HUMAN AND TECHNOLOGIES: WHO IS A PARASITE? RESEARCH EXPERIENCE OF FOREIGN TV SERIES AND MOVIES

Abstract

Development and spread of digital technologies over all spheres of public life boost formation of a new civilizational paradigm. The very logic of political, economic and cultural processes is changing under the influence of digital technologies. The main categories of culture are undergoing transformation as a result of the rapid rearrangement of the entire way of life. In some societies, the technological component has already begun modifying the civilizational values. Various digital products acquire subjective characteristics and, among other things, influence certain cultural categories overcoming their own “natural” boundaries (in the sense of being within the framework of traditional concepts of human nature), and embrace the entire space of the technosphere. The challenges in communication and cooperation, rivalry and competition between humans and artificial subjects of various kind, be they androids or operating systems, proceed from the field of sci-fi predictions to the social and cultural spheres, turning them into the subject of legal regulation. Thus, human nature is changing: humans integrate technologies into the methods of communication, living their own corporeity and turning themselves from Homo sapiens into “inforgs” and cyborgs. At the same time, the sociocultural space is rapidly expanding primarily in two directions: firstly, spreading into a virtual, digital area and, secondly, integrating artificial subjects into human culture. Such convergence causes tectonic changes in society, even without so much as prospects for a literal, physical expansion of horizons, which should soon be disclosed to humanity in connection with a new round of global plans for outer space exploration. However, so far, the multilevel deployment of the Ecumene does not effectively contribute to solution of global problems. Instead, these problems multiply, acquire an even larger scale and superimpose on one another, posing challenges to humanity, the price of which is the survival of civilization and human beings themselves. Is it possible that its essence lies in a parasitic nature destructive to everything around it? Will human beings, thanks to new opportunities, be able to preserve the best of themselves, getting rid of their own toxic origin? Or is the destructive charge so strong that the cumulative effect, enhanced by technologies, will destroy humanity and its dreams? Nowadays, the minds of politicians and scientists, artists, writers and filmmakers are occupied with these questions. The following article analyzes the ideas, expressed by great thinkers and supported by examples from modern movies and TV series, on the scenarios of the human future in terms of our ambiguous nature.