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4. it is a basis of the functioning of society and a basis of human existence.

Therefore, we can't help but agree with V. Korogodin and V. Korogodina's opinion who claim that information is the basis of life itself.

Thus, the information can be positive and defining as well as dangerous and destroying for a person.

In the 1960s of the XX century, the theorists of post-industrial society first spoke about the importance of the information role in the modern era. The basis of the theory of the information society was laid by D. Bell, Z. Brzezinski, A. Toffler. The main features of this society were formulated in their fundamental works, published in the 70-80s. For instance, D. Bell considers the transformation of theoretical knowledge into a source of innovation and a determining factor in politics as the main features of a new society. This is that type of society where a service economy dominates, and the number of service workers associated with the health care system, education, and management is growing faster.

Toffler's theory

A. Toffler formulates the basic principles of the "code" of a new civilization ("third wave") and contrasts them with the principles of industrial civilization ("second wave"). These principles, according to Toffler, are the following:

destandardization,

despecialization,

desynchronization,

deconcentration,

de-maximization,

decentralization.

The principles above characterize all spheres into which Toffler divides society, i.e.:

technosphere,

sociosphere

infosphere – systems of production and distribution of information. The information society ("third wave") brings with it new institutions,

relationships, values, what Toffler calls a new order of life.

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The information civilization radically transforms the socio-cultural space, forming so-called information culture. This concept itself is quite multifaceted and is used in a variety of meanings.

McLuhan's theory

Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) – a Canadian philosopher and sociologist – suggested a theory based on the idea that "the medium is the message". Changing the means and methods of communication changes a person's view of the world and forms of activity. According to this McLuhan singles out the following periods of society and culture:

tribal age (pre-literate culture);

age of literacy (the print age);

electronic age (the new media cultures).

Preliterate culture. The way of transferring experience is oral speech, the perception of the world is based on hearing. A person still does not separate himself from other members of society, his thinking is predominantly mythological, and his perception of the world is syncretic. Particular attention is paid to rituals, fortune-telling, prophecies. They are built on customs and collective experience as a form of social memory. Natural signs regulate the rhythms of agricultural work This period in the history of culture is the longest.

Literate cultures are formed in the civilizations of the Ancient East (Sumer, Ancient Egypt), IV millennium BC. and exist today. The basis is writing, which has different techniques, based on different languages, different cultural traditions and forms of spiritual culture. The origin of writing stimulates the development of rational knowledge, social relations, structure (hierarchies) and the formation of a state. Writing is the most effective form of collective memory.

A special stage was the invention of book printing, which formed a new view of the world in the form of a linear perspective. Visual perception started to determine the image of the world of the coming era. However, society started to break apart and people started t get separated from the collective mind as the printed word made it possible to learn about the world individually, outside the collective consciousness of the community. The book became the first mass-produced product.

Information or screen culture is born under the dominance of electronics when modern mass media create fundamentally new forms of communication. The transition from book to screen means the return of people of the 20th century to the importance of touch and hearing in communica-

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tion with other people, thus, to the oral tradition. The fundamental difference from primitiveness is the establishment of a global communication network. It simplifies contacts between people, destroying national, state and cultural boundaries between them, actively forming a single world culture based on global technologies. The stages of information culture are:

1.Electronic technology (space communications, portable video recording, etc.).

2.The second stage of the communication revolution is associated with three great innovations: satellite communications, the creation of fibre-optic cables and cable networks, digital electronic devices using microprocessors and integrated circuits for high-speed reception and transmission of information.

Information culture, like any other culture, is the result of human cognition and activity. The creative character of the human mind manifested very strongly in the field of culture. Thanks to the culture formation, a person has created a world of symbols that reflects the surrounding reality and at the same time goes beyond it. The world of symbols found expression in such a purely human ability as speech. Speech, which played a significant role in human evolution, is a real human phenomenon. Not a single living creature on Earth is capable of producing speech. The creation of the world of symbols is the prerogative of a person in their cultural activity.

In the process of information activity, people develop and improve the culture of dealing with information, methods of obtaining, processing, storing and timely transmission. It should be noted that information in modern society is rapidly becoming obsolete, as the pace of social life is accelerating. Moreover, science, technology and industry are constantly developing as well as there appear new means of communication. Information that is of great value today may be completely devalued tomorrow, therefore, timely receipt of information increases its relevance and practical significance.

Culture is a product of various creative abilities of a person and can manifest itself in the following aspects:

1.in specific skills which are required to use technical devices (from a telephone to a personal computer and local networks);

2.in possession of analytical processing information skills;

3.in the ability to use computer information technology;

4.in the ability to extract information from different sources (both from periodicals and electronic communications, to present it in an understandable form and be able to use it effectively);

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5.in the ability to work with various information;

6.in the knowledge of the characteristics features of information flows in the field of their professional activities.

Information and culture can be presented as two intersecting spheres, in the zone of which the information space is formed. Culture and information are two social phenomena that have many similarities. First of all, their common features include universality and globality, as both culture and information have connections with various forms of human activity. Both culture and information provide human activity with such characteristics as goal-setting, creativity and others. The existence of culture and information mutually condition each other: information processes are realized through culture and vice versa. Culture can effectively influence the life of a person and society only by collecting and distributing the information about the environment where it functions.

Information and culture exist in semiotic sign systems. Artefacts are the main product of culture; they simultaneously represent informational value.

Also, culture and information form an organic unity in the process of education. On the one hand, this is a certain level of knowledge that allows a person to freely navigate in the information society and promote information interaction, on the other hand, this is a new type of thinking that is generated as a result of a person's liberation from everyday information and intellectual activities.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.What is the difference between "data", "information" and "knowledge"?

2.What is the prospects of information culture?

3.In what ways information can be positive and negative phenomenon? Give examples.

VIRTUAL REALITY AND DEFORMATION

OF PERSONALITY

The modern virtual way of culture existence is that qualitatively new state of it, which characterizes the information society. The term "virtual", comes from the Latin word "virtualis", is translated as "possible".

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Modern virtual reality is the result of information technology development. Some researchers consider virtual reality to be a new sphere of being, while information space is a form of existence of virtual reality.

The process of forming a virtual identity has a number of peculiarities that distinguish it from the same process in real life.

Identity in virtual space is always technologically mediated through "nicknames" and "avatars". The more the “nickname” is not similar to a real name, and the “avatar” to a real appearance of a person, the more the virtual identity does not coincide with the real one.

Being in the virtual space doesn't require physical presence, which allows a person to interrupt interaction with other Internet users at any time. This gives a person a sense of pseudo-safety due to the absence of a direct threat of bodily injury. A false sense of impunity can provoke an inappropriate communication style that would be unacceptable and dangerous in real communication.

Since on social networks, messengers and forums, users can hide true data about themselves and communicate anonymously, they receive a unique channel for an open and unrestrained expression of their emotions, opinions and judgments. Anonymity significantly affects the formation of the identity of the Internet user and can lead to social disinhibition. The effect of this process is in many ways similar to the effect of “person regression”.

One of the problems caused by the specifics of communications on the Internet is bullying of children and teenagers in virtual space. A sense of impunity and anonymity allow immature individuals to offend their peers, not only via private messages but also via statuses and posts on social networks. Aggressive behaviour can be expressed in different forms – from extremely negative assessments of the profile (account) to outright humiliation and gross threats, due to which a victim loses self-confidence, which can cause mental disorders, depression, psychosomatic diseases and even suicidal behavior.

In real space, a person is forced to spend significant psychological and time resources for self-presentation and communication. In a virtual environment, the construction of a "perfect self-image" requires incomparably less effort, however, it is accompanied by great temptation (and opportunities) to distort this image. Since there is no need to spend a lot of resources on self-realization in virtual space, a person is tempted to get deep into this

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space which can lead to Internet addiction. It goes without saying that real identity is more authentic, while virtual one is very often associated with psychological masks. The more a person wants to “to be someone else” the more their virtual identity is transformed. A person deliberately conceals or denies some data, changes biographical information; it is done to present the "Ideal Self" to communicants in the most favorable light.

According to the analysis, the following types of virtual personality can be distinguished:

hero

pacifist

provocateur

defender

cyberbully

troublemaker

defendant

conformist.

The new sociocultural space created on the Internet is characterized by plurality and hypertextuality. Virtual reality allows you to simulate a new world and construct a new identity that has an ideal set of qualities and characteristics. This process is greatly simplified due to the fact that the “ideal self” is built from a ready-made set of virtual material and is filled with it. However, since such an identity (“repost-identity”) is created from a ready-made material, it is secondary and its structure is not unique. A repost is a public text, which, even with a formal author, is a combination of previously published information. Thus, the personality in the virtual space is always more passive. At the same time, the virtual identity, in contrast to the real one, is more flexible and capable of controlling and correcting it depending on the changing conditions in the virtual environment.

Virtual identity has a number of functions, the main ones are:

management – rational building of your image for other Internet users;

self-knowledge – expansion of capabilities about one's own personality;

myth-making – the creation of myths about one's own personality;

"existential acting" – the desire to be someone else, someone different from one's own personality;

social engineering - the use of virtual identity as a tool to influence the consciousness and activities of other users.

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An analysis of the virtual environment features and the virtual identity characteristics inevitably leads to the question of how identity in virtual space and real identity are related. Are they alternative or complementary? Is virtual identity one of the real hypostases or it's an independent phenomenon?

For example, O. N. Astafieva insists that identity in virtual space is only one of the aspects of a real identity. However, the question of its projection into the virtual environment remains open.

M.D. Back and R.E. Wilson rejects the construction of an alternative identity and believes that the healthy person strives for authenticity and selfactualization both in real life and in virtual space. Accessible electronic selfpresentation tools, such as "avatar", "nickname", pages on social networks, allow users to easily and freely construct symbols that reflect the real identity of their personality. That is, the virtual environment is regarded by the authors not as a space for building a virtual identity, but as a means of creating a virtual shell of a person's real identity.

Unlike the real identity, the virtual one is largely controlled, corrected or replaced by a person; it may correspond to a real identity, or may differ significantly from it. In the latter case, a person, trying on roles that, for this or that reason, were not available to him in real life, deliberately distorts information about himself, thus trying to express his subjective ideas about the "ideal self" and self-actualize.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.Is virtual space good or evil?

2.How does your real identity correspond to the virtual one?

3.What is your type of virtual personality? Can you give examples of virtual personalities you've come across in virtual space?

TRANSHUMANISM: INSTRUMENTS

AND FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES PROSPECTS

Transhumanism (from Lat. Trans through; Lat. Humanitas – humanity, homo – man) is a social and philosophical movement devoted to promoting the research and development of robust human-enhancement technologies. This movement aims are to eliminate suffering, human ageing and death, as

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well as significantly strengthen physical, mental and psychological capabilities of a person.

But what is the specific content of these ideas? What technologies will help achieve these goals? Progress in what areas makes the ideas of transhumanism a reality and not a distant dream?

Our future is not determined by progress in just one technological area. The development of technology had been moving gradually before we reached the modern transhumanistic stage. For example, in the 1930s, radio could rightfully be considered one of the "future technologies". Popular science magazines depicted the world of the future, radio was controlling mighty airships in the sky, delivering information all over the world. By the end of the 20th century, the potential of radio was generally realized in the form of ICT - information and communication technologies. Many things used to play the role of future technologies, among them are organic chemistry (plastic), atomic energy, space technologies, computers etc.

INSTRUMENTS AND GOALS

OF FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

Artificial intelligence is one of the most important technologies of the future. The use of tools was the beginning of human history, leading eventually to the development of machines and the possibility of automating manual labour. Artificial intelligence promises to revolutionize mental work.

Robots will provide the presence of artificial intelligence in the physical world. Robots will take over most of the work that humans have to do today. In the society of the near future, the number of robots, from tiny MEMS devices, to kilometre-long robotic ships, could quickly outnumber humans and animals.

Cybermen. A lot of robotics achievements can be used to enhance human capabilities. Artificial mechanical limbs can be used by both smart robots and people who have lost their arms or legs as a result of an accident or genetic defect. The human body will increasingly use artificial components, which will be often superior in efficiency to those given a person by nature.

Genetic engineering determines people's control over nature and has its origins in the distant past when people domesticated the first animals and started to grow the first crops. This allowed them to live a sedentary life-

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