Information and communication technologies

Information Competence, Natural Intelligence and the NBICS Revolution
Alekseeva Irina Yurievna
Doctor of philosophical science,
Leading Researcher, Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences

annotation
The formation of information competence, oriented "to the result" - the rapid extraction of the necessary information from the computer memory - leaves aside the question of a person's own intellectual abilities. The phenomenon of the development of NBICS-convergence (we are talking about the development of nano-, bio-, info-, cognitive and socio-humanitarian sciences and technologies) today is associated with hopes for a radical improvement in the future of mental, physical and social capabilities of people.
The perspective of the participation of philosophy in the NBICS makes it possible to raise the question of creating philosophical technologies aimed at the development of natural intelligence and information competence.
Keywords:
Information competence, human intelligence, NBICS, philosophical technologies.
Information competence, understood as the ability to find information using modern technical means, as well as store, process and apply it, is rightfully considered as a necessary property of a person in the information age. At the same time, the formation of information competence oriented "towards the result" - the rapid extraction of the necessary information - leaves aside the question of the development of a person's own intellectual abilities, giving priority to the ability to work with the memory of computers and use machine computing.
For more than half a century, the question of the nature and prospects of intelligence has been closely related to the question of the prospects for information and computer technologies. In the middle of the XX century, it was primarily about artificial intelligence in its correlation with natural intelligence, about the possibility of creating "true artificial intelligence". Today, the subject of discussion is increasingly becoming the changes in human abilities that occur under the influence of computers and communication technologies.
In 2011, the results of a study of changes in human memory associated with the use of the Internet, conducted under the leadership of B. Sparrow, were widely publicized [1, p. 776-778]. These changes, characterized as externalization ("externalization") and transactionalization of memory, are expressed in a decrease in the amount of information that a person considers necessary to store "in his own head", as well as in a change in the quality of the stored information. Memory experiments showed that subjects who were warned in advance that the information offered to them would not be available in the future, remembered it much better than those who later hoped to find the same information using web search engines. The hypothesis that constant access to the Internet leads to a restructuring of memory has received experimental confirmation - more and more space in memory is occupied by information on how to find certain data, and not the data itself.
It is indicative that on the basis of such studies, opposite conclusions can be drawn (and are being made) as to which learning strategies are preferable in conditions when a person is increasingly "merging" with computer networks. A fairly common position is that memorization as such should not play an essential role in modern education - it is much more important to develop the ability to understand and improve the skills of working with technical means. Radical opponents of this approach, committed to the classical ideals of education, insist on the need to protect a person from "memory killers" (which include search engines, blogs, hypertext), referring to the fact that people who are accustomed to storing information "at their fingertips" will be helpless in situations when the Internet fails.
It seems, nevertheless, that the orientation towards preparing people for life without the Internet - however, as well as the carefree attitude towards a person's ability to store knowledge in a natural medium - is a consequence of very simplified approaches to a really complex problem. The rapid development of information and communication technologies confronts us with the need to rethink in a new context long-familiar concepts and categories related to human consciousness.

1. NBICS revolution and the future of intelligence

With the development of converging technologies, hopes for a radical improvement in the future of mental, physical and social capabilities of a person are pinned. First of all, we are talking about the NBIK phenomenon, i.e. about the convergence of nano-, bio-, info- and cognitive sciences and technologies, which opens up truly fantastic possibilities for controlling biological processes at the molecular level, atomic-molecular design of materials and devices with predetermined properties, reproducing systems of living nature, revealing the secrets of the brain, creating "Strong" artificial intelligence.
Awareness of the need to participate in this process of socio-humanitarian sciences and technologies led to the emergence of the construct "NBIKS ", where" S "means" socio-humanitarian "(see: [2]). Meanwhile, humanitarian approaches presuppose comprehension of the present in relation to the past and the future, analysis of changes in value systems, comparison and construction of meanings. The foregoing fully applies to philosophical approaches. "Perspectives of a person, - rightly emphasizes V.A. Lektorsky, are largely related to the role that philosophy can play in understanding the new world created by science and technology and in the value orientation in it "[3, p. 34].

In the world-renowned report "Conversion Technologies for Improving Human Functionality. Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science ", published under the editorship of M. Rocko and W. Bainbridge, presents a number of remarkable perspectives that NBIK-convergence opens up for humanity. The point is, among other things, that by the beginning of the 20s of the 21st century, people with any level of training and abilities will be able to more quickly and efficiently acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. An unprecedented increase in the creative possibilities of engineers, artists, architects is predicted - and this increase should be achieved not only through the emergence of new tools, but also through the knowledge of the inexhaustible sources of human creativity.
NBIK convergence, the authors of the report write, "will create new scientific methodologies, engineering paradigms, and industrial products that will enhance human mental capacity and communication. By combining the relevant disciplines, science will be able to quickly advance in understanding the structure and functions of the human mind ... "[4, p. 97]. We are talking about the "Human Cognom" project, which can be compared with the well-known "Human Genome" project. It is argued that, within the framework of such a project, basic research in the field of cognitive sciences should be complemented by a thorough study of culture and personality.

The NBICS convergence is associated with the coming changes in literally all areas of human life and society, and these changes are so significant that we have the right to talk about the NBICS revolution. You can compare the beginning of this revolution with the beginning of the computer revolution. Today, many are skeptical about the NBICS phenomenon, considering it a political construct created to receive significant financial investments in relevant research areas. However, we remember how, at the beginning of the computer revolution, its enthusiasts were reproached for making insufficiently strong arguments for funding research, advertising certain types of industrial products and their manufacturers, exaggerating the capabilities of computer technology and drawing too optimistically the future. Not all of these reproaches were groundless. And not everything that was predicted at the beginning of the computer revolution has become reality. Nevertheless, many expectations and fears were justified. In addition, phenomena arose that were not even foreseen by science fiction writers and futurists. One way or another, the computer revolution itself has become a reality, which has changed the world and human life.

J. Sporer from IBM draws attention to the fact that it is among futurologists that speculative speculations can be found about what changes NBICS convergence will lead to in a person. These changes are compared with those that once led to the emergence of speech in our distant ancestors, and the basis of technological progress is seen in blurring the boundaries between natural and artificial molecular systems, creating autonomous intelligent machines, extending human life, creating artificial neural networks and decoding the genome. a person, as well as in the successes of the social sciences, which are necessary for understanding memes and using collective intelligence [4, p. 102].

In the middle of the 20th century, the emergence of cybernetics gave rise to hopes for the creation of rigorous theories of thought, which should have made any philosophical speculation about this phenomenon superfluous. The beginning of the XXI century is characterized by neurophysiological reductionism in the approach to human intelligence. Prospects for understanding the human mind and its improvement are now associated with the success of neurosciences. However, attempts to explain the content and functioning of human consciousness, proceeding only from its neurophysiological basis, face fundamental difficulties. In this context, the problem of qualia is actively discussed - the so-called phenomenal experience, subjective reality. Since the brain constructs images and representations that cannot be explained only by the sum of physical signals arriving at receptors, concepts such as "active knowledge extraction" and "world construction" are used to describe the work of the brain. T.V. Chernigovskaya emphasizes that the physiological description of consciousness as a coordinator of attention and action, performing its functions thanks to a highly ramified neural network, is just one of the possible descriptions. "Today I seem to all agree, - she writes, - that subjective states and all mental phenomena (conscious and unconscious) are generated by neural networks, obviously having an addressee who interprets their "texts" or at least simply reads them. Who is this reader? We are faced with a paradox: the brain is in the world, and the world is in the brain and is largely determined by it "[5, p. 42].

The real achievements of science and technology, coupled with forecasts and presentiments of the prospects for their future development, open up new horizons for S.S. Khoruziy aptly called "anthropological imagination." Perhaps the most compelling and frightening product of the modern anthropological imagination is the idea of the posthuman. Not surprisingly, this idea is associated with a wide variety of discussions about the biotechnological future of humans. For example, F. Fukuyama, who became famous in the 90s for his publications about the approaching end of history, in the early 2000s published a book about the coming end of a person turning into a posthuman [6].

If the human mind is viewed as a hybrid structure, whose external peripheral devices (clay tablets, books, magnetic tapes, computers, etc.), decisively influence the content and ways of thinking, then does it make sense to discuss the prospects of natural intelligence as existing apart from technical systems? After all, the NBICS revolution promises a new level of brain-machine integration, the creation of not only powerful peripheral, but also implantable devices to enhance the ability to navigate in the environment, perceive and process information, and respond to changes. We are talking, in particular, about the creation of neural interfaces for receiving information directly by the human brain.
Regardless of whether these predictions come true within the specified time frame, the worries associated with natural intelligence today cannot be postponed until such brain implants or methods of stimulating magnetic stimulation of the brain through the cranium, which provide a person with powerful memory and extraordinary mental abilities, can not be postponed.

So far, the successes in improving human sensorics and in creating new sensorics based on microelectronics, nanotechnology and bioengineering are not so great as to state the achievement of a new stage in biological (more precisely, biotechnological) human evolution. By the way, the perspective of a "post-human" can be opposed to the perspective of a "techno-human" - "a man of intelligent technologized". Hopes for the "enlightened exploitation" of the discoveries of NBIK sciences are associated with the humanization of technologies, and not the dehumanization of society and individuals. But the question of how to ensure "enlightened use" is, to a large extent, a question of socio-humanitarian technologies.

The above-mentioned report on converging technologies [4] notes, in particular, that the results of efforts aimed at improving education using interactive multimedia, graphical simulation, game-like virtual reality, etc. are often disappointing. This is due to the fact that the development of educational software does not have a sufficiently deep and extensive base of cognitive sciences, reliable data on how people actually think and learn [4, p. 99]. The point is that people will literally learn to learn in newer and more effective ways, and new tools will tremendously enhance a person's creativity and personal productivity.

And yet, one should not neglect either the classical ideas about education, or the already known and proven educational methods, or the development of new teaching methods based on existing experience. Remarkable in this regard is the discovery of the role of bilingualism as a factor that increases a person's sociocognitive resource and effectively counteracts neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's disease). "If we speak two languages," writes B.M. Velichkovsky, - then the average time of the onset of neurodegenerative diseases of late age is shifted by four to five years. Today there is not a single program, not a single form of molecular action, which, even approximately, was as effective in this respect. Each additional language shifts the conditional border for about another year, expanding the expected common human resource "[7, p. 6-7]. Modern methods of neurocognitive research using a type of magnetic resonance imaging explain this fact, showing, in particular, a higher level of development of intracerebral connections in bilinguals. However, the value of knowing different languages for personal development was realized long before the advent of magnetic resonance imaging.

2. Perspectives of humanitarian technologies

With an understanding of the processes occurring in the nervous system, hopes are justifiably associated with improving the methods of teaching children and choosing the most effective ones under given circumstances. pedagogical technologies [8]. It should be emphasized, however, that pedagogical technologies themselves cannot be based solely on neuroscience data, but take into account the achievements of various fields of knowledge. Pedagogical technologies in the broadest sense of the word (including educational and educational) are closely related to psychological, social, philosophical technologies.

In the humanities, the movement from fundamental to applied research, and from the latter to technology, is more difficult to trace than in natural sciences. The very border between the fundamental and the applied is less defined here. From fundamental knowledge to the development of technology (in the process of fine-tuning which applied research can be carried out) - a movement that is quite possible and legitimate in the humanitarian fields. Actually, the idea of humanitarian technology allows us to see the humanities in a new way, the possibilities of their influence on the state of society and human life.

We must agree with L.V. Bayeva is that the consumer society cannot but influence the vision of knowledge as a value [9].
The application for the creation of technology becomes a powerful means of "justifying" the humanities, proof of its usefulness in a pragmatic society. Much of what was previously called methods and techniques, means of influencing a person and ways of organizing social structures, today receives the status of technologies - "social", "humanitarian", "socio-humanitarian", "sociocultural".
B.G. Yudin, characterizing the phenomenon of humanitarian technologies, draws attention to the fact that the adjective "humanitarian" can express both attribution to the humanities and focus on a person. We must agree with B.G. Yudin is that both of these values are important for understanding the essence of humanitarian technologies.

By the way, it is hardly possible to strictly separate the "social" and "humanitarian" technologies. The orientation of the former towards social communities, and the latter towards the individual (or individuals) makes it quite easy to understand the difference only at the abstract level. When it comes to specific technologies, this lightness can be lost. For example, advertising technologies addressed to individuals consider the latter as a target group and are aimed at achieving certain social effects. In some cases (for example, in the case of individual psychological testing), one can speak of the humanitarian (without the addition of "socio-") nature of the technology quite definitely.

Traditionally, technology was understood as a set of methods used in the production process to obtain finished products. These methods can include processing, manufacturing, changing the properties and shape of raw materials, materials and semi-finished products. Examples of technological operations and processes - machining, pressure treatment, heat treatment, assembly, etc. Technology in the traditional sense - as a set of operations and processes - is different from technology as a set of technical devices. Today the concept of technology (even if we are talking about the technology of production of material things) has changed: technology is thought of as including technology.

And yet, trying to get a broad idea of humanitarian technologies, comprehending their nature and capabilities, it is useful from time to time to correlate humanitarian technology with "conventional" technology, which ensures the production of finished products from raw materials and semi-finished products.

The need of modern society for socio-humanitarian technologies is extremely high. It is, of course, not about "technologies of deception" and the art of passing off a thing as something that it is not, but about pedagogical and educational technologies, technologies that contribute to an increase in the level of human solidarity, personal development, improvement of social management mechanisms, rational organization activities in the field of science, engineering, production. Only a small part of the accumulated resources of social and humanitarian knowledge is used today to create such technologies.

The combination of knowledge from different fields of science, the "interweaving" of the corresponding methods and approaches is simply inevitable if we are dealing with complex problems. However, ideas about professionalism and competence are associated, as a rule, with differentiation and rather narrow specialization within the framework of one science. Convergence is not limited to knowledge integration and does not always require such integration. Sometimes it is appropriate to talk about the convergent development of different areas of knowledge in the sense that what is happening in some areas contributes to the awareness of issues that are relevant to other areas, the emergence of similar methods and approaches in these areas.

The perspective of the participation of philosophy in the NBICS-convergence allows not only talking about the understanding of the processes of scientific and technological development, but also raising the question of the future of philosophy itself as a technoscience. There is nothing fundamentally impossible in the fact that philosophical technologies will also be included in the number of socio-humanitarian technologies. The range of possibilities here is very

l is wide - from logical technologies used to solve highly specialized problems to worldview technologies.

Literature
1. Sparrow B., Liu J., Wegner D. Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips // Science. 5 August 2011. Vol. 333. No. 6043.
2. Kovalchuk M.V. Convergence of Science and Technology - a Breakthrough into the Future // Russian Nanotechnologies. T. 6. 2011. Nos. 1-2.
3. Lektorsky V.A. Philosophy, Knowledge Society and Human Perspectives // Problems of Philosophy. 2010. No. 8.
4. Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance. Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science. NSF / DOC-sponsored report / Ed. by M. Roco and W. Bainbridge. Dordrecht: Kluwer Acad. Publ., 2003.
5. Chernigovskaya T. Ariadne's thread and Madeleine cakes: neural network and consciousness // In the world of science. 2012. No. 4.
6. Fukuyama F. Our posthuman future. Consequences of the biotechnological revolution. M .: Lux, 2004 / Per. from English: Fukuyama F. Our Posthuman Future. Consequences of the Biotechnology revolution. ICM, International Creative Management, Inc., 2002.
7. Velichkovsky B.M. Convergence of consciousness and technological progress // In the world of science. 2012. No. 1.
8 Stix Garry How to connect to the brain // In the world of science. 2009. No. 2.
9. Baeva L.V. Ethics and axiology of innovative science // Information Society. 2011. No. 2.
Source