Revisiting the Cultural and Linguistic Causality of Technogenic Stereotypes

Abstract

The object of the study is fragments of lay discourse about artificial intelligence and new technologies that express antipathy. The subject of the study is evaluative and emotional judgments about technologies and forms of their linguistic objectification, rooted in the discourse as a product of linguaculture. The authors consider the issue of pessimistic perception of technological progress in Western society. A productive way to study this issue is the stereotype as a cognitive-linguistic phenomenon. It was accepted that stereotypes play a special role in representing general features of national, social and other human character traits. The authors conclude that one of the main functions of the stereotype is its orienting function, which has influence on the components of the human being’s personality. The authors used such scientific methods as: introspection, comparison, analysis of dictionary definitions, descriptive-interpretative method, interpretation of discourse. This methods, in combination with text markup techniques, made it possible to identify fragments of discourse that were significant for analysis. The research was based on the English language texts from The Guardian and The New York Times news aggregators, on materials from MIT Technology Review and Neuroscience News magazines. The authors conclude that technogenic stereotypes in English discourse have a mythological basis in the form of religious motives and specific linguacultural images. This contrasts with the rational-critical view of information technology innovation. Intermediate findings include the conclusion about the role of media, social networks, which are the key actor of the discourse of hype about technological expansion. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that a new area of public discussion has been allocated, which is considered in the light of data on the orienting function of the stereotype, which requires academic reflection by specialists from different fields.