Homo Ludens in the post-truth game world

Abstract

The article analyses the characteristics of the phenomenon of post-truth as a term denoting a radical transformation of the media, that abandoned freedom of speech and objectivity of information in favour of the geopolitical interests of the West, considers the content of the concept of "post-truth" in modern scientific discourse; it is noted that the entry of civilisation into the era of mastering information as a leading source requires the scientific community to comprehend the problems associated with the finiteness of the connection between the semantic volumes of public information and reality, that is reflected in the phenomenon of post-truth. The authors explore the origins of this phenomenon, that fully manifested itself only in the first decades of the 21st century and is associated with the communication "explosion" and the information revolution, that elevated information to the rank of a new global resource. The fragmentation of the perception of reality in the phenomenon of post-truth acts as a means of protecting the human psyche from information overproduction, where information is used as a tool for implementing the geopolitical interests of the collective West, that owns the lion's share of the world media. The authors are not inclined to identify post-truth solely with false information and suggest considering it as the result of practical assimilation and multidirectional understanding by society of the multiplicity of realities naturally inherent in human beings. The article presents ways of conceptual consideration of the phenomenon of post-truth in the framework of correlating various historically significant evolutionary states of an individual, differing in the motivation of communicative activity. Four such states (Homo Mythicus, Homo Ludens, Homo Historicus, Homo Novus) are consistently demonstrated by the conditions of social development, but there is no clear idea to which of these types a person of a particular historical period or socio-political group can be attributed to. Post-truth is considered by the authors as a systemic phenomenon, that is a consequence of the relationship between the elements of three social processes. These include: a) gamification of existence, requiring the individual to participate in everyday experience of the plurality of surrounding realities; b) neuroticisation of social life due to high information pressure; c) the transformation of the media, that is expressed in the increased interdependence of the functions of information, entertainment and ideological influence. The authors propose a method for analysing post-truth addressees through the correlation of historically significant evolutionary states of an individual, that differ in the way of motivating communicative activity.