From Digital Technologies to a Total Control Society?

Modern technological, informational and social processes, especially rapidly occurring in the current situation of growing complexity and uncertainty, lead to the need to adjust the established patterns of behavior and forms of communication in various sociocultural environments. Many of these processes are already unthinkable outside of digital reality. The relevance of issues related to the development, testing, implementation and application of digital services and technologies is increasing in the changing world under the influence of total shocks, in particular the coronavirus pandemic. The social sphere, in the broadest sense of this concept, is undergoing global changes: local and total self-isolation, the "closure" of borders and territories, the remote nature of learning, work, shopping, and service provision force modern science and technology to develop at an even faster pace, increasing the digital shell. In this regard, the functioning of all socio-anthropological systems becomes impossible outside the digital format, which means that digital technologies are already given as a modern stage of civilizational development. Despite the clear necessity and proven positive effect, digital technologies have a range of real and potential risks and threats that accompany almost every opportunity they provide. Risks and threats are especially pronounced when assessing long-term prospects, in particular, in strategic planning and socio-humanitarian forecasting. Among the real and potential risks and threats, one can note social degradation; risks of autism; loss of empathy in the digital generation; reduced ability to analyze information and make decisions, and transfer of these functions to artificial intelligence; reduction in the number of jobs; technical legal, ethical lack of preparation of society; cyber crimes; etc. How can the risks of digital technologies be avoided or minimized? This is a deliberate introduction of "digital hygiene", "digital diet", the systematic and gradual introduction of new technologies so that there is a real opportunity not only to assess risks, but also to manage them. The authors emphasize that the introduction of digital technologies into social reality is possible only under the control of systems of socio-technical expertise, in the process of constant monitoring of the changing landscapes of the anthropotechnosphere, exclusively with the priority of observance of laws, ethical norms, individual rights, and the well-grounded welfare of society.

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