The ideological foundations of technological singularity

© Boris Shulitski, 2019

ISBN 978-5-4496-3328-6

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Preface

Two centuries ago, Friedrich Engels emphasized: dialectical materialism must change its form in the course of each new major discovery in natural science. It was evident for him, that scientific philosophy is not a dogma, but if it claims to be a worldview, it must develop and substantially enrich itself both in respect of its form and in content together and in parallel with the scientific progress in science. As the history of the development of the Soviet philosophical school showed, that this was not always the case.

In the former Soviet Union space, philosophy today is experiencing a serious crisis, primarily because of its ignoring of the new reality that has now been formed, which is briefly described by the term “informational society”. Concentrating on the historically established, traditional model of the world cognition – through the binary opposition “matter-consciousness” – still not enough attention is paid to “information” as the third element, forming scientific ideas about objective reality and very significant for a scientific worldview the construction.

Meanwhile, here are found such intensively developed ways of creating information technologies that require reflection, primarily at the worldview, philosophical level, in order to create an adequate methodological basis for scientific research in this area, to provide an adequate understanding of human practice and creativity. It is important for us to understand, comprehend, explore this new perspective from the standpoint of its informational phenomena and give informational concept on the background of the small number of works in this area, thereby partially compensating for the lack of knowledge and ideas that has arisen here, covering the absolute blank that is also called tabula rasa. It is exactly this way, that the research program by B.G. Shulitsky is being developed, moreover, very effectively.

It is important to mention, that the author, unlike other modern research groups and teams looking for new ways, means and methods of cognition through the exploitation of metaphysical ideas, correctly focuses on the need of comprehensive using of dialectical methodology as the leading epistemological line of conceptual development in the scientific search of the third millennium. The book attempts to apply the dialectical methodology in its generalized interpretation, with the involvement of its informational element, which greatly expands its capabilities, providing its effective application in a number of interdisciplinary areas. In particular, it concerns the integrated worldview of applied internetics, where it acquires a new appearance and new functions, further, exploratory research of information-stimulated processes in nanotechnology, as well as in other areas. The author raised a number of fundamental questions. The answers to them have beenyet received by neither science nor philosophy, but these questions are of undoubted interest for interdisciplinary complex analysis and synthesis.

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Doctor of Philosophy, Leading Researcher of the Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus

Author preface’s

…To look at the world in a new way, you need to change the interface and reboot the matrix of perception. The world will reboot…

Speaking about the practical activities of man, G. W. Hegel prophetically pointed out the special role of its material elements – the instruments of labour. People “seek to satisfy their interests, but because of this, something bigger is accomplished, something that is hidden in them, but that they were not conscious about and that was not part of their intentions…”. “People work, set limited goals, achieve them, but at the same time something different is achieved than these goals people actually set…”. This is something that Hegel associates with the active nature of the Absolute Idea, which dwells beyond human passions, interests and goals, acts as if behind people’s backs, but at the same time is hidden inside them, solving the infinite task associated with the function of its self-knowledge. It is here that the brilliant prophetic insight of Hegel can be found: “The instruments of labour,” as stated in “Logic,” stand above those final goals of man, the realization of which they serve…”.

At present we see practical confirmation of Hegel’s brilliant insight. The analysis of the processes, phenomena and trends of the modern technocratic world shows that what is happening really contains elements that may be something different than the declared goals of people; these are elements that are above the interests and goals of people, as if staying behind their backs, concealed, but at the same time present in people’s goals. In this regard, exploratory research is in the field of adequate understanding and awareness of the true role and real place of a person in the world, its objective evolutionary goals and tasks, as well as optimization of ways to achieve them, taking into account its personal interests, is of utter importance. This should be possible as part of a new general scientific global picture, the formation of which has long been in demand by the scientific and technological revolution of the last few centuries.

One of the options of search for a new general scientific picture of the world is a hypothetical picture of the world, which is based on certain axioms and hypotheses. The criterion of the appropriateness of this kind of conceptual constructions is the correspondence of the conceptual conclusions of this kind to the real processes of the surrounding world, as well as its heuristic and prognostic capabilities, in particular, in the field of searching for fundamentally new, innovative technologies to be practically implemented. This criterion allows the method of successive iterations, through a series of hypothetical worldviews, to reach, step by step, the real worldview.

This book suggests a constructive research program focused on the formation of one of such possible hypothetical pictures of the world and an assessment of its correspondence to the surrounding world. An axiomatic approach is used as the basic element, that is, an experimental matching of a key (code, cipher) to the structure of actual reality in the form of an initial set of basic axioms. This is a well-known principle of stepwise scientific knowledge of the new, consisting of six stages, six steps of scientific search: “axiom → hypothesis → concept → experiment → theory → practice”. The indisputable and final criterion to verify the hypothetical conceptual constructions is the correspondence of the conceptual conclusions to the real processes of the surrounding world, as well as its heuristic and predictive capabilities that open the way to applied innovative technologies.

At the first stage, a set of basic axioms is suggested, which has shown its practical effectiveness (efficiency) as a key, a code to the structure and global processes of actual reality. The starting point for the new general scientific worldview, or let us designate it as the “energoinformational world view”, are two basic axioms:

– Dialectics is the universal inherent basic property of actual reality (the axiom of the universality of dialectics).

– Structurality is a universal inseparable basic property of actual reality (an axiom of structurality).

As a consequence, the basic mechanism for structuring actual reality in the process of its regular evolution should have a dialectical specificity. The concept of “actual reality” includes both objective and subjective reality.

The second stage of the worldview constructing is a hypothesis. In the conceptual framework the working hypothesis is suggested about the structure of actual reality, using the well-known method of scientific knowledge, namely, the method of “associative analogy”. The structure of reality is associated with the internal hierarchical structure of modern mathematical theory. The main content of the hypothesis is that the general internal structural organization of modern mathematical theory reflects the fundamental features of the structural organization of actual reality (the hypothesis of associative analogy).

To describe the model of the structure of reality within the framework of this hypothesis, auxiliary basic concepts (structural parts) of the substances “information” and “energy” are introduced. The substances “information” and “energy” are used as working concepts of the hypothesis to form a hypothetical worldview, as well as the project of research program. A certain period ago in natural science such concepts as “subtle matter”, “thermal matter”, “phlogiston”, and “entelecheia” were used in the same way. Today it is believed that these concepts were legitimate and useful as a kind of anticipation of the field worldview, the formation of which marked the beginning of a new stage in the development of the natural sciences. In our case, the essential concepts of the substances “information” and “energy” are also auxiliary concepts for generating a hypothetical worldview and research program, therefore they do not require strict justification, they should be considered as one of the possible options for working concepts of the hypothesis project, and nothing more.

You can look at the other side. There are certain mosaic representations of the special sciences of the surrounding world that implicitly bear some information about its general structure. The task of the researcher can be defined as the search for a code to decrypt this information, and the search option can be an experimental matching of the code and check it for validity. One of the well-known axiomatic variants of such a code can be considered the binary concept “material-ideal” (“matter-consciousness”). Repeatedly, another axiomatic variant may be a binary concept “energy-information”. As part of the energoinformational view of the world, it is suggested to build a system of interrelations of new concepts using selected axioms and hypotheses and on this basis to put a mosaic of separate fragments of knowledge, related to special sciences into a coherent hypothetical worldview. The conformity of the constructed hypothetical worldview with the real one is supposed to be tested based on feedback on the hypothetical construction characteristic, allowing it to serve as an effective matrix of scientific search for new phenomena, processes and new technologies in the field of special scientific disciplines.

Further, at the third stage, using this axiomatic key and the hypothesis of associative analogy, a hypothetical picture of the surrounding world is constructed, that is, the concept of the “energoinformational” world. In the hypothetical energoinformational world view, aperson is the basic element of one in the variety of interconnected and interdependent structural levels in the multilevel hierarchical organization of the surrounding world. In such a scenario, a person cannot be a “crown of nature”, a finite, terminated element in the hierarchical organization of the surrounding world. The main content of the evolutionary scenario is the process of infinite added complexity of the structural levels hierarchy, the process of self-organization of the new structural levels and forms of the surrounding world. A person is not able to stop the universal cosmological scenario of the world evolution directed to the infinite added complexity of the structural levels hierarchy, self-organization of new forms, including rationalones, of the surrounding world.

Indeed, one of the universal principles (concepts) of the dialectical theory is the principle of development. According to the generally accepted definition, development is understood as “an essential attribute of matter, an endless process of regular self-renewal, self-organization and generation of qualitatively new forms, including rational ones, of its being and movement.” Taking into account the universality of the dialectic method of cognition and in the frameworks of the concept “development”, it is obvious that organic life as a structural level of the surrounding world organization and homo sapiens as its highest form is one of the transitional forms of organization, suggesting the possibility of further generation of qualitatively new, more highly organized forms of matter, which are aimed at continuing the endless process of its regular self-renewal, self-organization, the process of qualitative, step by step, added complexity of the thinking matter structural forms “from simple – to complex”, “from the particular – to the general”.

As a result, anthropocentricity is another misconception of humanity, from it is useful to withdraw, because it inhibits the correct understanding of the evolutionary process and the real view of the surrounding world. As history has shown in the certain period, it was useful to abandon geocentrism in favor of heliocentricism, so now a similar situation is emerging for the opposition “anthropocentrism – cosmocentrism”.

To assess the adequacy of the chosen conceptual approach, a selective comparative analysis of the processes of the hypothetical worldview and the real processes of the surrounding world was carried out. A preliminary analysis showed an unambiguous correlation of hypothetical and real processes of universal meaning.

In particular, in the hypothetical view of the world at the person’s structural level, the fundamental basic trend is human production activity aimed at forming of the next structural level in an endless hierarchy of structural levels of the surrounding world organization, reflecting the endless process of regular self-renewal, self-organization and generation of qualitatively new forms of its being and movement.

Indeed, in the real worldview the main content, the “a golden thread” (according to K. Marx) of the historical process is human labor activity, development of the production base and production relations related to it (social formations). And the most noticeable tangible result of the entire historical process is the improvement of instruments of labour, the evolution of instruments of labour from the stick in the hands of ape-man to robotic industries and cybernetic monsters, from the first calculating devices to supercomputers, artificial intelligence, mechanical intelligence and the world wide web, which is developing now completely independently and spontaneously, like a real living organism.

In the hypothetical worldview, the evolutionary process unfolds in accordance with the dialectical mechanism, in which the trend of evolution is oriented towards the formation of the next structural level and manifests itself through random mutations and natural selection. Natural selection is aimed at preserving mutations that contribute to the formation of the next, more highly organized structural level in the hierarchical organization of the surrounding world structural levels. Indeed, in the real worldview, the real content of the entire world geo-economics is endless mutations of the productive relations form, as well as those of the structural organization of society, followed by the approval of the most productive and technologically effective ones. Productive and technological efficiency is determined by the level of potential for the transformation and structuring of the world, in essence – by the level of technology development – the level of the instruments of labour, both physical and intellectual.

The inherent and effective mechanism for securing the “correct” social mutations, leading to an increase in the production and technological efficiency of societies in the hypothetical worldview, is power intra- and intersocial conflicts. The indestructibility of power social conflicts throughout all real centuries-old history of mankind clearly confirms their significant role in the mechanism of the surrounding world evolution. Industrialization, informatization, cybernetization, internetization, globalization, artificial intelligence, the forthcoming expected and frightening technological singularity, etc… – all of the abovementioned and actually occurring processes fit perfectly into the framework of the dialectical mechanism of the evolution of the homo sapiens structural level, are predictable, integral and inevitable elements in a hypothetical view of the world. There are reasons to argue about the correspondence between the suggested hypothetical picture of the world and the real one.

Accordingly, further, at the fourth stage, based on a hypothetical view of the world, a working research program is formed; the directions of priority research in the special sciences are defined in terms of searching for specifically prognosticated new phenomena, processes and practical innovative technologies. As a result, the content of the fourth, experimental stage is the organization and carrying out of specific applied works in the field of special sciences in the areas of priority research, following from the general scientific hypothetical worldview. The results obtained in the field of special sciences in the form of fundamentally new phenomena, processes and innovative technologies will be indisputable evidence confirming the performance of the original axiomatic in the hypothetical view of the world, and at the same time serve as the definite criterion of the correspondence of the selected code to the real structure of the surrounding world.

The ideological aspect of the suggested concept is of particular interest. Ideological views are a fragment of the general scientific view of the world; they are more subject to variability than the general scientific worldview on the knowledge of the special sciences. The worldview, in contrast to the general scientific concept of the world, is, as a rule, general knowledge of the world in conjunction with the system of value system, with a certain subjective assessment of the concrete events and phenomena.

In the energoinformational concept, the three basic components of the suggested ideological representations about the role and place of a person in the surrounding world are three scientific disciplines – dialectical philosophy, psychoanalysis and cybernetics. These are the three components of the code, the three components of the key to explanation of the mechanism of human evolution, which successfully approached the solution of the puzzle about the role and place of homo sapiens in the structure of actual reality in the framework of the new world view. Using three initial components, one can show the universal dialectical mechanism of evolution of the of homo sapiens structural level, similar to the mechanism of evolution of other structurallevels of actual reality in accordance with the principle of self-similarity of mechanisms of evolution at all levels of the surrounding world organization.

It should be noted that at present, there are many special scientific theories and disciplines worthy of respect and attention, however, the three mentioned above can be considered as one of the possible variants of experimental matching of the code for deciphering the laws of evolutionary processes at the human structural level, nothing more. Psychoanalysis gives the key to explanation of the energy mechanism functioning at the person’s structural level in terms of the first law of dialectics (internal contradiction as the psychoenergetic source of human functioning), and cybernetics allows explaining the trend, the direction of person’s the structural level evolution in terms of the second law of dialectics (forming of the negation). The second law of dialectics predicts the possibility of the appearance of a new structural level of actual reality in the near future, following the level of homo sapiens, that is, the level of dynamic models of the New type (new generation of information technology (IT) systems).

At the same time, the process of changes, as evidenced by the third law of dialectics, will have a spasmodic, explosive, singular character with serious, perhaps even catastrophic consequences for human ideological concepts. The dialectic mechanism for the evolution of the homo sapiens structural level suggested within the framework of the energoinformational concept has all the reasons to become the basis for the development of new sociocultural theories that can adapt the human psyche to future world view cataclysms. In particular, to become a philosophical base for a number of new rapidly developing theories, such as theories of future technological singularity, trans- posthumanism and, the IT industry in general.

Consequently, the energoinformational concept suggested a constructive approach to building a general scientific picture of the world, using a hypothetical view of the world as a basis, grounded on axioms, hypotheses and constructive basic working concepts – the information and energy substances. Stated, and it is necessary to emphasize once again, as one of the possible options for auxiliary model constructs, nothing more.

Further, it is supposed to assess the adequacy of the hypothetical worldview based on the specific results of scientific research in the framework of the work program of experimental research aimed at finding specifically prognosticated new phenomena, processes and innovative technologies in the field of special sciences. And here there is required an activeinvolvement of professionals from different areas of scientific knowledge. Philosophy now looks like an outside contemplator, a “Cinderella” at the celebration of life, and it should become an effective matrix of scientific research, including that in the field of natural sciences and the rapidly developing IT industry. And this requires the unification of different, sometimes contradictory, conceptual approaches in an attempt to build an adequate general scientific worldview.

The exponential acceleration of the historical process leads to the fact that philosophical thought does not have time to comprehend the newly opening horizons of historical events, leads to the anachronism of philosophical thinking. The existing variety of theories of the world historical process (religious, secular, formational, civilizational, etc.) turns out to be helpless and childishly naive in understanding of the real processes of the surrounding world, for example, phenomena of artificial “intelligence” in the near future or the upcoming technological singularity.

A radical restructuring of ideological concepts and, in particular, the abandoning of the anthropological thesis is required. As the criterion of truth there should be recognized the real, observed in practice, processes and phenomena of the surrounding world, and not speculative piles of abstract philosophical thought, peculiar to the well-known concepts of the historical process. An unbiased and correct attitude, including that to the “carbonarist” approaches, is a necessary and indispensable condition of the effective search for a solution to interdisciplinary ideological problems.

Introduction

The end of the second and the beginning of the third millennium is distinguished very significantly against the background of human history with the rapid development of science and technology. Human capabilities in the field of knowledge and transformation of the world unusually increased. Even greater speed of science and technology evolution is expected in the third millennium. In this aspect, the role of the worldviews of researchers and the general scientific view of the world as the guiding matrix of scientific research increases many times over.