CULTURE and CIVILIZATION: INFORMATION And NOISE
“The Society of Knowledge”. Since the 1960-s the western (American)
futurologists and then ideologists have actively propagandized the information
ideal. D. Bell, Z. Brzezinski, A. Toffler, M. McLuhan prognosticated the
transition to the new “Information Culture” and to “Society of Knowledge” in
the near future. The principles of this culture is opposed to the principles of a
market society: the information does not decrease during consumption, what
opens really magic opportunities.
For the expired decades the technological progress, probably, have
exceeded even the most courageous forecasts of technocrats -- futurologists.
These surprising achievements, which were included in life of a wide circle of
the people, have made active occurrence of the numerous manifestes devoted
to prospects of “Information Society”. Today the themes of active discussions
are not prospects of a Postindustrial Society, but essential problems of a
“Knowledge Societies”. However the tendencies of absolutely other direction
are amplified in social and cultural life. They are in many respects opposite the
tendencies, which “classics” predicted. Concentration – Standardization -Specialization do not decrease in the global world, but they promptly increase.
That puts under doubt the concept of a “bright information future”.
The information, knowledge, noise. “Information” popular opinion
asserts, what the generation of the 2020-s will know more in 40 times than the
generation 1980-s and quantity of the scientific information is doubled every
two years. But what is this knowledge, how is this information calculated? The
slightest serious approach shows absolute senselessness of these showings. A
file with the text of “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” or
of “Hamlet” has capacity in tens thousand time less, than Coca-Cola ad.
Norbert Viner said "the importance has not quantity of send information, but
the information quality which can penetrate into communication and
accumulating devices in enough quantity to serve by the action irritant". What
parameters will we find taking in account the value, meaning, redundant of the
information, conditional character and dependence of chances, restriction of
consciousness capacity, effects of inhibition? At last the rough dollar
conversion of social importance of an individual resolutely denies the
advertising statements about the knowledge value in the modern civilization.
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Culture and civilization. Certain hurry, naive optimism of Bell, Toffler,
Castells is defined by their technocentrism, underestimation of resistibility of
conservative psychology. This psychology had quite enough forces not to cede
the position and it even successfully used an information environment for the
statement of traditional values. One more American -- James Burnham
outstripped these pioneers of information technological ideas by a quarter of
century. He wrote “The Managerial Revolution” book in 1940.
James Burnham had found the ideal society – the most effective and
technological society -- in the fascist Germany. Such ideal society is
controlled by the companies directors, bureaucrats and military men, whom
Burnham has united by name of “managers”. By all just this book has pushed
Geordge Orwell to creation dystopia “1984”.
Postindustrial society with its achievement is the surprising fruit of
rational culture, of knowledge specialization. However mass culture, means of
the communications, technologies have frightened Geordge Orwell as ideal
ground for totalitarianism. The ideology of super-high-tech society of
knowledge shows the obvious deficiency of humanism (the “third world” – the
third grade). It is meant, that threat from the fantastic novel “1984 ” is not
behind, but it is ahead.
Let's take opposition a “culture - civilization” (Spengler). In information
aspect the civilization is distinguished by the huge information accumulation,
by increasing volume of the superfluous “secondary information”, but by
small vatiations and adaptability. The culture is characterized, first of all, by
the information acceleration, by the increase of the processing rate and of the
information accumulation. Choosing for comparison the field of a scientific
thoughts (it seems this field is so preferable for the 20-th centuries) we will
find out, that the quantity of fundamental scientific discovery in 19-th century
is more than in 20-th. Globalization, universality oppress the basic instincts,
even feelings are standardized. Three hundred television channels or three
thousand of the seasonings kinds are not information branches of the culture
tree, but they are lichen bushes parasitized on the civilization trunk.
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Information technologies and new phase of culture. The information
technologies embody the fundamental property of an industrial society -expansion. Covering all world, they reach the borders of possible expansion in
the pervious world and define the limit of agressive culture.
The information technologies not only mark end of the cultural era, but
they also open a new one. Technological potential as function of imagination
is really boundless and it is capable to answer to the most fantastic human
inquiries, if these inquiries will become really urgent, claimed.
The binary code (which is used by culture already today more active, than
latin alphabet) is not computer innovation, but it is the very ancient find of the
nature. Just this code is basic language of the neuron’s mechanism of all
psyche, feelings and ideas. Such absolute universal electronic code, probably,
will provoke in culture the changes, which are not less radical, than
appearance of a written language or of printing machine.
A written language marks the making of great ancient civilizations,
registration of the law and of hierarchical culture. The alphabetic letter is the
transition to intact work of a brain of the modern man. At the expense of
scientific and technical progress the Gutenberg’s era expands borders of a
written language and of book knowledge up to oecumenical limits. However
the verbal culture as the dominant obviously exhausts itself.
The new technologies, opening an opportunity of universal translation of
any languages of a consciousness, of free compilation of emotional-figurative
and verbal-rational, are capable essentially to transform culture. Washing
away dichotomizing base of socialized values and naturally structuring the
forms of personal existence in social encirclement, they create the
preconditions for an expanding consciousness. The real project of
environment for such consciousness is global networks.
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