Ideas and Ideals

The article is devoted to the analysis of one of the most critical points of our time - the crisis of human subjectivity caused by the emergence of an alternative form of agent of social life in society - a techno-object with artificial intelligence and signs of subjectivity. The author’s goal is to justify the possibility of interpreting the nature of these devices as subject-like objects. The study is based on the explication of the concepts of the subject and subjectivity contained in both classical theories and the actor-network theory and related approaches (B. Latour, J. Law, A. Mol), in the object-oriented ontology of G. Harman, ‘onticology’ of Levi R. Bryant, theories of assemblage of M. DeLanda and complexity of E.Morin, in the concepts of the machine unconscious N. Land and techno-subject V. Mazin. An integrated characterization of a person as a subject is used: an individual being with active beginning, physicality, physicality and length, consciousness, personality characteristics and self-awareness. The criteria for categorizing some techno-objects as a type of techno-subject: autonomy and intelligence are introduced. Such techno-objects are artificial entities, assemblies, ready for transformation into techno-subjects. The difference between ‘weak’ techno-subjects (without artificial intelligence) and techno-subjects themselves (with artificial intelligence) is discussed. It is claimed that techno-subjects, genetically remaining technical entities, are in the transitional zone from one entity – ‘entity-constructor’ to another - organic techno-matter, similar to man. Accumulating components and functions of an active artificial system, techno-objects acquire the quality of subjectivity. It has been established that the artificial entity-subject manifests itself (a) in passive entity-actants; (b) in active proto-subject entities; and (c) actually in ‘entity-constructor’ - techno-subjects with the ability to integrate data, analyze it in a situation of uncertainty, reprogramming themselves and creating new algorithms.

The article consists of an introduction, a main part with three sections and a conclusion. The purpose of the study is to disclose the content of the concepts of “A Man Playing”, “A Machine Playing”, “Posthumanism” and “Essentiocognitivism”; review current advances in artificial intelligence and neural networks. The article focuses on the philosophy of posthumanism in the context of its application in machine learning, as well as a new philosophical concept called “essentiocognitivism” in its relation to artificial intelligence. The object of the study is the philosophical concept of essentiosocognitivism. The subject of the article is the consideration of certain aspects of this concept related to artificial intelligence as a “playing machine” and the positioning of a human being in the world of posthumanism. In the course of the work, critical methodology was used, on the basis of which the strengths and weaknesses of artificial neural networks were highlighted, the current state of the most famous playing neural networks, such as OpenAI and Alpha series from DeepMind, was analyzed, and the upcoming development of AI is considered in the context of a technological singularity. A philosophical comprehension has been made of certain aspects of essentiocognitivism, which play an important role in the history of the development of posthumanism. It is noted that the future of neural networks is largely determined by the gaming industry and moves towards the creation of a strong artificial intelligence, like the Playing Machine. Scientific novelty consists in examining a fundamentally new concept in the history of philosophy and substantiating the place and role of AI in the evolution of intelligent man. In the course of work, it was revealed that AI and, in particular, promising neural networks allow us to predict the probable future of mankind. As a basic thesis, we use the position derived from biological sciences that the evolution of the species Homo sapiens is not over, and will continue in a technological manner. As a result of the study, a working concept of essentiocognitivism was introduced, and the conclusion was made that trans- and posthumanism can solve many global problems of mankind. It is emphasized that the future lies in the creation of a strong AI.

The paper raises the problem, quite widely discussed not only in the frame of modern philosophizing, but in the whole complex of socio-humanitarian knowledge – the problem of the perspectives of the formation of the epoch of transhumanism. What is it - the epoch of transhumanism? What are the peculiar properties of it? And what are the specifics of that technological bias which would allow put it into practice? Is there a genetic bond between transhumanism and the sources of the traditional humanism? And why the majority of not only  philosophers, but all humanitarians speak out against ‘the unprecedented advantages’ and ‘the good’ of transhumanism, considering its realization as the era of ‘dehumanization’ of a human being? These and similar questions worry millions of intellectuals all over the world. The author of this paper tries to give his answers. He analyses the definitions of humanism, given in two authoritative philosophical dictionaries. Then he reinforces his analysis with not only his own reasonings and extrapolations, but with the positions of three outstanding thinkers and famous humanists of Renaissance – Lorenzo Valla, Pico della Mirandola and Erasmus Roterodamus. However the author tries to consider the historical tradition not isolated but to link with the technological opportunity of its transformation into those perspectives of transhumanism. That’s why the author draws attention to a remarkable writer-philosopher Aldous Huxley with his anti-utopian novel ‘Brave New World’. The author concludes the paper with offering to the reader’s attention his author’s speculative model how it can be.

Thinking about the progressive movement in which there is a transition from the simple to the complex, from the less perfect to the more perfect, the author has found its conceptualization in the ideas of progress. In the historical and cultural tradition, we observe a transformation of ideas about the role of progress in the life of society and man. The objective-universal interpretation of progress has been placed at the fore since the Enlightenment. However the subjective-personal interpretation of progress has taken the leading position nowadays as the concept of progressive development of civilization becomes disappointing. In this paper the author considers progress as a process of anthropocultural complication, to outline the relationship between the objective-general and subjective-personal interpretations of progress, which can be described through the ideas of redistribution, increment and improvement. These meanings allow us not only to consider the features of socio-cultural dynamics, but also to identify what kind of progressive development strategies are relevant for modern man. In the twentieth century, we see a return on a qualitatively different level to one of the most archaic meanings of complication: complication through redistribution. However, if in mythology redistribution was carried out due to a sacral-mystical sacrifice, at present redistribution is thought of as a utilitarian-pragmatic principle.