Homo Informaticus: Biological and Socioanthropotechnical Evolution

Abstract

The article is devoted to the philosophical analysis of the problem of the ways of evolution of modern man and the man of the future, who is often called digital, information man or e-homo (electronic man). The purpose of the article is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the digital person, as well as to understand which directions of his evolution are promising, and which are dangerous and lead to dehumanization. The author’s hypothesis is that, although the main directions of evolution of Homo sapiens in Homo informaticus lie in the socio-anthropotechnical plane, that is, they are carried out using artificial methods, yet the possibilities of biological evolution are not completely exhausted. The methodological basis of the research is a systematic review and analysis of literature in two main areas: biological (evolutionary biology, neurophysiology) and socio-philosophical (literature on the problems of building an information society and human existence in it). Interdisciplinary analysis shows that the brain of the becoming Homo informaticus undergoes significant physiological changes, entailing changes in thinking, memory, human behavior, and, therefore, indirectly – and changes in society and culture. From the “book culture” of perception of a voluminous coherent printed text, we move on to the “clip culture”. Stress has proven evolutionary significance, accordingly, in the impact of information stress, to which the inhabitants of a digital society are very much exposed, one can look for evolutionary potential. This problem is acutely relevant for modern research in the field of philosophy of biology and human ecology, as it opens up new perspectives in understanding the problem of human evolution. Never before in the history of mankind have technologies reached a level that allows them to directly interfere with the foundations of human existence. The result of the research is a philosophically grounded answer to the question in which direction the further evolution of man is possible, which, in turn, will allow us to find new and take a fresh look at the already known philosophical meanings of the concept of “man”.