Social assessment of technology and humanitarization of engineering in the information society

Abstract

The article considers definitions of the contemporary technology and its social and moral assessment. In the information society, humanitarization of engineering and technical education in general becomes extremely important together with the social-humanitarian knowledge in the interdisciplinary assessment of the scientific-technological development. Technology Assessment (TA) is a new scientific discipline, a theory of assessing and forecasting the development of technology, and a practice of consulting. Based on the TA, algorithms are developed to identify negative effects of technology and to make scientifically sound decisions. An interdisciplinary dialogue on the social assessment of technology should focus not only on technocratic tasks but also on the social-humanitarian methodological and epistemological foundations of the TA. In recent years, this component of the social assessment of technology has influenced the Western-European academic discourse on Responsible Research and Innovation, which reflects the scientific understanding of the importance of ethical reflection of technical activity. Thus, there is an obvious need for the combination of the social-humanitarian expertise of innovative technological projects with technical, mathematical and applied methods in the information age. Contemporary radical changes determined by the scientific-technological revolution require new approaches, methods and forms of interaction between people and communities, while their global nature determines universal ethical principles of these relationships. The post-modern information development of Russia will be accompanied not only by implementation of information technologies in all spheres of life, but also by the social-moral assessment of technology, humanization and humanitarization of engineering, strengthening personal professionalism and creative abilities.