreover, outside the polysome, a single ribosome is inactive. Codons synonyms according to R. Ichasu can provide different speeds of assembly of a polypeptide chain. Finally, the objective function of thousands of gene-driven enzymes is the catalytic acceleration of chemical reactions.
So, the dilemma "either urgently or accurately" was resolved to the detriment of the decoding accuracy of the genetic code. How does nature protect it from damage, providing noise immunity and "operational reliability" of the entire protein biosynthesis system? To solve this problem, firstly, high-precision "circuit solutions" are used, minimizing the effect of noise and "software and hardware failures" on the genetic channel of communication. This is, first of all, a high thermochemical energy of genetic signals, which allows setting sufficiently high energy thresholds for their reception, minimizing interference from interference (“false alarms”). Doesn't this partly explain the high energy costs of a young growing organism in which protein is intensively synthesized? Secondly, hundreds of enzymes, among other management tasks, provide highly accurate synchronization of the subprocesses of reception and transmission of genetic signals, which minimizes the shear errors in reading triplets. Thirdly, whenever possible, redundancy (reservation) of codes and code messages is used. The latter is manifested in the pairing of nucleotides in the DNA molecule (double helix), in multiple transcription of i-RNA molecules, in polysomal translation of i-RNA into a polypeptide, in information redundancy of the third (last) nucleotide in most triplets, in the presence of synonyms of codons and synonyms of transport RNA (R. Ichas (A similar compromise between the efficiency of the code and its reliability is also used in information technology.)). On the whole, the reliability of a genetic code achieved as a result of evolution ensures the probabilities of translation errors according to various data at a very acceptable level of 10 -9 ... 10 -6 .
If nature had enough time to create reliable and fast-acting information bases of life, then why, in fact, the alphabet of the genetic code is limited to four rather than five characters? After all, the five-digit code is still "faster." Is there a pattern in this choice of nature related to the complex information quasioptimality of the fourfold code (which became known to science only in the twentieth century), or is it a game of chance? Wow case that entailed the choice of the optimal genetic code for biosystems! An important argument in favor of choosing the fourfold code as even could have been the need for an unambiguous (non-intersecting) "complementary instruction" in protein synthesis (M. Eigen). From these positions, binary and quaternary codes are preferable to ternary codes, which would be generally unsuitable for unambiguous complementary (necessarily paired) links between nucleotides. So for a combination of reasons, it turns out that the fourfold code is indeed optimal for biosystems. This is how to learn from the nature of the systems approach when designing new information systems - computer, communication, diagnostic, library, etc.!
Genetic triplets (codons, code combinations, messages) are the same (uniform) - their length is always three nucleotides. Why? After all, an economical (efficient) code is uneven. According to information theory, an uneven economical code degenerates into a uniform one with equal probability of using character codes in messages (Dmitriev, VI “Applied Information Theory”, 1989.). Signs of the genetic code - nucleotides that are included in DNA molecules. There are four nucleotides, which means that with equal probabilities of using each occurrence in codon messages should be about 1/4 (25%). It was noted above that the nucleotides in the DNA helices follow each other in a manner that is arbitrary for a population, but specific for each organism. At the same time, in each species of organisms (and even an individual organism) the quantitative ratio of nucleotides is specific, although it varies in frequency (frequency) in codons for each of the four nucleotides about 25% (18 ... 31%), which makes the true assumption that their interspecific equiprobability. At the same time, the experimental spread of the occurrence of most amino acids in proteins (0.03 ... 0.1) around the expected value of 0.05 (1/20) indirectly also supports the interspecific equally probable inclusion of nucleotides in DNA molecules. Given the abundance of species, interspecific universality of the code, the rigid statistical dependence of complementary nucleotides and the experimental results of statistical studies of the DNA composition of different organisms, it can be assumed that the distribution of nucleotides in the DNA molecules in all organisms is close to equally probable. This means that an economical genetic code should objectively be uniform .
Another question on this topic follows from the controversy of Christian creationism with evolutionism. It is known that when adapting, crossing and mutations, a new genetic material is not formed, the same genetic code is used in its unchanged form. From here, creationists conclude that the one-time creation of the genetic code by the Creator, the inviolability of the code for all times and the absence of species mutagenesis (B. Hobrink). Science also draws attention to the information redundancy of genetic codons (triplets) as a guarantor of the stability of the code in the past, present and foreseeable future. As noted above, the potential codon diversity is 64, but only 20 codons are actually used - by the number of amino acids. 44 codons (70%) are redundant, they can be used in two ways. First, most amino acids are encoded not by one, but by two or four codons-synonyms (R. Ichas). Secondly, some codons are "forbidden" for synthesis - this is detected by unsuccessful attempts at protein synthesis with their help (a stop signal was generated in the experiments and protein synthesis was blocked). The senseless codons that generate stop signals can be used for punctuation marks in the bioalgorithm of protein synthesis, in particular, for reliable designation of the beginning and end of synthesis.It can also be assumed (and this, in our opinion, philosophically most significant) that some of the still meaningless codons are conserved by nature for subsequent stages of evolution, when current life forms under the pressure of sharply changed habitat are partially extinct, partially modified based on a modified genetic code.
Example 3. Such a reservation "for the future" is often practiced in artificial (technical) systems, in particular, in information. So, in modern personal computers, empty seats for expansion cards (cards), additional memory elements, disk drives, ports, modems, etc. are usually provided. Information codes in communication channels of any nature are very often redundant. This redundancy may be unnecessary in a quiet channel. But the channel at any time can be noisy, then the processing of redundant bits of code combinations will allow you to protect information from interference.
Interference affecting the system from the environment can be accidental and deliberate, short-term and long-term. It can be assumed that the restructuring of the genetic code of biological systems using reserve (now) codons will be required by nature if the disturbances are catastrophically overwhelming and prolonged. In this regard, it is of interest to analyze the nucleotide codes in the organic remnants of the most ancient geological periods, when such interference with biosystems occurred. In the case of a short-term disturbance, the communication channel of the DNA-protein system can be protected by more gentle means, although here we also need some information redundancy. Modifying the genetic code, if required, will not be fatal to its current structure. Indeed, in the worst case, only a change (addition) is required. "codons (due to those 44 redundant ones) that do not affect other biological dictionaries. However, even this non-fundamental change will be required only if such structural reforms as changing the length of DNA molecules and protein, the order of nucleotides and amino acids (respectively DNA and protein molecules) will not ensure the creation of new life forms instead of the current ones.
In this regard, indeed, it should be confirmed, following B. Hobrinck, that for mutants — new plant and animal species — no new genetic material will be required. The existing material exists in such a perfect and at the same time simple form that all future forms of life most unthinkable now can successfully use it.
Example 4. Computer binary code allows you to implement all new types of hardware and software of computing equipment (computers of the most sophisticated architecture and elemental composition, operating systems, programming systems (languages), application programs, data structures). The binary code itself - the genetic material of computers, formed as a result of the evolution of computer science and artificial selection, will remain unchanged for a long time. And here computer science and creationism unexpectedly (for creationism) come to a common point of view on the problems of the development of natural and artificial bio-and cybernetic systems. Even if over time the binary computer code gives way to a more optimal three-way code, this will not make the computer as a type of technology a different kind.
The evolutionary mimicry of the old forms for the new content and the old content for the new forms are found not only in artificial systems, therefore one should not unequivocally identify the change of genetic material with the interspecific mutation - this is not so obvious.
In conclusion, we note that the informational foundations of the vital activity of the physical person must be connected with the thoughts and activities of the spiritual person. The search for these connections is complex, but it is of great interest to humanity.
The field of interpersonal relations as a traditional field of ethics has long been expanded by bioethics and eco-ethics, which focus on the moral limits of human penetration into the depths of nature and nature in general. But still not quite matured techno-ethics, which would regulate the moral limits of technological progress. Information ethics (information ethics as a section of techno-ethics), which should regulate the moral limits of the progress of information systems and technologies, informatization and computerization of society (Informatization of society is the implementation of a set of measures ensuring the full and timely use of information useful to society, services. Society computerization is the process of introducing computer products and services into social institutions and practices.Since information technologies, products and services are mainly implemented through computer technologies, we will not explicitly distinguish between informatization and the computerization of society. ), is generally in its infancy.
Example 5Failures in the operation of hardware and software of information technology often lead to suspension of the activities of social institutions, violation of citizens' rights to information products and services. Modern society is oversaturated with information technology, which is so far from the ethical canons of society, that it can dispassionately, untimely and, most importantly, with impunity. For some reason, this violation is considered an objective canon that cannot be condemned. For information law (as well as for all rights), apparently, ethical problems are secondary, although in the law on information security the rights of citizens and society are spelled out in the appropriate paragraphs. But who in Russia controls their execution and punishes for their violation? Is that at the request of Interpol!Conscience and law are usually not found in the domestic information space ("there is a conscience - no right", "there is a right - there is no conscience").
Example 6. Network technologies (Internet, etc.) in the domestic information space are not burdened with ethical problems, although network etiquette (nettiket, netiquette) is known in the world. The quintessence of the network has biblical roots: "love the communicant, like yourself." But it is necessary to log into any Russian-language Internet forum, interactive website or blog, chat in a chat, as it immediately becomes clear that we do not need any network, because it does not correspond to our everyday and service "etiquette." Our ethical style is moveton.
Example 7Characteristic episode: any phone call and subsequent tele-dialogue, with rare exceptions, is given priority over an interrupted live dialogue. And why, actually (“I don’t like it when - half or when the conversation was interrupted ...” (V. Vysotsky).)? The ethics of human-machine relations is vital to the fate of human civilization. Whether a person will remain the master of the situation, without losing power over the machine, even with intellect, or artificial "creatures" created by man and having a different physical nature, will rule the man and his world, or some kind of compromise man-machine symbiosis will be born - this is, indeed, a problem of planetary scale, from which it is impossible to dismiss. It must be addressed now. Textbook "top of evolution"- man - may be just the final biological stage in the ongoing global evolution. The next stage can be an artificial "subject", close to a person only in generality to the technosphere, but infinitely far from a person in his "worldview". The world of artificial self-replicating subjects may not need mankind at all along with the entire biosphere. It would not be difficult for such a world to replace the living conditions of the biosphere with those that are more favorable for machines. So far, it is unlikely that humanity understands the depth of this problem, which is not at all in the existence of thinking machines (what has been done cannot be returned). The problem is that they are waiting for our decision - to abolish "serfdom" in relation to the machines or not. If we cancel, the problems with the machines will be no lessthan in a truly democratic society, problems in power are with the people who are not silent, but are defending their rights. In particular, it is possible that the courts will eventually begin to take lawsuits from cars for physical and moral damage caused to them by people or other machines; a legal law would be passed. While this is fantastic, but this is only for now! And just as the accomplished democracy must be continuously improved in order to be worthy of its demos, a cultural person in the society of thinking machines must continuously improve himself, so as not to fall behind and be worthy of the high rank of homo sapiens.caused by people or other machines; a legal law would be passed. While this is fantastic, but this is only for now! And just as the accomplished democracy must be continuously improved in order to be worthy of its demos, a cultural person in the society of thinking machines must continuously improve himself, so as not to fall behind and be worthy of the high rank of homo sapiens.caused by people or other machines; a legal law would be passed. While this is fantastic, but this is only for now! And just as the accomplished democracy must be continuously improved in order to be worthy of its demos, a cultural person in the society of thinking machines must continuously improve himself, so as not to fall behind and be worthy of the high rank of homo sapiens.
Example 8. Three ethical laws of robotics, proposed by the writer and scientist A. Azimov ("I am a robot"): Law 1 - do not harm a person; law 2 - complete the task, if law 1 is not violated; law 3 - self-preserve if laws 1 and 2 are not violated. The laws of science fiction writer Asimov are implemented in intellectual robotics. These laws perfectly regulate “machine ethics”, counter to human ethics, whether they be robots, computers, control systems, communication systems, etc. After all, ethical standards should regulate both participants in the dialogue - the person and the car, because not only the machine needs protection, but also the person. So, communication on the Internet is anonymous, and you can never be sure that you are communicating with a person, and not with an intelligent machine that maintains a dialogue with you. And on the Internet there are such computerized interlocutors. At the same time, the communication network is obligatory for all interlocutors - natural and artificial.
The examples given are not limited to the field of information ethics activity (the hacker ethic is known, the first principle of which is “do no harm to the system” is consonant with the first law of robotics.). It is important to realize that in the twenty-first century. it acquires importance and ignoring it discredits the foundations of the information society, as in the twentieth century. man-made disasters discredited scientific and technological progress. Technology (in particular, information technology) as a rational product made by a "craft person" (homo faber), but not a "rational person", is alien to "love for every living being" (Leo N. Tolstoy), ethics of "reverence for life "(A. Schweitzer)," living ethics "(E.I. Roerich), like any ethics in general. Requires humanization technology. And if information technologies seem to someone to be ethically neutral, and their inhuman use is supposedly entirely due to the activities of certain social forces, then this does not mean that the scientist, engineer a, programmer, and hacker are all responsible for how and what anonymous "social forces" are information technologies.
Example 9. Legal analogue: The Nuremberg Tribunal found those doctors and scientists guilty who "in the name of progress of science" conducted inhuman experiments on prisoners of Nazi concentration camps and called themselves only a tool in the hands of the Nazi regime.
Adherents, apologists and people of information society and information technology will have to turn to their conscience, to encourage a sense of responsibility and morality. It is useful for people who are inclined to technocratic thinking to persistently remind them of spiritual values - humanism, humanity, conscience, compassion, that the artificial world of technology that surrounds modern man has no right to suppress human nature, the spirit of man. Machines should help a person, and not turn him into a slave and not force him to make excuses for what he has done. It seems that bioethics, eco-ethics, techno-ethics, infoethics, and cyber ethics should be synthesized into a holistic ethics of the information society, based on the common ethical principles of humanity. Are such principles attainable? - that is the question.
The information society is a civilizational formation, one of the concretizations of the concept "post-industrial society". Synonyms: "knowledge society", "educated society", "intellectual society". The basic category of the information society is information and its most valuable form is knowledge. A person of information civilization (and this is felt already now) will be for the most part somewhat different than in previous civilization formations: more free (relaxed), more pragmatic, erudite and sociable, technocratic, egocentric, skillfully using information systems and technologies to solve their vital tasks. This does not mean that such a person is the "man of the future" as a kind of ideal, a reference point for the modern didactic-educational process, for public morality. The progress of a person's mentality is difficult to predict, especially since it, if it changes, is much slower than other attributes of a social person. The latter, although it adapts to the world around it, hopes deep down: "let it be better that it will bend under us."
The necessary attributes of the information society are related both to the physical person and to the spiritual person: 1) the cult of knowledge; 2) information culture; 3) information economy; 4) information labor market; 5) information infrastructure; 6) informatization of social technologies; 7) information legislation. Perhaps the listed required signs are insufficient. Be that as it may, the material and spiritual life of society as a whole must move from the old consumer values of industrial society to new "information values", the unconditional adherence to which makes society informational in the full sense of this concept.
The cult of knowledge is not the same as the economic category of knowledge production, it is a socio-psychological attitude that affects all other similar attitudes of citizens of the information society. The cult of knowledge means that in public morality, the craving for spiritual self-improvement over the stimulus of material well-being steadily prevails.
Information culture is a part of the general culture of society, organizing social life through the information sphere. External information culture is a culture of communication and control (data and commands). The external informational culture of a society and a person is inseparably linked with their internal informational culture, by which we mean the culture of cognition (knowledge).
The information economy should be focused on high technology (Hi-Tech), the accumulation and dissemination of data and knowledge, saving time, energy and other public resources, development and implementation of high-tech intellectual products. The country's information economy should fit into the global information and economic process. In the framework of the information economy, the monetary (monetary) equivalents of real and intellectual goods should be linked.
The information labor market should cover more than half of the working population. This means that more than 50% of the workforce of society must work in the information sphere (computer technology; telecommunications; information services, including libraries and the arts; media and advertising; unmanned production controlled by automated control systems and robots; micro and nanotechnical systems and devices ; science and education, etc.).
Information infrastructure includes hardware and software tools to support the information sphere of the company.
Informatization of social technologies implies that education, election campaigns, workflow, commerce and other social technologies (institutions) should use modern information technologies to automate routine operations and free the person to solve creative problems.
Information legislation is a set of laws, regulations and other forms of legal regulation in the sphere of circulation and production of information and application of information technologies.
All signs of the information society should not be proclaimed, but active , should "work" all together. Distinguishing at least one sign as non-working leads to the elimination (self-destruction) of the information society. Paying tribute to each attribute separately, we still consider the first two signs to be dominant, because without a cult of knowledge and informational culture, there is no need to speak about the reality of the other signs.
Example 10. Many countries are known with a developed information infrastructure, but with a lack of information culture, a cult of knowledge, current information legislation, and others. The blatant lack of culture of modern Russian society forced us to introduce into the curriculum of domestic first-year students (our future intellectual elite!) The discipline "Russian language and culture of speech. " A nation that does not respect its language is degrading. Instead of the cult of knowledge - the cult of money, "pure relationships" and mercantilism at all levels of the establishment. Russian information legislation, with rare exceptions, does not properly respond to computer and other informational crimes. Is that the requirements of Interpol! And all this against the background of a sufficiently developed information infrastructure. "The strategy for the development of the information society in the Russian Federation", approved by the President of the Russian Federation (2008) begins: "The information society is characterized by a high level of development of information and telecommunication technologies and their intensive use by citizens, business and government bodies." This purely pragmatic thesis is further developed in detail (goals, objectives, directions for implementation), where culture and morality are given attention in the aspects of "support", "propaganda", "preservation", "development", but not "education" and "enlightenment" ("Strategy for the Development of the Information Society in Russia". Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Federal Issue No. 4591 of September 16, 2008; www.rg.ru/2008/02/16.).
In such states there is no information society, as there is none in those countries that do not fit into the globalization processes on a global scale and profess isolationism, secrecy, the denial of democratic norms and human rights. Local information societies are not viable, they tend to unite into a global (planetary) information society as the most viable and priority for humanity. But is it achievable in the modern multi-polar mosaic world, full of contradictions and mutual misunderstanding ?! Most likely, in the foreseeable future will have to do with local "versions".
For all its merits, the information society generates, along with the problem of information ethics, other problems that are painful for man and society, which, in our opinion, are poorly understood. After all, the information society, unlike the previous civilization formations (industrial, agricultural), poses a spiritual problem rather than a material one before a person. Ontologically, this is due to the immateriality of the information itself, which uses material and energy substrates only as “carriers” in relation to which information is invariant.
Below are some of these poorly understood problems.
Informatization of society introduces fundamental changes in professional activities, the predominant form of which is mental activity. At the same time, the living brain is subjected to previously unknown neuro-psychological stresses proportional to the ever-increasing flow of information (knowledge). A person voluntarily transfers from his native natural world to the artificial world of information technology, which conceals a threat to human nature itself. The influence of the information environment on a person is less obvious than the influence of the natural and man-made environment, so it does not cause acute social unrest, but in vain! Young people are involved in the processes of informatization more often and more intensively than older generations. Under these conditions, children, boys and girls, who have not yet completed their physical and mental development, are exposed to a hidden danger emanating from the adverse factors of the information environment with their cumulative mechanism of action. Communicating in time with the virtual world of synthesized texts, images and sounds, with the controls of the information technology, with virtual life, virtual games and personalities creates serious problems for the education of the individual. In the vastness of virtual cyberspace, a person is exposed not only to informational, but also to misinformation attacks. Distinguishing information from misinformation can be extremely difficult.
Of course, a person is tenacious and adapts flexibly to any environment. But this ability cannot be exploited endlessly. This problem is not interesting for the IT-business for obvious reasons, but for the information society it is not indifferent.
An important component of informatization is the introduction of innovations. In all civilized countries, innovation activity based on patent clearance and licensing of innovations is an important aspect of not only economic, but also state-building. Innovative projects are also developing and operating in our country. The difficulty of their implementation lies precisely in the specifically domestic neglect of patent purity and licensing of innovations, in hypertrophied piracy and relying on the notorious “freebie”, so popular not only in the minds of ordinary people. In such conditions, scientific and technical progress on the basis of innovation is hardly achievable. Unfortunately, even in the academic environment, innovations are confused with innovations. Demonstrating laboratory installations, unique prototypes of scientific and technical products, many authors consider their achievements as innovations. This is a delusion, if not a hoax. Innovations involve the mandatory introduction - in mass production, practice, market sales, etc. And from the prototype to the series and placing the product on the market - a huge distance and exorbitant work.
Example 11. In the world, software products of domestic origin are almost unknown (The best domestic programmers work abroad, their programs are proprietary.), And our computer park is almost one hundred percent imported (in design and components, the "red assembly" is not fundamental here ). But our hackers and crackers (hackers of information systems) are known. Domestic informational innovations are not brought to the level of innovation. Innovations usually boil down to the introduction of foreign developments.
In the information society, science is the driving force of progress, for the main product of science is knowledge - the highest form of information. Without the influx of capable young people, the scientific community risks becoming a "nursing home", a collection of dogmatists and skeptics who are heavy on the rise. But it is asked that in our mercantile age - the age of the information society - can attract young people to science? After all, scientific work is hard work, not time-based, and payment is clearly not according to work, and not even according to the result. The case is aggravated by the hidden anti-intellectualism of people. Many historians (V.O. Klyuchevsky, P.N. Milyukov, and others) state almost genetic anti-intellectualism in the mentality of our people. The people do not welcome (to put it mildly) "clever men".
Example 12. In the USSR, only two socially significant classes were recognized: workers and peasants (the latter with certain reservations), and the intelligentsia was considered a third-rate "class stratum" with all the ensuing consequences in wages, the attitude of the government and society. At the same time, the government hypocritically proclaimed the need for scientific and technological progress (“catch up and overtake”, “Soviet means better”, etc.). In modern Russia, such a “stratification” of society has not yet been overcome. In the above-mentioned "Development Strategy ..." there is not a word about the driving forces of the formation of the information society (in particular, about the intelligentsia). But in the information society, it is intellectual work that should become the main productive force.
Hidden hostility to scientists, aggravated by the passionless activities of the scientists themselves, their moral infantilism bordering on inhumanity — all this does not contribute to the authority of science in the modern youth environment. Yet man does not live by bread alone. Его духовность нуждается в свободном творчестве, самопознании, самосовершенствовании и понимании окружающего мира без идеологических и религиозных шор. Кто же, как не наука (в сочетании с искусством), поможет человеку в этом благородном стремлении!? Не у всех людей глаза прикрыты денежными купюрами, не все люди видят только то, что у них под ногами и под носом. Это всё текущая "суета сует и всяческая суета". Надо думать и о будущем своих детей, отдаленных потомков и человечества в целом… Но в условиях непрекращающегося старения отечественных научных кадров такой пафос просто неуместен. А наша молодежь вынуждена искать себя в других сферах, весьма далеких от науки и информационных инноваций.
Какие же блага в обозримом будущем нам могут предоставить бурно развивающиеся информационные системы и технологии? И какая "плата" за эти блага? Ведь мы знаем, где бывает "бесплатный сыр". Ожидаемые блага ("за") и плата ("против") сведены в таблицу 8.1 (по данным К. Хессига - Швейцария). Таблица полна противоречий – это естественно, ибо любой прогресс, рассчитанный на Добро, может быть использован и во Зло человеку, чему слишком много примеров (механизация труда и транспорта, атомная энергия, интеллектуализация оружия, космическая техника и др.).
| Блага ("за") | Плата ("против") |
|---|---|
| Культура, человек и общество | |
|
|
| Politics | |
|
|
| Хозяйство и труд | |
|
|
Пример 13. Быстродействие и память исправного компьютера обеспечивают практически мгновенный (с точки зрения человека) доступ к значительным объемам информации (знаний). Доступ индивидуализирован в соответствии с потребностями (интересами) пользователя. В отличие от людей, исправный компьютер не устаёт. Компьютеру свойственны универсальность и гибкость: на одних и тех же машинах, в одних и тех же локальных сетях можно реализовать любые информационные технологии (образовательные, офисные, производственные и т.п.). Это создает предпосылки для быстрой окупаемости автоматизированных рабочих мест при условии их широкого внедрения.
В то же время информатизация и компьютеризация, как показывает отечественная практика, приводит к дифференциации людей и социальных слоев общества на богатых и бедных, столичных и периферийных, привилегированных и второстепенных. Требуется обслуживающий персонал, время на обучение. Эффективность технологий зависит от (оставляющих желать лучшего) надежности аппаратно-программных средств, их устойчивости к помехам, компьютерным и сетевым вирусам, сбоям питания.
Пример 14. Всё, что разумно делать на компьютере, может и должно на него возлагаться, оставляя за человеком творческую функцию: "Машина должна работать, человек – думать" (принцип IBM). Компьютеры и другая информационная техника освобождают нас от рутины, ошибок ввода, бумаги и т.д., способствуя экономии нашего времени и комфортности труда.
В то же время техника прерывает непосредственную физическую и духовную связь человека с природой, другими людьми, отчуждает мысль от смысла природных объектов, явлений, процессов. А смысл этот скрыт, и техника в лучшем случае помогает его объяснить, но не понять. Физическая внешняя информация объяснения стучит нам в уши и лезет в глаза, но это всего лишь грубая копия тонкой, внечувственной внутренней информации понимания того, что объясняется. Информационный взрыв последних десятилетий – это лавинообразный рост количества внешней информации объяснения, но не качества внутренней информации понимания. До этого "взрыва" нам чаще приходилось думать (в том числе, над "бумажной" информацией), вместе с ним мы стали реже думать, ориентируясь на электронные шпаргалки (через Интернет и дружественные интерфейсы прикладных пакетов программ) и ограничивая свое творческое мышление. Сейчас понимание "пасует" перед объяснением.
Мы выявили несколько проблем, слабо осознаваемых, но оттого не менее важных в информационном обществе для психики и духовности человека. Проблемы относительно просто решаются, когда они ясны: "если враг не сдается, его уничтожают"; "пойдешь налево…, пойдешь направо…, пойдешь прямо…". А если враг не внешний, а внутренний, и неясно, он кто (что)? Where? когда? А если выбор не по указке, а самостоятельный? А если проблемы смутно угадываются, как наши? Но решать-то их однажды придется нам всем и лично каждому. И без оглядки на авторитеты.
В информационном обществе человек информационный и человек культурный должны быть единым "Человеком". Он должен пользоваться "культурными" данными (достоверными, полными, социально значимыми), подавать "культурные" команды (защищенные от информационных угроз), исповедовать не на словах, а на деле культ знаний (не конфронтирующих с верой, мнением и незнанием, не замыкающихся на ортодоксиях и преходящих ценностях), быть участником, а не созерцателем информационного прогресса. При этом не следует забывать об объективном отставании культуры от развития техники – ведь культура, охраняя свои традиции, более консервативна, чем техника с ее изощренной изобретательностью. Так, мы воочию
продолжение следует...
Часть 1 8: Information and person
Часть 2 Информатизация и компьютеризация образования - 8: Information and person
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philosophiya
Terms: philosophiya