Human and ‘smart’ technology: the parallel evolution

Abstract

The development of humanity and culture was always inherently connected with the creation, use, and then the improvement of various tools. in the course of time they were supplemented by immaterial artifacts, which determined the Human image, the practices, the lifeworld, and the realities of the whole civilization. In the process of development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the relationship between the Human being and technology acquires great importance. The emergence of new technologies has opened up for Humanity completely new computational and manufacturing capabilities. Fundamental changes caused by the qualitative leap in the development of computational technologies bring us to the erasing conditional boundaries between the world of the Human being and the world of technology. Starving to get rid of the oppressive mundanity — monotonous, devoid of any serious creative potential and ‘not free’ labour — a person attempts to shift as many of such functions as possible onto various hardware and software. Moreover, to some degree, a person becomes a hostage of technology, which causes his/her newly-formed everyday routine. Today, technology is already becoming for a person a supplement, an assistant, a “partner” in solving routine problems, in performing various mundane functions, a companion, ‘a friend’ or ‘a pet’. The authors are trying to show that the development of technology is a human evolution ‘left behind brackets’ and to follow the trends of this evolution. An assumption is made of the possibilities on the future interaction between man and technology, on their place and role in the future high-tech world. While the Human being is becoming the Demiurge more and more, the technology fulfils the role of his/her obedient creation.