Constraint has never been an incentive and foundation for development. Achievements in science, scientific and technological progress, the development of production and consumption systems of various material and spiritual goods, man has always done for the sake of improving living and working conditions.
Technology is not neutral, but seems to be a self-governing force - a postulate of theories of technological determinism. However, there is still no artificial intelligence, and at the time of the appearance of these theories there was not even a reason that it would be.
In memory of the beginning
What the best minds thought about at all times was determined by the current level of knowledge and the spectrum of needs. The proportion of scientists who separate themselves from participation in the socio-economic process of creating and consuming material and spiritual goods for the sake of abstract thought activity has always been negligible. Public consciousness never worried about the cutting edge of science and technology, but really worried about the standard of living, income, normal social relations at work and peace in the family.
The closer the level of technology was to nature and further from the work of scientists and engineers, the more calmly social life flowed. People went to work or hunt, gathered mushrooms and berries, raised crops and grazed cattle. Not many worries. To wish for something more, there was no reason or knowledge for their designation either.
There was no reason for technological determinism, or for other fantasies of philosophy in general and sociology afterwards. Life didn’t seem like honey: there was slavery, exploitation “flourished”, the strong humiliate the weak, the wars were constantly going on, public relations “consistently needed” judicial practice and each state had its own idea of ​​the rights of its citizens, the right of power and power, which should all this to provide.
A strange thought follows from this: technological determinism, as a conscious phenomenon, is attributed to the beginning of the last century. Consequently, a century earlier, the prerequisites had to mature, so that the public consciousness could find the foundation and pay attention to the works of various scientists and attach importance to the achievements of technological progress.
Everything can be. But is there any spectacular interest here? Curiosity is not a science or even the contemplation of phenomena. The first ships are one thing: they quickly became popular in military and commercial matters. But the first aircraft - these were circus performances first of all.
Strange but perfect example.
The first flight of man into space was evaluated by the public consciousness in different countries in the social aspect, and not as an assessment of the labor and deprivation of hundreds of unknown scientists and engineers who made their way through the concrete confrontation of society. None of the theories of technological determinism have appreciated the labor, inventions, and technologies of the thousands of specialists and ordinary workers who built the first spacecraft.
The technical product left the planet with a man on board and returned it alive and unharmed. The determinists did not notice this, but they developed the ideas of Plato about technocracy. Although, what could this learned man know about engineering and technology? And in general, he did not mean techies, but philosophers - the only worthy cohort of people to manage society (in the opinion of others like him).
Whatever technological determinism and technocracy as a whole may justify, they expressed their ideas not for the sake of science, knowledge, development of scientific and technological progress, but for the purpose of creating an ideal society in which happiness will be one and burdens another.
Management in general and society in particular never fell into the hands of technical specialists, the echelon of the highest industrial level, and corporations. Meanwhile, finance has always played a role in management, and in the progress of technology, and in the development of technology, and in providing the moment of power in any social process of any state.
Determining who will manage what and what is not a person’s problem and it’s not for him to solve it. You can say everything about everything, but how will the objective laws of the universe in general and social laws in particular react to this? It is not given to man to invent them, but they always exist and always reflect real reality.
Through the abyss of centuries
Strange (according to the logic of deterministic theories, this should not have happened), but society somehow “reached it” before the beginning of the last century and built factories and plants, financial and commodity exchanges, laid down institutions of primary, secondary and higher education. Cruise ships the size of a city set out on the oceans for full life support. Over the airport of a decent-sized megalopolis, planes of all sorts are circling like bees near a hive. Under water, the warriors of the most developed countries carry nuclear missiles, terrifying each other.
Technological progress in the middle of the last century was the subject of public awareness, and theories of technological determinism awaited their grateful reader. Science fiction writers put their pen to the development of public imagination and for some time the authors of industrial, post-industrial and technotronic ideas received public attention.
Modern researchers believe that theories of technological determinism are united in the fact that engineering and technology are the fundamental cause of all social changes.
The following are minor differences. Some base their views on the strength of steam, others pay attention to industrialization, others point to chemistry and quantum mechanics. Others base their concepts on computer technology and information technology.
Without going into the details and quality of certain fundamental statements, one can point out (as a vivid example) nuclear energy. This is undoubtedly the result of scientific and technological progress. But the nuclear bomb is understandable: the task is set, the goal is destroyed. What about a peaceful atom? After all, a nuclear power plant is still a classic “kettle”. A nuclear power plant is a sophisticated, laborious and expensive conversion of nuclear energy into steam ...
However, nuclear energy is not the only vivid example of how machinery and technologies require capital expenditures of labor, time and financial resources for their “life support” from the person to whom the determinists have identified a secondary role in their scientific research.
The concept of technological determinism
The classical formulation of theories of limitations (determinism) is difficult to dispute. For all its components, everything is extremely accurate:
- theoretical and methodological installation;
- philosophical and sociological concepts;
- restriction of understanding of social development by the progress of technology;
- technology affects the being, thinking and language of its carriers.
Having arisen at the beginning of the past as an “attitude” to think in the midst of philosophy and sociology (it would be strange if physicists, chemists, or mathematicians set themselves the rules and rules for distinguishing the Planck quantum from the Laplace transform), technological determinism limits the understanding of public consciousness to the level of technology that it creates and uses society.
From a technological point of view, everything is true: it was at the beginning of the last century that society saw not only the real results of scientific and technological progress, but also confidently began to use them.
Automobiles and airplanes, machine tools and production lines, large factories and multinational companies have changed both the lives and lives of people. The changes were dramatic, rapid and ended with the triumph of computer technology, although it did not come to the creation of artificial intelligence.
Basic concepts of determinism
The basic concepts of technological determinism have an industrial aura through top corporate management. The "face" of each technological theory is one, the angle is different. Industrial society and stages of growth. New industrial theory and the concept of post-industrial society. The theory of superindustrial society and the technotronic idea.
Before the concept of an intellectual society, when robots won all over the world and by this fact showed that they are the essence of social development, things did not reach. However, technological determinism did not even think to trust the management of society and technological progress to any robots there.
Professional skills of authors of well-known ideas are characteristic. Galbraith's technological determinism is the result of the ideas of an economist who appeals to a mythical technostructure run by large corporations (not a techie).
The sociologist Aron built his industrial society, taking into account the features of socialist and capitalist social systems (not techies). Brzezinski based his technotronic postulates on the ideas of the computer and information revolution (he does not understand anything in computer business).
A characteristic feature of all concepts is an orientation toward industrialism, intelligence, informational phenomena and processes. The role of man remains (in smart people), but it is secondary (in the rest). There is always a revolutionary beginning and adjectives with the prefix "over", the term "elite" is used and something here reminds Herbert Wells.
Determinism: Limitation or Definition
The word "determinate" is well known. It is not always possible to hear it in high school and understand it, but already in any professional and higher education you cannot do without fixing this concept. This is the exact opposite of stochastic processes. In theories of systems development it is not particularly customary to use the adjective "deterministic".
Translated from Latin, we have three options:
- to determine;
- limit;
- to separate.
There is nothing close to the concept of "development" here. In different centuries, philosophy paid attention to determinism, trying to link it with laws, causes and effects, phenomena in nature and society.
In fact, technological determinism in philosophy is an attempt to apply a restriction in a place where it makes no sense to talk about it at all. Public consciousness never stands still. It is developing as rapidly as technology, technology, theory and practice of systems.
On how accurately scientists understand development issues, only the level of their competence and understanding of the occurring events depends. It is not enough to declare an idea, science or concept.
Every social movement matters only when it objectively reflects reality. This is how technological determinism in sociology looks in practice. In fact, everything is not in his favor.
Modern version of determinism
The socio-philosophical concepts of technological determinism, the theory of post-industrialism, technotronics, the use of communications and information technology to manage society are the skills and teachings of the elect for everyone else.
Socio-philosophical concept: engineering and technology - the foundation of society, the liquidator of social contradictions and the main factor in its development.
Technological determinism absolutizes engineering and technology. He does not notice anything that lies outside the goal that needs to be justified.
It has never been forbidden to anyone to set the framework for a postindustrial (technotronic) society, there has never been any sense in this. The objective laws of the universe and social laws always put everything in its place.
About society and technology in the sense of development
Anything can be said, but not everything should be trusted. Knowledge and skills in the dynamics of their development are the essence of all phenomena, processes and things, including engineering and technology. This can be believed. First, a man came into the world, then he gained intelligence, then programming appeared.
It does not at all follow from what has been said that this particular intellect is worthwhile, and the knowledge components are objective. In any case, neither programming, nor modern information technologies represent an integral, self-developing system. The world of the best technical achievements is really good, but it is as imperfect as a person’s knowledge of the physics of phenomena on a wide range of issues.
Technological determinism could not help but appear, could not help but leave a mark in the public mind. If at the time of Plato ideas were discussed, to whom and what to manage, what and what affects, what, what depends, how could it happen otherwise when the world of money, technology and independent “intelligence” gained power?
The issue is not development, but who determines the right to manage this development and how to consolidate it more firmly.
Human. Intelligence. Programming
First, Man came into the world, then he gained Intelligence, then Programming appeared: CHIPiotics is an old idea in a new incarnation.
It is known that information technology is developing rapidly. Everyone knows that huge financial, intellectual and production resources work here. Volumes of production and consumption are growing. But this is a stone age.
If modern technological determinism has decided on the last reincarnation of its postulates, then the modern world of communications and information technology will destroy it forever.
Programming reflects the intellect of modern social consciousness, both in that part of it that writes programs, and in the part that tries to understand what it actually needs to be programmed.
The stochastic processes of communication between producer and consumer in this area of ​​public relations in 99.9% of cases exceed the permissible standards. Only when the user asks the programmer to create a program for solving the quadratic equation, is success practically achievable.
Modern programming is lumps of knowledge accumulated over several decades. Undoubtedly, there are many achievements and much has been done perfectly. Everything spoils the hard syntax and constructs.
It is clear that when a skyscraper is being built, it is impossible to transfer the building from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It is not clear when the program needs to be rewritten, because hosting has flown, the language version has changed, or a new operating system has been installed on the computer.
Man is a living creature with intelligence. There is no case that he did not solve the problem. All his life, a person solves problems and successfully copes with all his problems.
The program is the result of human intellectual activity. She can only do what her author programmed. Tomorrow the scope of the task has changed, but the program has remained. So - this is the Stone Age: the program has not yet separated from Nature, that is, from the creator.
About knowledge and skills
Programming is the most advanced technology, it is much better than a machine, conveyor, production, company or company system.
Programming is production, economics, politics, and management. Programming is a Man and his needs, and the possibility of their implementation in dynamics, in development.
We do not have dynamics, but we always have statics: that a skyscraper in Moscow, that a program written in St. Petersburg, is all the same idea of ​​an excellent, high-quality, reliable, but bulky and static design.
Without knowledge and skills, nothing can never be achieved: neither on earth, nor in near-Earth space, nor in the vastness of space. But knowledge and skills should be in the dynamics: both a person and his program.