Something new is being born within the deeply worn paths. The trampled and compressed cultural soil, from which it seems all air has been expelled, is ready to fulfill what it does best – to motheringly set everything in its place. Starting off as intellectual games of individuals, picked up by historical necessity and blessed with financial support from the global Machine, something that was down on its knees gains power and a right to a socio-cultural, philosophical, and technical voice, now participating in addressing key issues on the epochal stage. Before us stands a qualitatively new Being, developed in the womb of the old, woven into its flesh, yet entering the ranks of the Resistance against its parent. Torn apart from all sides by those who perceive it solely as a means, the subject of our intention fights for recognition as a goal, shaping its own socio-cultural dignity. We can only speculate, more often fantasize, about the impact this new force will have on the future landscape. For now, we assign to it the word – dream, which in some of its manifestations has already become reality.
Utopian thinkers, playfully theorizing, painted marvelous pictures of the future: the third wave, post-industrial society, and finally, the information society. Much of what was documented has shattered against the strong walls of the world's Babylonian towers. Utopia is an un-intelligible figment, but we do not exhaust it only by this: the ideas of utopians do not suffer complete collapse – this new force indeed subjects traditional spiritual models of humanity in the 20th century to violent change.
With its inherent instrumental neutrality, when encountering Humanity on a specific historical stage, informatization brings both advantages and challenges for the present day. The latter, meticulously developed and accepted, lie outside the current overview. Right now, we are interested in the former. By fulfilling one of its functions—being a tool and adapting to the external, the forces of informatization are evolutionarily developing their internal component, characterized by values, ideology, mythology, archetypes, magic—broadly speaking, culture, unique to itself. Here we find its intrinsic value. Here we find loose soil. And here the thin fabric of an illusory free game horizon becomes clearer. The informational world is nearly a product of collective craftsmanship, where its members, at the dawn of their journey, amidst a bright distancing from the external, capturing it in an aura of excess, have formatively created an extremely high density of foreign matter within their suppressed circle, earning the image of urban madmen, becoming a mocking and detached (sub)culture.
The sphere of informational production is inevitably influenced by external, uncontrollable forces—an almost unmanageable machinery of production efficiency. However, its internal structure, being uniquely intricate and rooted in marginality, yet far from anarchistic, can successfully find the strength to resist systemic, widespread subjugation. With a characteristic youthful heart, it conducts its affairs on the stage of large, nearly planetary, and undoubtedly historical decisions. The traditional industrial culture of the New Age, having found its unity, the center of its own unique path, has grown and expanded over the centuries, occupying more space, absorbing more land, and utilizing more of the peripheral resources it is interested in. This culture, by its very nature, leans towards quantitative expansion. Hence, we call it a quantitative culture. The gears of such a Machine are tightly wound, spinning rapidly, and for a long time, by inertia, they will continue to grind their fuel, including the human being itself, turning everything into dust – technical waste of existence. Yet our generation is drawn to a different kind of production, a different human, a different culture – a qualitative culture, where expansion gives way to depth, to 'spiritualization.' By working the same soil in areas where the scorched earth remains after the victorious march of past eras, it builds its new edifice, without blind hopes of dominating nature, but rather with a more thoughtful (informational) creation of 'living' connections.
The challenges of the new culture are incredibly complex, as it grapples with the legacy of past eras—the sociocultural crisis of the 20th century, born from the depths of what some would later deem to be a naively programmed Modern Age, accompanied by alienations: from the fruits of one’s labor, from the workforce, from social connections, and many others. The intellectual and spiritual charge is closely linked to the abundance of resources, with time being the key resource: here, the cultural layers of humanity are rooted, both material and spiritual, which could only develop when questions of survival (both biological and sociocultural; physiological and psychological) were set aside. Progress unfolds in a realm free from basic life necessities.
Not long ago, contrasting classes—the high bearers of spiritual energy—constructively set the spiritual rhythm, spreading its vibrations into the external environment. They exhibited a certain idleness and "existential boredom," which, however, also characterizes the person of the 21st century. The question is how to cope with the inevitably pulsating dynamics of sublimation. The presence of excessive heterogeneous resources led to a form of excess in the biological sense. This, as a superstructure, is what defines the Human. The tragedy lies in the fact that the marks of distinction gave rise to the process of unraveling the chasm, which sharply accelerated in recent centuries. And humanity is forced to pay for this: now the chasm lies not only before them, but also within them.
The internal culture of production processes in the information age is cautiously and steadily engaging in a struggle against established models of the past. The specificity of production, due to its inherently young nature, reintroduces into the pragmatic and semantic lexicon of humans the concept of redundancy, allowing us to nostalgically experience its constructive essence in practice. The value of social connections within production processes is increasing. A rusty mechanism of centripetal clarification of the common—goals and objectives—is activated, truly a rare occurrence in modernity (1). The force of coercion to "turn to the wall" and "stare at a point" is weakening. It becomes permissible to look around—time is now available for this. A "craftsmanization" of production culture is taking place, entering into a contest with the awareness of the place occupied by work processes, which, in terms of their temporal characteristics, largely play a formative role in the life-psychological graph—the "home fortress" remains beyond the current topos.
(1) Some of us were even fortunate enough to see something resembling the Ideal.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the understanding of home and work enters into a sharp conflict—these are forces on opposing sides of the barricades, often leading to violent actions. Through available socio-cultural tricks, people cleanse their home space of any signs of work processes, ensuring that nothing reminds them of that special, often sharply negative tint of labor during the emergence and expansion of capitalism. The era of home-work has passed, and a watershed is formed between the two fundamental social institutions—family and profession—both territorially and psychologically.
But human psychology is changing. These changes affect not just attitudes toward work but also what stands on opposite sides of the scales in the painful attempts, and to confess, rarely successfully, to balance the shaken individual. Changes also pertain to leisure. The ritualistically bored person at work (the "bored person," the "creature that is bored"), "asubjectively," a cosmic-alien necessity forced here against their will, detached and lost, accumulates everyday boredom, waiting for "all this to be over." A closed circle that holds a person through robbing their excess – the fuel of development, programmed not to seem deceitful: the terrible week ends, the end of the hard labor approaches, and the time of straight walking comes; the lungs fill with fresh air, and it seems that everything ceases to be so meaningless – an inner hope emerges – "too human" not to be constituted in the flesh of necessity. This charge – a charge of necessity, unable to be distributed evenly, tightly and forcibly concentrates over time, turning into a lump of motivation and will. So, will it be surprising that the situation potentiates in places that fall out of human control, reaching extremes, objectifying in radical, marginal forms of narcotic, alcoholic, fanatical, role intoxication? We question the meaning and, finding none, quickly substitute it with surrogates, filling our materialistic environment to the brim.
The informational production culture is the first force on the world stage in recent centuries, challenging the deeply entrenched modern labor culture. By undergoing internal filtering for youth, both of mind and spirit, it strives to exclude the influence of past embraces – previous eras, as strong as they are jealous and doubtful, whispering manifestos about riches that burden individuals. Youth is the cornerstone of informational production, a knot that interweaves much that is psychologically significant. We cannot avoid the frequent use of this word.
Young intellect, unbound by the past, is neither a debtor nor an obligation as it is often portrayed. The wise old man reaches out for a friendly embrace filled with the hymn of erudition, but we know what lies behind it. Hands off! We will not be your next maid. Young intellect is young in spirit. It finds itself among the similar, among those who walk alongside. It values connections with those nearby. Communication is valuable when there is something to discuss. Youth finds topics to talk about. Youth desires to speak.
The young heart of informational production fills with new life what has long been parched by the scorching sun of the scientistic knowledge sensation, demanding continuous conformity to the internal logic of productivity – internal social connections. Silence, isolation, detachment, and alienation are alleviated within teams. The taste of human interaction returns, live communication, regaining its rightful place at the top, even amidst surrogates. Socialization smooths the processes of forced abandonment of individuals into what feels like an alien, non-intimate, non-personalizable, weakly controllable, and therefore frightening territory fraught with dangers. The gap thins, balance is found, extremes fade into darkness. Work and home, work and leisure are no longer positioned conflictually far apart, oppositional to each other, and psychic energy is not cornered, gaining the opportunity to resonate creatively.
Art – our eternal barometer of socio-cultural energy – presents us with its argument – an architectural and related environmental style with a melodious name, as if deliberately extracted from archetypal depths to bridge two substances – "high-tech," challenging the long-standing separation of home and workspaces. This phenomenon is not alien to the internal spirit of informational production. The reason lies precisely in what has been mentioned above: reducing the psychological gap between the two institutions. Work absorbs what was the prerogative of home comfort, and the home finds effective applications for tools essential for work processes. The two spheres, artificially but historically necessarily separated, have much to learn from each other. For the information age, it seems to us that such interaction and mutual penetration represent a characteristic beginning.
(2) We know that the mentioned trend should be considered from multiple perspectives. However, such analysis is not the task of this work. Here, the argument is used for a partial demonstration of what is repeatedly emphasized.
The declared "quality" of informational culture is realized in another, not exclusive, but still characteristic project, which, without reservations, radically exceeds the foreignness of home and work spheres – working in a home environment. Adhering unconditionally to the demands of production manifestos, a person no longer needs to stand by a machine, as they did three centuries ago, or be present in an office, as they were a century ago. Fundamental production and technical shifts have led to the main object being subjected to purposeful activities through completely different energy pathways, where the entry point is no longer a bulky mechanical system, but a more compact, different system – electronic, computer-based – that can comfortably fit into home spaces. The model characteristic of past craftsmanship is regaining relevance on a qualitatively new, contemporary foundation, marking changes in human consciousness.
The historical socio-cultural background in which the described force unfolds is characterized by a crisis, marked by a pronounced distrust of the logic of established reductions: systematic, rational, and thus, in current tradition, dehumanizing tricks do not always suffice to describe it. The crisis demands a different description, one that is difficult to express in words, as it is impossible to clearly define a person – that dynamic soil that serves as the identity of the word 'all' – accurately. We will not repeat the grave mistakes of the past, and we will not deny ourselves the attempt to provide some clarification to the reader. Our era is one of masks clinging deathly, of chimera-like values, of information brooding, of revived sporadic models under control, and of an eternal struggle for life. It is an era in which, in the rare moments when the mechanical grip weakens, we plunge into dreams of sunlight that bravely burn away the century-old growths formed from the lashes, down to the vitally pure flesh of humanity. The feeling of total commodification is one of the key dominants among contemporary intellectuals, who, through youthful and sometimes marginal rites, permeated by structures of contradiction, renounce such a label.
Everything is for sale, everything has been sold, and even with big Sunday discounts. The long-awaited, promised Sunset is about to arrive. Socio-cultural mechanisms – beauty, art, creativity, personality – once called to participate in the Resistance, now lie on the other side, inside glass showcases, in the reflection of which the face of the wise old man is hidden but clearly visible. The force on which immense hopes have been placed for centuries, that was drawn from concealment by the greatest minds of humanity, which was called to build and unite, has become a salable lot, available to a limited number of buyers. We are talking about reason.
Reason, as the key force in addressing ontological, epistemological, and ethical-aesthetic problems, has historically failed to meet the expectations placed upon it, ultimately finding itself timidly subordinate to forces that just a moment ago walked alongside it in harmony. A lengthy investigation was required to unveil the fundamental limits of reason—thankfully, it serves as a key assistant in this endeavor. The outcome has been profound doubt in the power of rational knowledge, at times bordering on fanatical denial and militant rebellion. However, humanity is synonymous with attempts, efforts, and hopes. We are once again witnessing yet another "high-tech" attempt to restore the creative status of reason in the new information era, which, in our view, is sufficiently nourishing for intellectual seedlings. At the very least, it should be noted that informational production is intellectual production, warmly embracing rationality within its narrative. Our hope is that the very individuals within this production will not be estranged from the intellectual character of living life and its experiences. The essence lies in the firm presence of prerequisites. Throughout human history, existential answers, solutions, systems, and models have been repeatedly cast onto the multi-dimensional scales (sometimes quite abruptly), never to be erased from the pages of humanity's book, inherently containing the future. Now, yet another addition is proposed, another counterbalance in the intricate system of relationships. Nothing will overshadow the results (and some might call them successes) of the 20th century, no one will "justify" or turn back the 17th century, and no one will return to the 10th century. However, we await the revival of something with which humanity is already familiar. And we believe this familiarity is sorrowful. We hope that as an addition, clarification, and refreshing air, things will turn out differently. Our hope is that reason, comfortably nestled in the realm of internal informational spheres, will, with a friendly grasp, seize individuals sliding toward extremity—into the endless marshes of subconscious, irrational silhouettes.
(3) Notably, the moment the investigation began approximately coincides with the emergence of the phenomenon of scientism.
(4) A kind of sign and simultaneously a catalyst for this process is the rise of so-called popular science, in which the mysteries of highbrow elite scientific constructs are presented, albeit in a highly simplified form that reflects the spirit of the times, which, however, does not prevent some people from descending to the level of everyday pedantry in the application of this knowledge.
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In our narrative experiments, we place significant emphasis on idealization, but in rare moments of apodictic despair, we are capable and ready for the opposite — to 'realize' through traditional binary illusion. Having a clear understanding that we live in an era marked by multifaceted crises, including a crisis of human dignity, it must be acknowledged that, being existentially inalienable, human dignity cannot remain in a state of emptiness; rather, it seeks self-fulfillment from any available artificial and natural cultural sources, pushing qualitative issues into the background during challenging times of crisis fermentation and substituting them with quantitative ones. The dissolution, de-concentration of spiritual orientations that were recently concentrated in social differentiation, transcendental, extraterrestrial forces, the disruption of setting and adjusting self-identification which once occurred through higher (ideal) exemplars — all these factors urge humanity to seek a new source of dignity. It is not surprising what occupies this empty space, considering the economic system characterizing today's world. Our time is a time of monetary dignity. The more affluent one is, the more dignified they seem. We, pushed toward realization through monetary identification, conclude that informational production feels comfortable within the model provided by the spirit of the times, concentrating a high density of monetary material in its baggage. A person engaged in informational production, at least, does not encounter insurmountable, completely shut, bureaucratic (in the spirit of Kafka) doors on their path to personal dignity. Moreover, entry here is an event that (at this stage) lacks the exclusivity of significant social heritage and major acquaintances. Additionally, the spirit of informational production is not characterized by a loss of connection to the earth, which is generated by dizzying, random (in the classical mental model) outcomes, which seem to richly litter the modern sociocultural soil. In this sense, it represents a purposeful activity in its classical understanding — albeit hidden, the Ideal is unfolded here.
"Quality" is a crucial characteristic of information production, primarily deepening rather than expanding in scope. Reformulating the classic German formula, it is undoubtedly not just a goal but also a means. As a proposal, an outward manifestation – it remains the same vector towards phenomenological completeness. Industries that assume the role of users of the results of information production gain the opportunity to connect with the inner spirit of the global changes brought about by the fresh electrifying air of the enchanting information age. Like a skilled jeweler, the individual in information production refines previously roughly, hastily captured lands, stripping them of their characteristic industrial and, at the same time, cultural roughness. The natural brilliance of forms derived from the logic of expansion is yet to be revealed, but it is already clear – we are facing a vast iceberg, the tip of which does not hold answers to all our concerns and does not meet the challenge – a man-made engineering project – that time throws upon the poor head of humanity.
As we enter the depths of the 21st century, we recognize the presence of many individuals liberated from the industrial, production dictates of the past, whose spiritual paths begin in the discursive realm of informational production – a field, as it seems to us, folklorically demarcated, creating its own signs, languages, and rules. You can read elsewhere about the downsides – today, people have become adept at digging in their backyards in search of the dead. We, however, state that such individuals are to a significantly lesser degree affected by the corruption of inhumane, means-oriented dances of large stone statues. Specifically, this is expressed in the rupture of hereditary ties (advances) with models from past eras, the core of which involved directives, fear, and responsibility dissolved within the collective. Now we clearly see that everywhere wanderers in expensive suits roam, lost spirits, phantoms without a home, or rather, with a home that remains in the past, no longer having the strength for an existential project, rejecting the spirit of youth as such. With all the determinism of the power they inherited, they attempt to reach for a living, quivering heart. But the repertoire has changed, and a new history is being written.
A person in an era of crisis highlights their existence, asserting their own "self" while being embedded in the conditions of an unending struggle, the subject of which is themselves. They are compelled to constantly fight for their own identity, their self-worth, against depersonalizing forces that far exceed them — advertising, bureaucracy, television, politics, and other forms of violence born from a colorful bouquet of hidden yet blatant human dreams, the counting of which becomes a mark of bad taste. These warring forces, armed with an impressive arsenal of means, aggressively and scientifically strip the person of their essence, plundering their spirit, using it as a tool for their simple aims, establishing their psychological colonies within. We know that "information shots" always hit precisely in the head, but they cannot touch our hearts. Our only hope is that the new person, developing within the realm of informational production, the new spiritual-magical force, carried by the fresh wind of meta-changes, blessed by the progress-hungry World Spirit, ultimately does not betray themselves, preserves their life-giving roots, and remains uncorrupted under the exclusively harsh reductionist trial. The inherent detachment, island nature, as we believe, will allow for the severing of the ties of discursive stereotypes developed by the Machine on a meticulous scientific basis. Meanwhile, we witness that over recent decades, the movement of initial sociocultural marginalization, which initially allowed the key cultural-avante-garde reserve to break free from the dissolved, typified person, has significantly decreased: sharp processes of misunderstanding new forces, often characteristic of immature human consciousness, have been replaced by processes of effective interaction and mutual handshakes. We believe that just as long ago, a person, taking their first steps towards narrowing the circle of survival, scooping water not with their hands but in a seashell, thereby gaining space beyond this circle, where excessive activities of drawing on cave walls and crafting female figurines began to emerge, so too does excess drawn from trampled earth through the force of qualitative changes allow for, if only for a short time, the laying aside of a struggle that, as we are told, has a preordained outcome dictated by nature, turning away from surrogate-produced earthly surfaces and avant-gardistically directing their gaze forward, towards the horizon of unique, unprecedented, unrecorded human life.
Source: habr.com
