The Man on the Border of the Potential and Actual: The Performance of Knowledge, Technology of the Second Order

Abstract

The question of the necessity of a new model of scientific knowledge and new models of technological development came to us in the process of developing and implementing a number of projects in machine-building and instrument-making. In these projects the necessity has arisen to introduce a new component of technologies, which enables the control of accessible complexity. Technology with such a component use knowledge about knowledge, which we call knowledge of the second order. These technologies work going on at once in the several modalities: the modalities of production and modalities of the internal organization of the man and his knowledge. These technologies include elevators through the rapids available to the complexity of knowledge. Technology with such a component we call the trans-modal technology or the technology of the second order. These technologies open up new opportunities of the person not only in the development of production, but also in the humanities and social practices.