How the digital age is changing our ability to read. Signs of the Information Age

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Kharkov National University of Radio Electronics

ABSTRACT ON PHILOSOPHY

Becoming information age

Completed:

Graduate student

Dementyev Sergey Pavlovich

Caf. APVT, Krivulya G.F.

Kharkov 2011

Introduction 4

Society's transition to the information age 5

Information technology 9

Information networks 11

Social theory of space 13

Today M. Castells is considered one of the most authoritative sociologists in the world and he rightfully belongs to the international academic elite. M. Castells cannot be considered only as an “armchair scientist-researcher”; as a consultant, he participates in the work of large international organizations, being one of the agents of the world processes described in his book.

M. Castells was born in 1942 in Spain, for some time he was a participant in the anti-Franco movement. For political reasons, at the age of twenty, Castells emigrated to France and settled in Paris. There he studied sociology with Alain Touraine, and then taught urban sociology for 12 years in High school Social Sciences (Paris). Since 1979, M. Castells has been a professor at the University of California (Berkeley). At the same time, he worked as director of the Institute of Sociology of New Technologies at the Autonomous University of Madrid (1988-1994). Also, at various times, as a visiting professor, M. Castells lectured at the universities of Montreal, Mexico City, Caracas, Geneva, Tokyo, Boston, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Amsterdam, etc.

Professional and personal circumstances closely connect M. Castells with Russia: since 1984, he has repeatedly visited the USSR and then Russia. In the spring of 1992, he led a group of experts invited by the Government Russian Federation. Even M. Castells' wife is from Russia, and this also partly explains his interest and involvement in Russian problems.

As a theorist, M. Castells began by using the Marxist approach to urbanization issues (“The Urban Question” (1977) (French edition - 1972)). This was followed by the books “The City and the Grassroots” (1983), “The Informational City” (1989), “The Collapses of Soviet Communism: a View from the Information Society” (1995) and others. Gradually, the subject of scientific interest of M. Castells became the global processes occurring in the modern world under the influence of the explosive development of all types information technologies. The result of this interest was the fundamental study “Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture” Vol. I-III. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1996-1998.

This monograph is considered his main job. It has been translated into 12 languages. Not everyone agrees with Castells' views on modernity, but even "critics applaud his vision." Today, this is the only, unparalleled, large-scale attempt to describe and structure our civilization.

Castells' theory of the information society is based primarily on economic aspects. At the same time, the basis of the new economy is information produced by the media and supported by certain information technologies. It is worth noting that in his works the scientist predicted changes in the structure and activities of the media.

The theory of the information society developed by Castells, in contrast to the concept of the global/information economy, includes consideration of cultural/historical specifics. The author especially notes that one of the key features of the information society is a specific form social organization, in which, thanks to the new technological conditions emerging in a given historical period, the generation, processing and transmission of information have become fundamental sources of productivity and power. In this society, the social and technological forms of a given social organization permeate all spheres of activity, from the dominant ones (in the economic system) to the objects and customs of everyday life.

Another key feature of the information society is the network logic of its basic structure, which explains the title of Volume I of the monograph, The Rise of Network Society. Castells emphasizes what he calls social structure information age network society because “it is created by networks of production, power and experience that form a culture of virtuality in global flows crossing time and space... Not all social dimensions and institutions follow the logic of the network society, just as industrial societies have for a long time time included numerous pre-industrial forms of human existence. But all information age societies are indeed permeated—with varying intensities—by the ubiquitous logic of the network society, whose dynamic expansion gradually absorbs and subjugates pre-existing social forms.”

The new information society (like any other new society), according to Castells, arises “when (and if) there is a structural reorganization in the relations of production, relations of power and relations of experience. These transformations lead to equally significant modifications of the social forms of space and time and to the emergence of a new culture.” The author examines in detail changes in everyday culture, city life, the nature of time, and world politics.

According to the works of Castells, work in the information society becomes flexible and individualized. Emphasis in in this case shifts towards the employee rather than towards the employer.

The data system cited by Castells confirms that production in developed economies relies on educated people aged 25-40. Up to a third or more of human resources are practically unnecessary. He believes that the consequence of this accelerating trend is likely to be not mass unemployment, but extreme flexibility, job mobility, individualization of work and, finally, a highly segmented social structure of the labor market.

M. Castells observes and analyzes the process of transition of human society into the information age. This transition is based on the revolution in information technology, which in the 1970s laid the foundation for a new technological system that spread throughout the world. Along with changes in material technology The social and economic structure has undergone revolutionary changes: relatively rigid and vertically oriented institutions are being replaced by flexible and horizontally oriented networks through which power and the exchange of resources are exercised. For M. Castells, the formation of international business and cultural networks and the development of information technology are inextricably linked and interdependent phenomena. All spheres of life, from the geopolitics of large national states to everyday life ordinary people, change, finding themselves placed in the information space and global networks.

The revolution in information technology is “the starting point in analyzing the complexities of the formation of a new economy, society and culture.” M. Castells is not afraid of accusations of technological determinism and immediately emphasizes “technology is society, and society cannot be understood or described without its technological tools.” However, M. Castells does not accept the point of view of orthodox Marxism, and says that technology does not at all determine historical evolution and social changes. According to M. Castells, technology is a resource potential for the development of society, providing different variants social changes. At the same time, society to a large extent free to make decisions about the path of their movement. To support his position regarding the role of technology in social change, the author of the trilogy turns to the history of the development of the computer industry in the United States. According to Castells, the invention of the personal computer and the subsequent massification of users were not strictly predetermined by technological laws: the alternative to “personal computer” was the concentration of control over the development of computer technology in the hands of large corporations (IBM) and the government. With this path of development of society, totalitarian tendencies of universal surveillance are gradually increasing, the power capabilities of the government, armed with computer technology, are expanding, and society is increasingly beginning to move towards the model described by J. Orwell in the book “1984” and the dystopian film by J.L. Godard "Al Faville" (1965). At the turn of the 50s and 60s, the danger of technology monopolization was quite real, however external reasons(emerging social movements, the flourishing of counterculture, deep liberal and democratic traditions) gradually reduced it to a minimum.

The example of the history of the computer industry demonstrates only a partial dependence of changes in society on technological development, i.e. production. M. Castells assigns the same important place to experience, considered as the impact of human subjects on themselves, through the changing relationship between their biological and cultural identities. "The experience is built around endless search satisfying human needs and desires." Along with production and experience, the third important factor influencing the organization of human activity is power, which is understood by the theorist quite in the Weberian spirit - imposing the will of some subjects on others using symbolic or physical violence. In a developing society, the factor of production, which means development computer technology, has a dominant influence on both power relations and culture.

Information technologies raise the importance of knowledge and information flows. However, the increasing role of knowledge was once noted by D. Bell, A. Touraine, E. Toffler and other theorists of post-industrial society. M. Castells makes a significant distinction between the well-known concepts of the “information society” and his own concept of the “informational society”. The concepts of the information society emphasize the decisive role of information in society. According to M. Castells, information and the exchange of information have accompanied the development of civilization throughout human history and have been of critical importance in all societies. At the same time, the emerging "information society" is being constructed in such a way that "the generation, processing and transmission of information have become fundamental sources of productivity and power." One of the key features of the information society is the network logic of its basic structure. In addition, the information society is developing against the background of accelerating and contradictory processes of globalization, processes affecting all points globe, involving or excluding from the general social, symbolic and economic exchange.

Using extensive theoretical, statistical, empirical material, based on own experience and observations, appealing to the opinion of scientists, recognized experts in their fields, M. Castells offers “some elements of a research cross-cultural theory of economy and society in the information age, specifically speaking about the emergence of social structure.”

Information technologies determine the picture of the present and will even more determine the picture of the future. In this regard, M. Castells attaches particular importance to the study of how these technologies developed in the post-war period. In information technology, M. Castells includes “a set of technologies in microelectronics, the creation computer technology(machinery and software), telecommunications/broadcasting and optical-electronic industries.” Thus, the core of the transformations that the modern world is experiencing is associated with information processing and communication technologies. M. Castells offers a sociological description and understanding of the main moments in the history of the formation this kind technologies, paying much attention to the role of Silicon Valley in the development of the computer industry. The spirit of free enterprise, university intellectualism, and government contracts made Silicon Valley a leader in the computer industry.

Based on the work of a number of theorists, M. Castells outlines the boundaries of the information technology paradigm, which has several main features. Firstly, information within the framework of the proposed paradigm is the raw material of technology and, therefore, first of all, technology affects information, but not vice versa. Secondly, the effects of new technologies cover all types of human activity. Thirdly, information technology initiates the network logic of changes in the social system. Fourth, the information technology paradigm is based on flexibility, where the ability to reconfigure becomes a “decisive feature in society.” Fifthly, convergence becomes an important characteristic of the information technology paradigm specific technologies in a highly integrated system, when, for example, microelectronics, telecommunications, optical electronics and computers are integrated into information systems. Taken together, the characteristics of the information technology paradigm are the foundation of the information society.

In the 60s, the famous theorist Marshall McLuhan put forward the concept of transition modern society from the “Gutenberg Galaxy” to the “McLuhan Galaxy”. Typography made the printed symbol, the printed word, the basic unit of information exchange in Western civilization. The invention of photography, cinema, and video makes the visual image a key unit of the new cultural era. The apotheosis of the “McLuhan Galaxy” can be considered the widespread spread of television, which changed not only the environment of mass communications, but the habits and lifestyle of a significant part of humanity. “The success of television is a consequence of the basic instinct of a lazy audience.” Of course, listening to radio programs and watching television programs in no way exclude other activities. It becomes an ever-present background, the fabric of our lives. Thus, according to M. Castells, a new culture is emerging, “the culture of real virtuality.” Real virtuality is a system in which reality itself (i.e. the material/symbolic existence of people) is completely captured and immersed in virtual images, in a fictional world where external representations are not just on the screen, but themselves become experiences.

Along with television, the development of electronic computer networks (Minitel, Internet) is becoming a factor that can be considered formative for the culture of virtual reality. The Internet, like many other modern phenomena, can rightfully be considered a creation of the sixties. The history of the Internet shows how the development of computer technology, state interests and the independent spirit of universities were harnessed to create a new symbolic cosmos. M. Castells meticulously explores the stages of the formation of the Internet, i.e. its transformation from local computer network military purposes in the new global reality of the information age. However, M. Castells does not at all believe that the Internet “works” only for globalization. He believes that “computer communication is not a universal means of communication and will not be so in the foreseeable future.” "New electronic means are not separated from traditional cultures - they absorb them.” At the same time, there is a wide social and cultural differentiation leading to the formation of specific virtual communities. Members of these communities may be separated in physical space, but in virtual space they can be as traditional as communities in small towns.

M. Castells for a long time was perceived as a sociologist studying the problems of urbanization and the social structure of a modern city. The theme of the city was not forgotten in this book.

M. Castells uses network theory to analyze changes occurring in the urban environment of the information society. Network structures are reproduced both at the intracity level and at the level of relations between global cities. Network structure does not mean the disintegration of the intra-city hierarchy: information and power nodes appear in global cities, which close the main flows of information, financial resources and become points for making management decisions. Resource flows run between these nodes, and the nodes themselves are in constant competition with each other. Global nodes are concentrated in metropolitan areas, which “are very large agglomerations of people.” The defining feature of megacities is that they concentrate administrative, production and managerial higher functions all over the planet. Megacities fully reflect the contradictions of the “global-local” dichotomy: involved in global business and cultural networks, they exclude local populations from them, which become functionally useless. M. Castells believes that the marginalization of local communities occurs as a result of the economic, political and cultural expansion of megacities. M. Castells considers megacities as large-scale centers of “global dynamism”, cultural and political innovation and connecting points of all types of global networks. Thus, M. Castells gives a clear description of the processes occurring in the structure of cities during the transition to the information age.

The social theory of space develops from a combination of three factors: physical space, social space and time. According to M. Castells, “space is the expression of society” and also “space is crystallized time.” From a social point of view, which the author of the book adheres to, “space is the material support of social practices of time division.” Society, that is, social space, is built around the flow of capital, information, technology, organizational interaction, images, sounds and symbols. By flows M. Castells understands “purposeful, repeating, programmable sequences of exchanges and interactions between physically separated positions that occupy social factors in the economic, political and symbolic structures of society." Thus, “the space of flows is the material organization of social practices in divided time, operating through flows.” The space of flows is seen by M. Castells in the form of three layers of material support:

The first layer consists of a chain electronic pulses, concentrated in microelectronics, telecommunications, computer processing, broadcasting systems, high-speed transport.

The second layer consists of nodes and communication centers that ensure smooth interaction between elements integrated into global electronic networks.

The third layer refers to the spatial organization of the dominant managerial elites performing management functions.

In the global-local dichotomy, elites refer to those who are interested in developing a global power space that will allow them to control unorganized localized peoples. The elites of the information society can be considered as a spatially limited network subculture in which a lifestyle is formed that allows them to unify their own symbolic environment around the world. The layers of material support that take shape in the space of flows form the infrastructure of the society that M. Castells calls informational.

The information society is changing the perception of time. Let us recall that one of the most important signs of the beginning of modernization Western society was a change in attitude towards time. In the Middle Ages, time was event-based, when there was a time of day, a time of night, a time of holidays and a time of everyday life. The invention of the clock mechanism and parallel social changes made quantitative measurement time necessary. At the same time, the emerging bourgeoisie had a need for “a more accurate measurement of time, on which their profit depends.” This is how time ends up in the hands of those in power. At the same time, time begins to be secularized and rationalized. But this was not yet the time of the industrial age. It was still close to the "natural" biological rhythm. The bourgeois era finally turned time into an economic resource, and the technological changes accompanying it subordinated time to the mechanical rhythm of working machines.

conclusions

The need for a specifically social spatiotemporal generalization is most fully expressed in the concept of the network/information society by M. Castells. In it, society, identified with social structure, is reduced to three very common components: space, time, technology. The space of the new society is built on the flows of capital, information, technology, and organizational interactions that form a network. The space of resource flows is the dominant spatial form of the network society, which is built on top of the physical space of places. The scientific and technological revolution has brought about changes in modern society, the consequences of which we will feel for several years. The emergence of computer networks, according to many researchers, became the starting point in the formation of not only a new type of consciousness, but also new types of communication affecting all spheres of human life. Information, which has replaced the main resource of industrial society, is transmitted and distributed freely, from one network user to another, allowing the network to exist as a single organism. According to researcher Kevin Kelly, in the future, computers connected into a single global network will form a single machine capable of producing and distributing information independently. Each network user will become a “transistor” of this machine. Of course, now such an opinion looks utopian, but the pace of development of information technology makes us think about the possibility of such a development of events. At the turn of the century, Manuel Castells substantiated the appearance of such a machine in his scientific works, giving the new era a name and laying the foundations for scientific understanding new era. Traditionally, the scientific community reacts to current events occurring in society after the last wave of their discussion has subsided. This is partly due to the need for an objective and balanced approach to modern realities. However, some scientists, thanks to their unique scientific intuition, grasp the main trends, discarding momentary impulses and opinions. It seems to me that Manuel Castells can be considered precisely such a scientist. Having timely realized the emerging changes in the structure of society, he was able to model the impact of these changes on the future life of society. In addition, the scientist outlined trends that would subsequently become decisive in the life of certain areas of human effort. Given the massive and chaotic nature of the dissemination and exchange of information in the information society, traditional media, according to Castells, will become a thing of the past. According to one of the scientist’s followers, in the future, each participant in the global computer network will be engaged in the production of information. It is possible that in the next 10 years the balance will shift from information consumption to its production. However, the peculiarity of information on the network is that its producer is also its consumer. This idea has been reflected in many scientific papers. The theory of the information society, presented by Manuel Castells, deserves special attention both from scientists and the entire scientific community.

Literature

1. Castells M. “The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. M.: State University Higher School of Economics, 2000,

2. Le Goff J. Another Middle Ages: Time, work and culture of the West. Ekaterinburg: Ural Publishing House. University, 2000

3. Teplits T.K. Everything for everyone. Popular culture and modern man. M.: INION RAS, 1996.

4. Nazarov M.M. Mass communication in the modern world: methodology of analysis and research practice. M.: URSS, 1999.

5. Bell D. The Future post-industrial society. Experience in social forecasting. M.: Academia, 1999.

6. Galbraith J. New industrial society. M.: Progress, 1969.

“Cyberspace is made up of interactions and relationships, thinking and constructing itself like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Our world is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, but not where our bodies live.”
(Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace by John Barlow - the picture shows an approximate diagram of Internet traffic)

The beginning of the information age is associated with the digital revolution, just as the industrial revolution marked the beginning of the Industrial Age.

The idea is related to the concept of the digital age or digital revolution and includes the consequences of the transition from traditional industry. The Industrial Revolution came through industrialization to an economy based on the manipulation of information.

Meaning of the term[ | ]

Information Age made possible rapid global communications and the existence of information networks, which significantly changed the shape of modern society.

Sociologist Manuel Castells explains the term as follows:

Relationship to other theories and concepts[ | ]

The concept of the information age is closely related to the theoretical developments of sociologists Daniel Bell, Alvin Toffler, Peter Drucker, Manuel Castells and Marshall McLuhan. Each of them contributed to the development of the concept of post-industrial (or information) society, which is the next step in the development of human society.

Prerequisites for its origin[ | ]

With its prerequisites, the information era has the consequences of the information revolution in the field of information technology (the creation of the first computers - Z3, the Atanasov-Berry computer, MESM, ENIAC, the invention of transistors, miniaturization, global networks). These advances have made it possible to create complex technical systems, which made it possible to process huge amounts of information compared to previous years.

In parallel, the scientific basis for the effective operation and control of these systems was developed. The insufficiency of a mechanistic explanation of processes in the world has led to the emergence of a new approach in research methodology - systematic approach. In the middle of the 19th century, Norbert Wiener created a new science about the interconnections and control of systems - cybernetics, and information theory, developed by Claude Shannon, made it possible to approach information as a certain quantity that can be measured and transmitted over long distances without loss of quality.

All this laid the foundation for the information revolution, the main consequence of which was the ever-increasing great importance high-quality, relevant information.

Main features [ | ]

Economy [ | ]

Along with the development of the information society, a transition to a service economy is predicted, which is based not on the production of goods, but on the provision of services.

Culture [ | ]

There is a tendency in culture towards mass character; mass culture arises and develops. A number of subcultures emerge with their own unique characteristics: language (argot), preferences, values. E-sports emerges, in which world competitions are regularly held. Growing popularity social networks and Internet media - huge distances turn into nothing, the world becomes a “global city”. The search for one's identity becomes a problem, and violence becomes one of the main means of self-expression (M. McLuhan, “McLuhan's Awakening”).

In one of his speeches, Marshall McLuhan notes the birth of a new, electronic (that is, information) person: “We are talking about a literate person: a literate person absorbs everything like a sponge, which the new electronic person does not want to do. So, literacy is going downhill.” The issue of developing a new information culture among people is acute.

Policy [ | ]

The widespread use of the latest information processing tools (personal computers, mobile phones, etc.) for social interaction has made it possible to quickly process large amounts of information, which can flow more quickly from the source to the consumer. The associated increase in the role of the media in the organization of society makes possible new forms of government -

Information Age

“Cyberspace is made up of interactions and relationships, thinking and constructing itself like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Our world is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, but not where our bodies live.” (Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace by John Barlow - the figure shows an approximate diagram of Internet traffic)

Sociologist Manuel Castells explains the term as follows:

Relationship to other theories and concepts

The concept of the information age is closely related to the theoretical developments of sociologists D. Bell, E. Toffler, P. Drucker, M. Castells and M. McLuhan. Each of them contributed to the development of the concept of post-industrial (or information) society, which is the next step in the development of human society.

Prerequisites for its origin

With its prerequisites, IE has the consequences of the information revolution in the field of information technology (the creation of the first computers - Z3, the Atanasov-Berry computer, MESM, ENIAC, the invention of transistors, miniaturization, global networks). These achievements made it possible to create complex technical systems that made it possible to process enormous amounts of information compared to previous years.

In parallel, the scientific basis for the effective operation and control of these systems was developed. The insufficiency of a mechanistic explanation of processes in the world has led to the emergence of a new approach in research methodology - a systems approach. In the middle of ΧΧ art. N. Wiener created a new science of relationships and control of systems - cybernetics, and information theory, developed by K. Shannon, made it possible to approach information as a certain quantity that can be measured and transmitted over long distances without loss of quality.

All this laid the foundation for the information revolution, the main consequence of which was the ever-increasing importance of high-quality, relevant information.

Main features

Economy

Along with the development of the information society, a transition to a service economy is predicted, which is based not on the production of goods, but on the provision of services.

Culture

There is a tendency in culture towards mass character; mass culture arises and develops. A number of subcultures emerge with their own unique characteristics: language (argot), preferences, values. E-sports emerges, in which world competitions are regularly held. The popularity of social networks and online media is growing - huge distances are turning into nothing, the world is becoming a “global city”. The search for one's identity becomes a problem, and violence becomes one of the main means of self-expression (M. McLuhan, “McLuhan's Awakening”).

In one of his speeches, Marshall McLuhan notes the birth of a new, electronic (that is, information) person: “We are talking about a literate person: a literate person absorbs everything like a sponge, which the new electronic person does not want to do. So, literacy is going downhill.” The issue of developing a new information culture among people is acute.

Policy

The widespread use of the latest information processing tools (personal computers, mobile phones, etc.) for social interaction has made it possible to quickly process large volumes of information, which can flow more quickly from the source to the consumer. The associated increase in the role of the media in the organization of society makes possible new forms of government of society - netocracy and mediacracy.

The increasing role of information as a resource has led to the official recognition by the leading states of the world of a new type of war - information wars. Information warfare), the goal of which is not to physically destroy the enemy, but, using information (information operations, psychological operations), to gain and consolidate a competitive advantage over him, that is, to make the enemy dependent in terms of his own information self-sufficiency, to force him to use such information resources that would first turn served their own interests (state or corporation).

Issues and trends

These changes not only brought new challenges to humanity associated with the directly proportional dependence of the intensity of informatization and urbanization with the growing number of diseases associated with physical inactivity and constant stress of urban residents (total “obesity” of residents of developed countries), but also made it more possible than ever to implement the provisions of the ancient thinkers of humanity - first of all, the introduction of the positive aspects of such concepts as the noosphere and coevolution.

One of the problems is choosing the right information. Waves of spam and flood (not only on the Internet, but also in the media) sometimes make receiving really necessary, useful information a difficult task. And the widespread use of computer technology poses a number of new challenges to the information security of individual organizations, individuals and entire states (see competitive intelligence, industrial espionage, cyberwar).

The use of network technologies (based on information) made possible not only the total pooling of the resources of all mankind, but also terrorist attacks unprecedented in the history of mankind (9/11, the Nord-Ost tragedy, the London Underground bombings). Terrorism has become a serious problem.

see also

Notes

Wikimedia Foundation.

2010.

See what “Information Age” is in other dictionaries: Represents MEMBER information,, entities collecting, generating, distributing and using information, as well as systems for regulating the social relations that arise in this case.... ... Wikipedia

The other day Leonid Parfyonov in the TV show “The other day” Genre Information program of non-political news (1990 1994), Historical series (1994 2001), information analytical program (2001 2004) Author Leonid Parfyonov Director Dzhanik Fayziev ... Wikipedia

- “The other day. Our Era" book album by Leonid Parfenov, created based on the documentary series "The other day. Our era". The book consists of five volumes, the first four describe historical phenomena by decade, the fifth over a five-year period.... ... Wikipedia

adjacent system (in relation to the ERA-GLONASS system)- 3.1.13 adjacent system (in relation to the ERA GLONASS system): Automated Information system duty dispatch service authorized in accordance with the procedure provided for by law Russian Federation, to carry out functions on... ... Dictionary-reference book of terms of normative and technical documentation

History of technology By periods and regions: Neolithic revolution Ancient technologies of Egypt Science and technology of ancient India Science and technology of ancient China Technologies Ancient Greece Technologies of Ancient Rome Technologies of the Islamic world... ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Industrial Revolution (meanings). History of technology By periods and regions: Neolithic revolution Ancient technologies of Egypt Science and technology of ancient India Science and technology of ancient China ... ... Wikipedia

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Contents 1 Paleolithic era 2 10th millennium BC. e. 3 9th millennium BC uh... Wikipedia

Once upon a time, knowledge (information) was stored in very expensive basic systems, which, like the Bible, were located in the castles of dukes and bishops. The Bibles were carefully guarded by guards, and the guards allowed only tried, tested and socially aloof hackers called “monks” to the “body” of the Bible. When Johann Gutenber invented the printing press (hardware) in 1456, it heralded the advent of the Information Age, and the knowledge-information processing system allowed for the mass production of individual books (inexpensive software for home use).

Not so long ago, computers were in the same sociopolitical situation as pre-Gutenberg Bibles. The basic information processors that ran society were a monopoly of the government and huge corporations. They were carefully guarded by technician-priests who had access to classified materials. The average educated person was deliberately kept in a state of electronic illiteracy and helplessness and was understandably afraid of computers.

My first contact with computers (or rather, mainframe computers) occurred in 1950, when I was appointed director of a research project in the field of psychology conducted by the Kaiser Foundation. We built graphs and identified regular manifestations of certain qualities in people in order to learn how to conduct interpersonal personality diagnostics. In accordance with the principles of humanistic psychology, the purpose of this study was to eliminate human dependence on experts, doctors, professionals, organizations, diagnoses and various kinds of thematic interpretations. For this purpose, we conducted a survey of subjects who had to answer all our questions only “yes” or “no”, and returned the information received from them in the form of graphs and indices.

Since our research relied on directly obtained information, it was ideally amenable to computer analysis. Every day we sent reams of data to the computer room of the Kaiser Foundation, where mysterious operators turned our numbers into indices and graphs.

Computers were useful, but remained distant and inaccessible. I was suspicious of them because I saw them as devices that increase a person's dependence on experts.

In I960 I became director of the psychedelic drug research program at Harvard. This project also pursued humanistic goals: people trained to properly use psychoactive drugs ceased to depend on doctors and medical institutions. We again had to turn to computers to statistically process the subjects' responses to questions about hallucinogenic experiences during consciousness expansion sessions. Then I didn’t even imagine that these omnipotent and knowledgeable computers may someday become personal. I now know that our research into psychedelic drugs and, in fact, the entire psychedelic culture was a preparatory stage for the advent of the personal computer era.

In 1972, prominent LSD researcher John Lilly wrote a seminal monograph on the brain as an information-processing and knowledge-processing system. “Programming and metaprogramming of the human biocomputer.” Under the influence of psychedelics, it is temporarily removed protective screen consciousness, and a person directly feels the chaotic signals of the functioning brain. We are talking here about the destruction of analog perception and the chaotic change of images that turn into contrails of flashing neurons, into a chaotic proliferation of chaotic mental programs that penetrate into consciousness and slip out of consciousness in the same way as floppy disks are inserted and removed from a computer drive.

The seven million Americans who realized the colossal potential of the brain during their travels of consciousness expansion certainly paved the way for the creation of a computer society.

The advent of personal computers was a step of Gutenbergian proportions. If the personal book turned a muscular-feudal society into a mechanical-industrial one, the personal computer allowed man to survive and evolve into the information age.

Alexander Vasilenko
Head of the VMware representative office in Russia and the CIS

In today's dynamic world, the principles of doing business are changing rapidly. Mobile and cloud technologies are fundamentally transforming modern markets and forcing companies to look for new ways to compete and interact with customers. To succeed in the digital age, businesses must learn to adapt to the unpredictable changes that occur 24/7.

There are a large number of new players emerging all over the world who are immediately starting to work with consumers in new ways. They take completely new approaches to developing products, services and interacting with users. It's about Not only about companies like Uber, Facebook, Airbnb and Alibaba, experts are talking about the whole thing. The founder and president of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Klaus Schwab, spoke about this: “In the past, the big fish ate the small ones, but now the fast fish eats the slow ones.”

New dynamic competitors are not burdened by outdated processes and infrastructures and pose a real threat to conservative organizations. Those companies that deny this and do not want to accept the new paradigm of digital business risk becoming less in demand and leaving the market altogether. Today the question is not whether to change. Changes are necessary, everyone understands this. The question is how exactly to change and what to do? The new wave of IT innovation poses new strategic challenges for organizations.

1. Asymmetry in business

Today best time in history to become the first company in the industry to challenge the status quo. Thanks to the ubiquity of mobile cloud technologies, agile innovators have quick and easy access to global network“shared” online resources, including talent, capital and a market of three billion connected people around the world. In today's asymmetrical business world, startups have nothing to lose, so they are actively moving to new business models that completely change the rules of the game. Large and established players must understand that a long stay in the market will soon cease to be their competitive advantage. The requirement of the modern world: to innovate as a startup and work at the level of a large corporation.

Let's remember Kodak, a manufacturer of film and photographic equipment. The giant company, which was a leader in its industry, went bankrupt in 2013. But right now, every minute, people around the world take more photographs than ever before. This is an example of how companies that fail to adapt to change risk losing everything.

Along with IT companies, banks are one of the most innovative industries. A prime example of an innovative IT-enabled business model is banks without physical branches such as “ Tinkoff Bank", Touch Bank and many others. For traditional banks, this is a time of intense competition for consumers as many companies from other sectors begin to provide banking services. For example, telecom operators, Internet companies and gadget manufacturers that offer money transfer services, payment services and much more.

2. Near future: professional cloud era

While the cloud is a key driver of today's asymmetrical business world, the market itself cloud services is also changing rapidly. The cloud that the industry built on this moment, is in many ways similar to an unfinished bridge: these are two separate towers that have almost no connection with each other. On the one hand, we have enterprise private clouds with well-developed management, but extremely slow application delivery. On the other hand, there are external public clouds With fast delivery applications, but poor controls. In the near future, we need to move to connected and interoperable clouds so that businesses can run applications at the speed they need. The unified hybrid cloud is the future of IT and will become the industry standard for years to come.

According to IDC forecasts, the global market for public cloud services will grow by an average of 23% annually over the next four years. The domestic cloud services market, according to IDC forecasts, will grow much faster than the IT market as a whole, and by the end of 2016 its volume will amount to more than $460 million, the share of cloud services and related services will reach 13% of the Russian IT services market.

Let's imagine the infrastructure of companies in a couple of years. Businesses will appreciate the benefits of cloud computing and will use cloud resources using the IaaS model, as well as PaaS and SaaS. But for a large international company, the question arises: how to ensure the availability of all these computing resources in accordance with all requirements and regional characteristics? The solution is to create a single hybrid cloud space that will cover all private cloud computing. Hybrid apps will allow companies to provide employees with access to work applications and data from any device, anywhere and at any time. This provides unified network and application management, as well as a common level of security. Among Western companies there are already examples of creating a single hybrid cloud. For example, the biggest international network hotels of InterContinental Hotels Group, which the transition to cloud infrastructure allows to provide best service for 750 thousand numbers in 100 countries.

3. Information security: protecting people, applications and data

We now have a wide variety of security solutions available to us, but cyber hacks and data thefts continue to occur with enviable regularity. What are we missing? The answer is a common, universal architecture that allows IT departments to streamline security controls and protect what matters most: people, applications and data. In other words, what modern security systems lack is an architectural foundation. To do this, it is necessary to use a virtualization layer, which will change the very essence of cybersecurity. For the first time in history, virtualization will become the critical element between the IT infrastructure below and the applications and data above it. The use of virtualization as a core architecture is the beginning of a renaissance in security. The main thing is not to miss the moment.

In 2015, there were several large-scale hacks and leaks that led to multi-billion dollar losses. Companies affected include Anthem, Experian, Carphone Warehouse, Ashley Madison and TalkTalk. Almost every week the media receives information about new vulnerabilities in mobile platforms and an increase in the number of cyber attacks. According to a study by InfoWatch, 723 cases of leakage were registered in the first half of 2015 confidential information, which is 10% higher than the number of leaks registered during the same period in 2014. Russia has been ranked first in the ranking of leaks since 2013, and among the companies that compromised users’ personal data were VTB-24, MTS, and Russian Railways.

The traditional hardware approach to security does not provide full protection modern company, simply because it is impossible to supply hardware to every server, user, mobile phone or virtual machine. A simple example is analog and mobile telephony. In both cases, you can talk on the phone, but the user can only write SMS with mobile phone. Security technology will be implemented in the form of software that will allow you to install a firewall on any network component, be it a laptop or a server.

4. New wave of IT innovation: proactive technologies

Despite the enormous amount of innovation available to us, all the technologies we use today are fundamentally “reactive”, that is, they expect commands from us. We are on the verge of moving to a new "proactive" technology model, in which software will be able to make decisions on our behalf, managing everything from routine daily tasks to revolutionary medical procedures performed by nanorobots in the human circulatory system.

An example of such technologies now are “ smart House" on the base , analytical systems in production, as well as a variety of wearable and mobile devices. For control physical indicators body, various fitness bracelets and other “smart” accessories come to the fore, the main functions of which are measuring heart rate, number of steps, physical activity, calories burned. Soon, fitness bracelet technologies will make it possible to conduct more complete diagnostics of the body and, if indicators worsen, automatically send data to the hospital. Thus, the patient will be able to receive timely medical care in emergency situations. Or the IBM Watson supercomputer, which can analyze gigantic volumes of information, structure data and logically build parameters, which already makes it possible to diagnose some types of cancer better than the most experienced specialists do.

This just proves the fact that in the near future, “smart” things will help predict all processes several steps ahead.

5. Technological change will change industry leaders

Without a doubt, all these technological changes will have a huge impact on businesses around the world. According to forecasts, over the next ten years, 40% of publicly traded companies participating in the S&P 500 stock index will cease to exist. In other words, 4 out of 10 modern industry leaders by 2025 will merge with other companies, change their form of organization, or simply leave the market following Kodak. The fundamental shift within the technology sector will be even more pronounced. We predict that half of the companies in the current Tech 100 will disappear within 10 years. The last major challenge facing both large and small companies is to make every effort to remain relevant and current. Inaction is the biggest risk today. As IT drives change, it has the chance to become the entrepreneurs and innovators at the forefront of that change.