Neurotechnology
and cognitive sciences

HUMAN EXPANSION: COGNITIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR RISKS
D.V. Chernikova, I.V. Chernikova *
24.10.2012 Source

The social and humanistic consequences of the human enhancement program are analyzed. It is shown that the current stage of program development, conditioned by the use of cognitive technologies, represents a qualitatively new level at which human evolution becomes a consciously controlled process. Particular attention is paid to philosophical issues, actualized by the use of cognitive technologies. The problem of preserving human identity, the problem of freedom and responsibility are discussed. Key words: Cognitive technologies, technoscience, cognitive science, human nature, NBIC convergence, evolution, brain, humanism, social progress, responsibility.

Key words: Cognitive technologies, technoscience, cognitive science, human nature, NBIC-convergence, evolution, brain, humanism, social progress, responsibility

The most important megatechnologies of our time are nanotechnology, biotechnology, information and cognitive technologies. Their relationship in Western literature is denoted by the term NBIC convergence. In the domestic literature, the abbreviation NBICS is adopted, where the fifth component of megatechnologies is social technologies. All technologies interact synergistically, complement and reinforce each other, creating unprecedented, extremely powerful means of transforming man and earthly civilization. NBIC convergence open up for humanity the possibility of its own evolution as a consciously guided process of transformation of human nature.

Special programs of social development based on NBIC technologies have been adopted in America and Europe. The authors of the American program Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performances (2002) were M. Rocco and W. Bainbridge. Alfred Nordmann and George Hushf [1] were the main developers of the EU program "Converging Technologies for European Knowledge Society". The goal of these programs is to improve the quality of life. However, NBIC technologies are not just another scientific and technical improvement, they "blow up" the human life world, up to the transformation of the very nature of a person, his identity.

Programs of various kinds to improve human capabilities are far from new and have always been met with caution. Especially sharp criticism was caused at the beginning of the twentieth century. eugenic research. As J. Hushf notes, after the emergence of convergent technologies, the program for improving human nature (human enhancement) entered a new stage, at which "we all become, in a sense, subjects of research, involved in this new great experiment, which, in fact, has not only natural science. and scientific and technical, but also social aspects "[1].
In this article, we will focus on such a component of NBIC convergence as cognitive science and cognitive technologies, and analyze their impact on the improvement of human nature. Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary synthesis of sciences: philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neurophysiology and informatics, linked by a single issue (language – cognition – brain) and general methodological principles. The object of cognitive science is the cognitive processes and mechanisms identified at the intersection of sciences, with the help of which an adequate adaptation of a person to reality is carried out. Cognitive sciences transform the traditional dual picture of reality - the objective physical world and the subjective mental reality, unfolding into a three-dimensional dimension: 1) the objective world, 2) the subjective image of the objective world, 3) the relationship between reality and its presentation, which, in fact, determine the result of human adaptation to the world, determine the degree of its adequacy. Therefore, in philosophical studies it is noted that cognitive sciences study the structure of human subjective experience, and they do this not in the traditional abstract form for philosophy, but in an empirical way [2. P. 7].

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary synthesis of sciences: philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neurophysiology and informatics, linked by a single issue (language – cognition – brain) and general methodological principles. The object of cognitive science is the cognitive processes and mechanisms identified at the intersection of sciences, with the help of which an adequate adaptation of a person to reality is carried out.
Cognitive sciences transform the traditional dual picture of reality - the objective physical world and the subjective psychic reality, unfolding it into a three-dimensional dimension:
1) the objective world,
2) the subjective image of the objective world,
3) the relationship between reality and its presentation, which, in fact, determine the result of human adaptation to the world, determine the degree of its adequacy.

Therefore, in philosophical studies it is noted that cognitive sciences study the structure of human subjective experience, and they do this not in the traditional abstract form for philosophy, but in an empirical way [2. P. 7]. Cognitive science is fundamentally different from classical science in that it is, firstly, an interdisciplinary synthesis of natural science and humanitarian knowledge, and secondly, it is not only a theoretical system of knowledge, but technology. The transformation of the scientific worldview is associated with the reorientation of scientific activity from cognitive to projective and constructive.

The subject of consideration in this case is cognitive technologies, the essence of which is the well-known mathematician G.G. Malinetskiy, defines how methods and algorithms for achieving the goals of subjects based on data on the processes of cognition, learning, communication, information processing by humans and animals, on the presentation of neuroscience, on the theory of self-organization, computer information technologies, mathematical modeling of the elements of consciousness, a number of other scientific directions, until recently related to the field of fundamental science [3].

B.M. Velichkovsky notes that cognitive technologies are, first of all, technologies of interfaces between humans and computational systems [4]. Examples of the use of these technologies are, in particular, graphical interfaces created by such computer giants as corporations IBM, Apple and Microsoft. An example of the use of cognitive technologies is also virtual reality technologies used in the training of drivers, pilots, dispatchers using special computer simulators.

It is the cluster of so-called convergent technologies (NBIC technologies) that is considered today as the basis of social progress, and cognitive technologies are its important component. Recording the radical changes in the life world caused by high technologies, let us note the role of the Internet in modern life. The Internet as a new media environment, a new means of disseminating and receiving information has a huge impact on consciousness. According to the Time magazine, 4 billion letters are generated on the Internet every day, and there is as much information every day as was created in the previous 60 years. The amount of information that must be taken into account has grown exponentially, which affects both the learning process and decision-making. But a person is able to take into account at the same time no more than 5-7 factors influencing the decision-making. To prevent human errors when interpreting data and interacting with technical devices in a situation of rapidly changing information flows in the field of forecasting and control, decision-making methods developed on the basis of cognitive science and the creation of a network of interacting cognitive centers are very important. The convergence of information and cognitive technologies is not limited to the use of computers in the study of the brain, but is used to enhance human intelligence. They increasingly complement the natural human ability to work with information. Perhaps in the future, elements of artificial intelligence will be integrated into the human mind using direct brain-computer interfaces, and control of a computer with the help of thoughts will become as common as the keyboard and mouse are today. This is predicted to happen in 2020–2030.

Achievements of cognitive technologies are associated with the awareness of the key role of self-organization in the processes of learning, decision-making, and pattern recognition. The convergence of cognitive and information technologies opens up a host of new opportunities. So, computer processing of a face image allows you to determine the emotional state of a person and, with a frequency of two thousand times per second, record the movements of his eyes, reflecting the level and focus of attention. This is extremely promising, for example, for monitoring the condition of the driver of a car and increasing driving safety. At least one third of traffic accidents occur when a person falls asleep for seconds and loses control over the situation. The state prior to falling asleep can be determined by the rhythms of the brain, eye movements, speech patterns, or the electrical conductivity of the skin. Installing wakefulness sensors will solve this problem. It should be noted that investments in the development of risk management are characterized by a ratio of 1: 1000.

The next most important area of application of cognitive technologies to improve the quality of life is medicine and education. A sharp increase in information flows falling on a person makes the previous identification of the knowledgeable with the owner of the information irrelevant, all the information on the problem is no longer possible for a specialist to assimilate. In addition, in a networked society, which is the knowledge society, in solving global problems, knowledge becomes more and more socially, ethically and politically oriented. With an increase in risks, it is especially important that the adequate application of knowledge, knowledge management. In cognitive science, the task is to develop a technology for obtaining and applying knowledge. In a lecture by prof. R. Schenka (USA) "From Subject-Related Education to Reasoning Education: What Cognitive Science Tells Us About What We Should Learn", read at the IV International Conference on Cognitive Science in Tomsk, discussed the problem of how to transform learning from the process of transferring information into the ability to think well, how to transform the education system, focusing on fundamental cognitive processes?

The educational program presented by R. Schenk is based on the achievements of cognitive science in understanding the nature of thinking. It identifies twelve fundamental cognitive processes: modeling, experiment, prognosis, assessment, diagnosis, planning, causation, judgment, negotiation or negotiation, influence, teamwork, description. These principles should be taught to everyone as the foundations of education, from a very early age, then at school and even at universities. Three fundamental thinking skills are especially important. This is, firstly, the descriptive function, as the ability to describe, the ability of self-expression, and secondly, the ability to diagnose as an intellectual process, in which the ability to understand what is happening and how is happening is formed; thirdly, this is planning as a key process, without which any activity is not possible. Learning should be teaching cognitive skills that can help us in life, and should not be forced to learn rules and formulas. Education should not teach subjects, but cognitive skills and abilities.

With the appearance at the end of the XX century. methods of three-dimensional brain mapping, the problems of neuroscience have come to the fore. These are tasks such as identifying the patterns of evolutionary and ontogenetic development of brain systems, their connection with the phenomena of consciousness and cognitive activity. According to the connectionist model, the functioning of neural networks in the brain is based not on abstract logical thinking, but on pattern recognition. J. Edelman and J. Tononi came to the conclusion: "Thinking proceeds within the framework of synthesized patterns, not logic, and therefore in its action it can always go beyond syntactic or mechanical relations" [5. P. 47]. In particular, the study of neurophysiological processes in the human brain has shown that the speed of movement of the action potential along the nerve fiber and the time of synoptic transmission do not provide the really existing speed of action of the mechanisms of thinking and memory, that is, the processes of thinking and memory are faster for a fraction of a second than the transmission of nerve impulses ... W. Penfield in his book "The Mystery of the Mind" notes "Reason always stands above the content of our consciousness. It is a completely independent entity. The mind commands, the brain obeys. The brain is a messenger to consciousness "[6].

Computer modeling of intelligence does not include many properties of human consciousness: intuition, behind which the unpredictability of solutions, emotions as a property of the human psyche that affects thinking. Within the framework of this approach, it is impossible to explain the role of the context in the functioning of the "language-thinking" system. All this led to the conclusion that the functioning of the human brain cannot be reduced to calculations, but is distinguished by the ability to understand. In addition, there is evidence that "the human brain is still under the influence of adaptive evolutionary processes" [7. P. 14]. Meanwhile, there is no talk of including evolutionary parameters in computer models of consciousness. Therefore, despite the growing volume of knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence, we have to admit that the problem of the cognitive sciences "thinking – consciousness – brain" contains a certain semantic context that cannot be explained within the competence of individual scientific disciplines, each of which independently studies and models processes knowledge. In this regard, the conclusion of such an authoritative specialist in the field of cognitive sciences as T.V. Chernigovskaya, that "we should pin our hopes not on further complication of the resolution of technology, but on a methodological and even philosophical breakthrough, which should lead to the emergence of a new multidisciplinary scientific paradigm" [7. P. 15].

As you can see, in relation to the problem of "consciousness-brain" cognitive science, based on the system-evolutionary approach, allows you to overcome contradictions and find intersections in various philosophical interpretations of consciousness and thus bring the discussion of the problem of consciousness to a new, higher level of conceptualization. In our opinion, cognitive science does not reduce the mental to the physical, and does not reduce all behavioral functions to cognitive processes, but creates a more complex model of cognition through the integration of natural and human sciences. She demonstrates the desire to understand consciousness and such related phenomena as language, freedom, morality, knowledge, not only through the study of culture and sociality, but also using natural science arguments.

On the basis of the indicated achievements of cognitive science, new technologies are emerging in medicine aimed at improving cognitive abilities. These are drugs to stimulate memory and performance, drugs that increase the quality of life, help fight stress, relieve fear and anxiety. In the laboratory of K. Anokhin at the Kurchatov Institute, they are working on obtaining a substance capable of erasing unpleasant memories. Many laboratories around the world are developing visual prostheses that will make even completely blind people sighted. In this case, you do not need to use the eye and optic nerve, the signal from the miniature camera goes directly to the brain. For neurophysiologists, there is no longer the Bulletin of the Tomsk Polytechnic University. 2012. T. 321. No. 6 116 questions, is it possible or impossible to do it. The mechanisms of realization are discussed, in particular, from which alloy to make electrodes implanted into the brain so that they do not corrode for a longer time.

Let us designate the philosophical issues that are actualized by the use of cognitive technologies. Being aimed at improving cognitive capabilities (improving memory, getting rid of cognitive disorders, etc.), they do not transform human nature, and within these limits, their application is quite justified. However, the danger of transformation of human nature under the influence of NBIC technologies still cannot be overlooked. The most difficult thing is to assess the consequences of possible changes in the spiritual and moral sphere. In modern studies, it is noted that the level of public morality remains approximately the same and fluctuates in different times and among different peoples around a certain constant value.

Morality, as a type of regulation of people's relations, aimed at their humanization through striving for the ideal should be considered as a parameter of order specific to the level of human evolution (the term of synergetics), a factor in the determination of cognition as life activity. The naturalistic approach to the understanding of such phenomena as freedom, morality, language, cognition is presented not only by individual authors, but is formed into a study that combines natural and humanitarian sciences in the cognition of human nature and its essential properties. D. Dennett, on the basis of the idea of self-organization and evolution, explained the formation in a person of such a new mechanism of development as freedom and morality. He proposed to consider freedom as a product of evolution, which arose on the basis of the expansion of the information field and the complication of the methods of transmission of information.

Let's pay attention to the dangerous nature of the gap between the progress in the field of scientific knowledge and technology and the lack of moral progress. According to evolutionary-synergetic views, the creation of more complex structures can be viewed as a process of ascent and decentralization. The principles of prohibition, restrictions that set direction, channel development, serve as mechanisms of self-organization. At the human level, one of these principles is morality, which regulates social relations at two levels - human and personal.

One of the laws governing sociogenesis is the law of technical and humanitarian balance, according to which the power of technological impact must be balanced by more effective principles of control. "Subjects who have failed to cope with the increasing instrumental power are culled from the further evolutionary process, undermining the foundations of their own existence" [8. S. 428].

Having applied epistemological evolutionism to the study of science, many researchers have expressed concerns about the divergence of the rate of evolution of natural and cultural facets of man. In the current situation of the global civilization crisis, the recorded contradiction acquires a fateful significance. Discussing the imbalance created in evolution, researchers note that its "causes lie in the nature of man, who, possessing consciousness, continues to act like an animal ... The deep biological origin of human nature leads to the destruction of all terrestrial biological self-organization, to self-destruction" [9. P. 463].

Consumerism, lust for power, aggressiveness, selfishness, hedonism are qualities inherent in human nature. Now, thanks to technoscience, which is also a component of cognitive evolution, these qualities of human nature have become dangerous in relation to nature as a whole and to each person individually. The question is how to manage to change the negative aspects of human nature, if, according to the estimates of specialists modeling civilization processes, irreversible changes can occur in less than a hundred years.
So, NBIC convergence is seen as the basis of social progress. This is a concept for managing the development of technoscience, a project for improving human capabilities based on the methodology of self-development and complexity. On the other hand, the NBIC initiative has become a new impetus for the revitalization of transhumanism.

One of the founders of the World Association for Transhumanists, Nick Bostrom, defines transhumanism as a radically new approach to thinking about the future, based on the assumption that the human species is not the end of our evolution, but rather its beginning. Thus, transhumanism is a movement that asserts the possibility and desirability of fundamental changes in human nature through the achievements of reason, especially with the use of technology to eliminate aging and significantly enhance the mental, physical and psychological capabilities of a person [10].
Transhumanists believe that numerous scientific developments leading to a change in human nature are beneficial, as they contribute to the opening of new boundaries and opportunities for humans. Participants of the transhumanist movement argue that the posthuman time is the time of the dominance of more and more powerful nanomedical, molecular biological, genomic, neural, computer-network, information-media and other supertechnologies. It is called posthuman because the practice of applying these supertechnologies for the benefit of a person transforms the latter into a posthuman. Our era is just the beginning moment of posthuman time [10].

The overwhelming majority of philosophers give a sharply negative assessment of the ideas of transhumanism. In particular, A. Nordmann, one of the developers of the European policy document "Converting technologies to improve human abilities", considers it much more promising to direct the capabilities of high technologies not to modifying our brain and body, but to creating a "smart environment capable of maximally adapting to human capabilities. and needs "[11].

Russian philosopher V.A. Kutyrev sharply criticizes transhumanism, noting that it should be viewed not as a shift in the humanitarian paradigm, but as a direct challenge to human identity, as a denial of humanism. In his opinion, due to the opposition of natural and artificial, "the sphere of human activity has exceeded the sphere of their life, overcame its boundaries, first sensory, and now gradually mental, and transcends into a new state, which in a certain sense is" posthuman "[12. P. 14].

E. Toffler in his book "Shock of the Future" describes the state of "futuroshock" - a kind of disease characterized by a sudden loss of a sense of reality, the ability to navigate in life, caused by fear of the future. E. Toffler thinks about the fact that mankind may not perish from the fact that the pantry of the land will be exhausted.

children from under control atomic energy. People will die out because they cannot withstand psychological stress [13. S. 5]. Thus, the question arises: does change always lead to the better? Perhaps scientific and technological progress will lead us to more dire consequences than an ecological crisis. Perhaps, in the race to improve our capabilities and human potential, we will eventually lose ourselves, our essence.
In the conditions of a technogenic civilization, society faces a problem: who will a person become? Will intrinsic human nature remain a constant, unalterable constant, or will it be transformed? After all, scientific and technological progress has led us to such achievements that were previously considered utopian. The prospect of the formation of a posthuman future, posthuman reality and posthuman civilization opens before us. If earlier technologies were aimed at improving the quality of life, now NBIC technologies are opening the veil of secrecy on the way to changing human nature. According to F. Fukuyama's forecast, humanity is entering a new phase of history, we are moving towards our posthuman future.

There are many philosophers among futurologists who are engaged in forecasting the future. Such names as F. Fukuyama, E. Toffler, J. Habermas are widely known. In their works, they consider the problems that inevitably arise with the use of new technologies, in connection with the rapid development of science. First of all, the question is posed - is human nature subject to change? F. Fukuyama defines human nature as something that gives us a sense of morality, provides us with the social skills necessary for life in society and serves as the basis for more sophisticated philosophical discussions about rights, justice and morality [14. P. 217]. The author emphasizes: "we want to protect the entire set of our complex, developed natures from attempts at self-modification. We do not want to violate the unity or continuity of human nature "[14. P. 244]. F. Fukuyama sees a guarantee of the preservation of a person in a sense of dignity immanently inherent in a person. Having considered this concept in the context of the world intellectual tradition - from Aristotle to the present day, F. Fukuyama comes to the conclusion that a sense of dignity can become a guiding thread to the formation of such political institutions that can prevent human degeneration.
Y. Habermas in his report "The concept of human dignity and the realistic utopia of human rights" at the World Philosophy Day in Moscow in 2010 noted that at the present stage of human development, the concept of human dignity, which is the moral source of the ethics of equality, human rights is of particular importance and human identity [15. P. 32].

The famous Russian philosopher V.S. Stepin emphasizes the special relevance today of preserving human identity: personality and corporeality, of a person as a biosocial structure in the context of growing and comprehensive processes of alienation. "For the first time in the history of mankind, there is a real danger of destruction of that biogenetic basis, which is a prerequisite for the individual being of a person and the formation of him as a personality" [16. P. 32].

Perhaps NBIC technologies, which themselves are a product of the evolution of civilization and science, will become for humans not a new means of "conquering" and "mastering", but a technology for fixing those properties in human nature that are necessary for finding a dynamic balance between a subject endowed with intelligence and the universe. In general, we can say that the NBIC-convergence phenomenon developing before our eyes represents a radically new stage of scientific and technological progress [17]. In terms of its possible consequences, NBIC convergence is the most important evolutionary factor and marks the beginning of transformations, when the evolution of a person itself will pass under his own rational control.

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