Низовцев Юрий Михайлович
On the relationship between consciousness and technology

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  • Аннотация:
    By now, science has linked the development of technology and the emergence of the verbal communication with the enlargement and reorganization of the hominid brain, but the reasons for the changes in the primate brain remain unknown. Moreover, the rest of the primates did not experience any changes in the brain during this period, although it is certain that the main role in this process has played by the altered consciousness of individual primates due to the abrupt transformation of the genome. Therefore, it makes sense to trace the features of the mutual influence of altered consciousness and technology from the moment of the emergence of hominids to the present day.
  
  
  Keywords: hominids, person, consciousness, self-consciousness, genome, program, adaptability, creativity.
  
  It is known that the development of technology influences the human consciousness, but science has not yet determined the degree of influence of consciousness itself on the development of technology, since it does not delimit the consciousness on its animal component and self-consciousness, which, in fact, determines the difference in the attitude of even highly developed animals and a person to technology.
  In addition, since the emergence of self-consciousness in mammals in the form of hominids in the form of self-consciousness in time about 2 million years ago, the attitude of these new creatures to technology has changed significantly, since self-consciousness unlike the animal component of consciousness, did not strive to adapt to the environment, but tried to force its carrier to purposefully influence the environment in its own interests, which were by no means limited to comfort, food, reproduction and dominance, which is characteristic of the other component of consciousness - the animal one.
  The fact is that animals strive to preserve their individual sensations that give feeling of life, and they, moreover, can be quite pleasant, unlike, for example, the artificial intelligence (AI), which does not feel anything, but only uses the sensors given to it and works in accordance with external commands or according to a given program only when connected to the energy network, and it can simply be turned off, that is, its activity is dependent on external influences, as a result of which AI cannot have its own attitude to the environment and it is always indifferent to its own existence.
  In essence, what is inherent in the animals is also characteristic of a person as a mammal, but with a significant addition - for him, not only sensations can be pleasant, but also pure work of thought, which consists in the desire to satisfy various interests, which often change, and the discovery of something new, unfamiliar.
  In other words, the genome of animals is programmed only for adaptation to the environment, for which they only need one specific thought process, which consists of processing information coming from the senses on the basis of instincts and accumulated reflexes, aimed only at preserving sensations associated with food, reproduction and dominance, while the human thinking also extends to the cognition of the environment, which he wants to change and apply not only for his own benefit, but also to satisfy needs and interests that go beyond food, dominance and reproduction.
  But this requires additional information, which can only be obtained by going beyond instincts and reflexes. However, this exit is impossible without conceptual generalizing thinking and the establishment of the most capacious and, at the same time, accessible conceptual channel in the form of verbal (oral and written) communication, which animals do not have. For this reason, they are only able to adapt to the environment, that is, their existence must be adaptive in nature, based on a corresponding program in the genome, unlike people, who have an additional program in the same genome, giving them other opportunities.
  The consequence of this combined design of the human genome is that, along with the adaptive type of thinking and actions, he has acquired the ability to manifest oneself in the arbitrary thinking, which facilitates the performance of creative actions to change the environment to satisfy both its needs and interests, but only in a combination of adaptability and creativity, which can be different.
  It is precisely this design of the genome and, accordingly, consciousness, the tool of which is the brain of the corresponding design, already has two components, but at the same time is one, that initially determines the difference in the attitude of animals and people to technology.
  A person understands that the invention of new technologies and their development provides him not only concrete benefits, but also complements the circle of immediate pleasant sensations with no less pleasant sensations from the results of their creative work, as well as from comprehending the previously unknown as in the field of culture, and science, increasing the assessment of their acts by society, while animals in a few, if they seek to use or improve tools that make life easier for them, then they direct these tools not to their own development, but to solve purely specific utilitarian problems, for example, for the sake of obtaining food or self-care, that is, trying to better settle in what is nearby, without its radical transformation.
  In particular, an elephant, in order to get rid of leeches that have attached themselves to the body, tears off a branch with its trunk and scrapes its body with it.
  The sea otter picks up stones that are convenient for opening shells. She is also capable of wrapping crabs in seaweed to immobilize them.
  Orangutans pick up appropriate sticks to measure the depth of water bodies or pierce beehives, and chimpanzees use sticks to catch termites.
  It is also interesting that some birds go even further in their use of tools for obtaining food.
  For example, Goffin's cockatoos not only select sticks for opening fruits, but also make several types of them, and some species of crows use not only sticks, but hooks and bayonets.
  That is, the use of various technological methods, devices, instruments and their complication is a feature of only a person, caused by the need to understand the environment, which became available to them due to the departure from the adaptive existence characteristic of all other creatures.
  Animals also do not neglect the opportunity to use technologies available to them, but with the difference that this application is limited only to improving their own arrangement in the environment without its significant transformation, and accordingly - without a significant influence of this transformation on their consciousness.
  Summarizing, it can be noted that the animal's behavior represents one of forms of functioning of its organism. The structure of the organism determines the needs of animals and their behavior programs. Any animal is born as a being endowed by the set of instincts. Instincts provide its adaptability to environmental conditions and limit individual variations of the behavior.
  The situation is different with a person. All people which have lived on Earth the last 35 - 40 thousand years belong to the same type (Homo sapiens).
  Thus, for years of change of organisms from the simplest to the primates the reflex system of their reaction to influence of the environment remained actually the same. In other words, programs of their actions are similar each other.
  And suddenly, in a short time, as a result of relatively short-term exposure, allegedly, to external conditions, some species of primates developed self-consciousness in the form of the rudiments of understanding their own stay in time, while others remained monkeys. At the same time, it is not known which of these monkeys "worked" more.
  Now the theory of Darwin is recognized, at least, disputable just because to explain how the monkey evolved into the person from a position of modern science is not possible.
  Obviously, for the emergence of consciousness in some primates had to be occurred certain fundamental internal changes which were not for all time of existence of organisms on the planet. What are these changes, if a person by its appearance, the structure of organs and even the structure of a genome is very close to a chimpanzee?
  We can state the following: such an internal change can only be a change in the carrier-genome programmed for reflex-instinctive activity to the carrier-genome programmed also for consciously targeted activity, in which a living being is able to separate itself from the environment, realizing itself as separate from nature, which means the emergence of self-consciousness focused not only on adaptability, but also on creativity.
  Therefore, the transformation of the most perfect primate - it could be a chimpanzee or an even more perfect primate - into a human prototype is possible only with the addition of one program to another. Apparently, the genome of some species of the most advanced monkeys was rebuilt for this additional program. Indeed, 1 percent of the human genome does not match the chimpanzee genome.
  Thus, we can say that a being, which is capable only for instinctive-reflex actions, has one program, but a being with self-consciousness has a more complex program - with a bias towards targeted and even creative activity: this program enables to the living being quickly to be reconstructed, it enables to self-study itself, to project the actions on the future, it allows to process the results for the subsequent adjustment, using already saved up memory from a much bigger database, than at primates.
  In other words, the new program allows the being to look at itself from the outside, i.e., to separate of itself from the environment, to which it was previously forced only to adapt. Thereby, this new creature acquires an additional feature - purposefully to change its habitat with the help of gradually developing technologies, and at the same time, changes under the influence of other technological support for their own lives.
  The question should also be asked: when, where predominantly and why did a person in his communities begin to engage in the discoveries, inventions and targeted use of technology?
  Recently, new facts have emerged that support our concept of changing the genome of a primate about 2 million years ago.
  One can argue about how this happened, but the facts indicate the spasmodicity of this phenomenon.
  Hominids, creatures with a modified genome, that emerged from primates began to behave quite differently from other primates.
  In particular, unlike the lazy monkeys, they developed a desire for collective labor efforts to obtain food with a gradual increase in the efficiency of gathering and hunting processes, which was facilitated by the tools they gradually invented. The earliest hominids, between 2 and 3 million years ago, like monkeys, used suitable stones and sticks if necessary. But already, according to archaeologists, about 1.7 million years ago, sharpened pebbles (choppers) and flakes of quartz and flint were found in East Africa.
  Then came choppers, scrapers, spearheads, which naturally contributed to a more effective impact on the environment, and the reason for this phenomenon was the hominids' awareness of the fact that even such primitive tools greatly simplified the extraction of food and improved protection from predator attacks, and this was most effectively achieved through collective action.
  That is, the possibility of collective labor of various kinds arose, depending on natural conditions.
  And then the problem of improving communication during labor efforts became apparent, since the cries and gestures typical of monkeys did not allow for a significant increase in the efficiency of hunting, fishing, or defense against enemies.
  A recent analysis of various archaeological materials has shown that spoken language in a rudimentary form appeared among hominids in the eastern part of Africa about 1.6 million years ago, and not 200 thousand years ago, as was previously believed.
  It was during this period, that is, 2-1.5 million years ago, that the brain structure of hominids increased and changed. In particular, the part of the brain associated with speech developed, the shape of the skull changed, and the vocal tract changed.
  It must be assumed that such evolution of the brain occurred not simply under the influence of some conditions in which ordinary primates were simultaneously with hominids, but as a result of the emergence in hominids of an awareness of their presence in time, which could be used to change the environment to their advantage. This kind of departure from a purely adaptive existence as if in a timeless extension to the reality of current time could not but cause a different attitude to one's own environment, manifested in labor efforts and the desire for coherent speech, which, in turn, caused the improvement of tools and articulate (verbal) communication.
  In other words, the change in the genome divided the consciousness of the new creature into two components: one remained the same - adaptive, the other created the possibility of creative actions, but within the framework of the general consciousness.
  However, the program that initiated the emergence of self-consciousness, oriented towards target and even creative activity, during this period was capable of being only an aid to the animal component of consciousness, tuned primarily to survival and therefore dominant in the conditions of the wild nature of universal devouring.
  Therefore, human communities were poorly distinguishable from animal herds, mainly adapting to what was available, perhaps supplementing such an existence by improving available tools for hunting, fishing, collecting fruits and plants, as well as making stone tools.
  This kind of half-asleep state of self-awareness, consisting as if an application to the adaptive (animal) component of consciousness, nevertheless, unlike the few representatives of animals mentioned above, using some primitive technologies from available tools, very slowly but steadily manifested itself not only in the desire of the new creature to make and use increasingly complex tools, but also in the accumulation of certain work skills based on the improvement of communication between individuals by forming increasingly complex verbal communication, which laid the foundation not only for a more efficient organization of work, but also for a work culture, into which, due to the overwhelming dependence of human communities on natural conditions, worship of external forces was gradually woven.
  That is, the introduction to work served as the basis for the subsequent emergence of a work culture, including education and art, as well as worship of external forces that could both destroy and help restore everything created - religion.
  The relatively low level of self-consciousness required about 2 million years to transform the genome-modified primate into an enterprising creature with its own specific interests and goals, which eventually got tired of only gathering and hunting. The enlarged brain, increasingly efficient work, which appeared as a result of verbal communication, as well as the invention of fairly complex tools and technological techniques, naturally significantly increased the level of self-consciousness with its tendency to creativity, leading the ape-like hominid to the appearance of a person known to us as homo sapiens, who began to think not only about how to get food, but began to take an interest in self-care, thereby initiating the first manifestations of culture and art, as well as recognizing the impact of external forces on life.
  He began to associate them first with nature, and then with idols and deities that one could try to appease.
  Improved tools and speech communication sooner or later had to incline man in his communities to productive management, which occurred about 10 thousand years ago. And it quickly made it possible to produce surplus products. Trade arose, and the excess in commodity production itself led to the emergence of proprietary relations, expressed in the emergence of civilization with states in places where natural conditions were most favorable or these places were at the junction of heterogeneous regions producing different products.
  All this means that outside of technological development, the emergence of civilization is impossible. Therefore, in particular, equilibrium ecological civilizations can be formed only on the ruins of a technological civilization (Nizovtsev Yu. M. When and why does an equilibrium ecological civilization appear? Monography "On the essence of a people in the frameworks of the state". Chapter 12. 2022. [Electronic resource]. Access mode: Amazon).
  However, the proprietary relations that initially turned the vanquished into living instruments of labor instead of exterminating them, at the same time significantly slowed down the development of self-consciousness during the period of slavery, since slave labor, due to its cheapness, slowed down technological development, showing, moreover, that, despite the high level of cultural development in slave societies (ancient Rome, ancient China) compared to past - wild times, it extended only to a select few, but not to the plebs and, especially, not to slaves, who were not considered people. This circumstance clearly demonstrates the comparatively low level of self-consciousness in terms of altruism in the era of prosperity of slave societies.
  However, the low efficiency of living tools of labor, not interested in their products, gradually influenced public self-consciousness in such way that it led society to a gradual rejection of slave labor and the emergence of Christianity, which proclaimed the equality of all people before God.
  Feudalism, which replaced slavery, which fell into technological stagnation, despite a significant decline in culture, provided some scope for labor activity in small-scale production within the framework of large latifundia due to a certain interest of producers in the results of their labor.
  Thus, the possibility of a gradual increase in the level of self-consciousness again opened up due to some technological development, albeit insignificant - within the cities where artisans worked, and then manufactories appeared. Such activity required both technical knowledge and a certain legal registration of the property that arose. As a result, not only schools but also universities arose.
  That is, feudalism, in essence, was an accumulative prerequisite for the so-called industrial revolution, which occurred in the middle of the second millennium AD as a result of the increase in the level of self-consciousness of the population of some European countries, associated primarily with the increase in the average level of education of the population, ready to use various progressive technical and organizational innovations, provided that labor was at least partially liberated from the framework of violence under the slogan expressed by Christ about the equality of all people, but not only.
  They also have remembered what Christ said about the Kingdom of Heaven:
  "The poor in spirit are blessed wherefore they possess by the Kingdom of Heaven." (The Gospel from Matthew. Ch. 5, item 3).
  In essence, here it says about the horizon to which each person needs to aspire because in the Kingdom of Heaven there is no property to which here all cling, there is no fight for these or those benefits. In this Kingdom all understand and love each other. Moreover, there all are as whole.
  Therefore, the person who tries to reject temptations of the material world will come nearer to a state of pure spirit, that is, to the Kingdom of Heaven.
  It is clear that it is impossible in our world, and those some people which try to make sincerely it, are called blissful.
  Nevertheless, this statement can be interpreted as follows: since God created a person to strive for spiritual things and to realize this goal, he rewarded man with various abilities and talents, then only labor can be the only real way for the manifestation of this divine gift.
  A confirmation of this idea is also the following maxim of Christ: "Meek persons are blissful wherefore they will inherit the earth". (The Gospel from Matthew. Hl. 5, item 5), from which it follows that the goodness is the gathering of meek people who do not have a subject for disputes and who quietly live and work on the earth for the common benefit.
  Christians, supporters of the attitude towards work as a good, declared themselves Protestants, who recognize the main content of life as secular work for the benefit of society, which, in essence, opened the way for scientific discoveries and innovations, and therefore, the emergence of a significant number of creative people.
  Self-consciousness is characterized by dissatisfaction with the existing, since it can reveal itself in full only with the expansion of information flows, which can only be obtained through the conscious transformation of the environment by people in the form of the formation of an artificial environment, which is the better the more a person knows and understands how the world around him functions.
  Having received the appropriate "permission" from the reformed Church, these creative persons did not slow down to intensify scientific research, offering as a result a lot of technical and organizational innovations.
  The machine production arose, ships and navigation improved, trade revived, mail and newspapers appeared, communications between the continents expanded.
  There was a turn from feudalism to capitalism, in which the liberation of labor played a major role. It occurred as a result of the increase in the level of self-consciousness of the population, stimulated by the growth of education of the population and its rejection of the reactionary dogmas of Catholic Christianity, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, by the accumulation during the period of feudalism, mainly in the cities, of the creative potential of artisans who wanted to apply it in practice. At the same time, the animal component of consciousness, always striving for well-being, did not hinder such a manifestation of self-consciousness precisely because of the growth in the level of well-being of the population where labor was at least to some extent liberated.
  That is, in this case, self-consciousness in its altruistic impulse for the first time in the history of civilization development came to the fore, turning this development towards maximum acceleration in technological terms, which, naturally, could not but influence the increase in the level of self- consciousness of the planet's population quite significantly on average, covering first the countries of Europe, and then the rest of the world, though to varying degrees.
  In confirmation of our approach to the mutual influence of self--consciousness and technology on each other, it should be noted that at the beginning of the first millennium AD in China mills, pumps, new technologies of agricultural production appeared, the compass, seismograph, gunpowder, paper, silk manufacturing technology, multi-tiered buildings were invented. However, the turn to industrial production did not happen there precisely because of forced labor and slavery in the then Chinese community, as well as the desire of this society not for development, but mainly for stability, which later led it to lag in technological development and the actual transformation in the 19th century into a colony of Europe. That is, the manifestation of self-consciousness in the form of creativity, realized in technological innovations, is not enough for a turn to industrial development. It is also necessary to manifest self-consciousness in the form of liberation of labor for the main population of the country, as well as the rejection of the desire to create stability by arranging the hierarchy of the following strict hierarchy, in which everyone must know their place.
  Therefore, the turn to industrial production did not occur in China, but in Protestant Europe one and a half thousand years later - the accumulated dissatisfaction of an educated person in his self-awareness requires more than a comfortable existence and a high position: it pushes him through the struggle of the animal component of consciousness with his primitive demands for the sublime, in this case - for a certain liberation of labor and its creative use.
  However, the accelerated technological development that had emerged gradually began to have a negative impact on self-awareness due to the lack of the ability for self-consciousness to change as quickly in such a creature limited by its biological nature as a human being, and to change quickly and equally throughout the entire mass of the planet's heterogeneous population.
  In addition, when the development of technology reached the level at which the artificial intelligence appeared, this intelligence, due to its high operating speed, enormous memory and ability to manage entire sectors of the economy according to certain programs, possessing the intelligence of logical type, and even the ability to demonstrate itself in combinatorics, demonstrated the ability to replace the human labor with its own, more effective, without a person participation wherever creativity is not required.
  And we all know very well that high-level creativity is a rather rare phenomenon, largely dependent on natural data, as a result of which almost the entire population of the planet was engaged in the past and is now engaged in work within the framework of logical thinking, the high degree of which it reaches in science and education. And this means that it can be completely replaced by the artificial intelligence even in science and education, which in these intellectual spheres of activity is not comparable to a person in terms of efficiency.
  Thus, the human activity ultimately led to the fact that he vacated his work place, thanks to which he became a person, in essence, for an unusually effective insensitive idol, which can, in particular, be controlled, now having forgot about the stupid and eternally dissatisfied masses of workers. Only, who will be these managers, if the artificial intelligence copes with management much better, if to set certain tasks for it? But, it seems, there will simply be no one to set them.
  There remains, however, a sphere of activity inaccessible to the artificial intelligence - creative, where arbitrary thinking goes beyond the scope of any programs. But creative individuals appear from the masses who study and work, and not from thin air, but the masses have already been excluded from labor by the artificial intelligence.
  It turns out that technology in this case has defeated the human self-consciousness, which has become unnecessary, having lost the possibility of development in such conditions.
  However, the technologies itself is nothing without a person.
  Such collision can thus be resolved only by the collapse of the main part of civilization, leaving some opportunities for development to its outskirts, to which such progress has not yet reached.
  On this collapse is also indicated by the already prepared project of the supranational elite of universal financial digitalization (the introduction of digital currency instead of cash and non-cash), putting everyone and everything under control, and, moreover, alienating any person from property.
  This crazy project of the financial elite, striving at all costs to retain power, will lead to its rapid demise along with a significant part of the population, since it will completely deprive society of development, which will be incapable of even being in a state of stagnation, and will quickly disintegrate due to inevitable failures in the system of universal digitalization, built on computers that are extremely sensitive to external influences, the shutdown of which for any reason, including sabotage, will cause chaos and the subsequent collapse of civilization
  
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