Daria Bylieva

This article examines how artificial intelligence (AI) disrupts the conceptual foundations of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). We argue that AI's ontolytic capacity-its ability to decompose and reconfigure established categories of authorship, cultural representation , and governance-renders conventional RRI frameworks inadequate. Focusing on generative AI's role in producing and distorting cultural identities, we demonstrate how the technology functions as both a mirror and an agent of societal values. The emergence of "na-tional AI" systems further complicates this landscape by embedding particular cultural and ideological commitments into technical infrastructures. We contend that RRI must evolve beyond its Western-centric origins. It can no longer limit itself to managing the impacts of a neutral technology but must now navigate a landscape where AI is simultaneously a subject of governance, an agent in the governance process, and a battleground for global cultural and political influence. The future of RRI lies in its ability to address this tripartite challenge, fostering mechanisms for genuine epistemic inclusion in a world where the very concept of responsibility is being digitally deconstructed.

The word "technology" in the modern understanding became the subject of wide discussion only at the second part of the XX th century. Today technology is considered as ontologically distinct, no longer a dependent process but a special phenomenon. It encompasses many meanings from different discourses, the word is used as self-evident, and is employed in a wide variety of contexts, sometimes with widely divergent implications. In order to reveal the ontological heterogeneity of this concept, we consider it in three layers or levels of being: the subject-object level where technology breaks up into many objects, practices and knowledge, presented phenomenologically and closely related to various areas of scientific activity; the social level where technology permeates society as a network, system and power, a web of influences and relationships that shape the technological environment in which people exist; and the metaphysical level where technology is seen as the fate of humankind. Technology turns out to be the cornerstone of modernity, entering into a dialectical contradiction with nature and culture, and is considered as the driving force of civilizational development.

The idea of God is one of the most pervasive in human culture. It used to be considered mostly in metaphysical and ethical discussions, it has become a part of the discourse in the philosophy of technology. The metaphor of God is used by some authors to represent the role of artificial intelligence in the modern world. This paper explores four aspects of the metaphor: creation, omniscience, mystery, theodicy. The creative act shows the resemblance of humans to God, also in the sense that technology created by humans can get out of the control of the creator. The ability of AI to use data flows for analytics and prediction is considered as “omniscience” which looks mysterious due to the inability of people to intellectually grasp the work of AI. The discussion about building ethics into AI technology shows a desire to add one more feature to “omniscient and omnipotent,” namely “benevolent.” The metaphor of God as applied to AI reveals human fears and aspirations both in rational-pragmatic and symbolic terms. The metaphor of God exposes notions of transcendence in modern perceptions of technology. Also it continues the discussion about what should be the technological design of AI. Whether as co-worker or as communicator it is already putting us on a path towards thinking of a subject that is constituted in a superior way.

Technology is changing the world and becoming the world itself. The technical work as a world becomes a scheme that accommodates people and things in a seamless manner as they work together in an unforced manner. In generic terms, the relation of works and worlds, and the corresponding experience of a technical world is established with reference to Ludwig Wittgenstein. The practical and metaphorical example is the incubator for premature babies, which creates a safe atmosphere for the life of the newborn. The incubator represents a technically created world that becomes a protective «shell». The early adoption of digital technologies by children is also partly due to the desire of parents for safety and quiet. The success of early introduction to mobile devices relies greatly on new technological devices with touchscreens and visual interfaces. In the digital world, small children have much more power, agency, autonomy, the ability to change the environment, and at the same time have fun. Modern children enter the digital world at almost the same time as the physical world. They cannot distinguish digital and the physical worlds according to a criterion of reality. The convenient world of technology built by adults becomes a shell or even a trap for children that is perceived by them as a natural and necessary part of the world. Children perception becomes magical: they are affected by magic seduction of the touchscreen, which recomposes a reality that is interrupted, suspended, and returns it as modified, technicized.

The editorial discusses perspectives for a hermeneutics of science and technology. It begins by appreciating the original antagonism between hermeneutics and science, between hermeneutics and technology. While the former signifies the struggle to establish the purity, transparency, and objectivity of science, the latter concerns the symbolic dimension of technology as well as practices of sense-making in human interactions with technology. And while the antagonism of hermeneutics and science persists, the latter can be dissolved by treating technical works on a par with artworks. If there is a hermeneutic of science and not just a hermeneutic historiography or philosophical reconstruction of science, it can be found in the technical process of modeling as a mutual attunement of theory and reality by way of the model as mediator or hermeneutic device. This conclusion for the hermeneutics of science leads on to conceptions of a hermeneutics of technical works, including models as material compositions that establish what can be done in the fields of theory and practice. – From among the twelve papers in this special issue, a first group of papers struggles with and against the „original antagonism“ of science and hermeneutics, while the second group offers perspectives for a hermeneutics of technical works.

Artificial intelligence is usually considered one of the newest technical ideas based on the progress of digital technologies. However, the dream of creating artificial intelligence is one of the oldest. In the mainstream of this imaginary biological, mechanical and mimetic approaches have emerged. The biotechnical approach (e.g. homunculus) implies the launch of certain natural processes that contribute to the creation of the most intellectually advanced creatures. Mechanical technologies (e.g. the automaton) contribute to the creation of limited intelligence, but are practically feasible to the greatest extent. Although by and large all artificial intelligence technologies have an imitative component, the mimetic approach implies that similarity is sufficient. Mimetic technologies of artificial intelligence (e.g. statue, golem) include a human in a kind of game with imitations which can take the form of the sculptures of Daedalus or modern game avatars and virtual assistants. The “creation technologies” and “applications” of artificial intelligence described in legends, stories, philosophical, and technical treatises allow us to see that its creation is, first of all, a challenge, a task of the greatest complexity, the resolution of which itself serves as a reward. Modern artificial intelligence, inheriting all three approaches to creation, continues to be discussed in line with classical myths and dichotomies, primarily as the embodiment of the imitation technology of creation. Humanity is equally dissatisfied with the fact that a machine can have equal or greater intellectual abilities than a person, and with the assumption that humanity is not capable of creating such a machine.

Online literature that responds flexibly to users’ opinions is an interesting projection of the imaginary. Multiplayer online game literature is often a combination of science fiction (a world of the future with advanced digital immersion technologies) and a built-in virtual world. The main features of the genre (called LitRPG and RealRPG) at its current stage of development are the unity of the player in two worlds (or the everyday world becomes a game one), and the influence or even absorption of everyday reality by the game. The refusal to separate the game avatar from the person to some extent extrapolates the idea of the development of Metaverse. The System (i.e., assessment of development, notifications of the pumping of skills, quests) turns out to be not just a digital model of reality, but a global law of the universe, allowing us to disregard the customary laws of the physical world, to connect spatially divided worlds, neglecting death. An interesting aspect is the new attitude towards non-player characters inhabiting the virtual layer of reality. In many works of the genre, the original consideration of their main characters as «a piece of the code» is replaced by awareness of their authenticity. In general, the division into players and non-player characters in the literature is beginning to reflect the level of capabilities in the system rather than the way a character is controlled by a person or artificial intelligence. In a number of works, non-playable characters are played by socially unprotected groups of sentient beings, or the player character can play artificial intelligence in one’s absence. Social relationships in literary game worlds build an interesting way of dividing beings with whom one can adequately interact and which one can thoughtlessly destroy. Technical artifacts are considered specialized mobs with a single, clear purpose and a limited range of actions. Those who are capable of diverse reactions and unconventional behavior deserve human treatment.

This book presents the proceedings of the 24th International Conference Professional Culture of the Specialist of the Future. Professionals and experts in all fields need to be prepared to handle unfamiliar situations. Some of these are unexpected events that may occur quite suddenly out of the blue, and others may emerge in the course of technological development or predicted trends. In order to successfully confront the future, professionals therefore need to engage in hypothetical thinking as they entertain concrete scenarios or fictitious possibilities. Scientists and engineers lead the way when they employ thought experiments and systematically consider alternative realities. Educators come up with creative approaches to foster the “art of the as-if.” This highly interdisciplinary collection of 50 papers discusses the theoretical challenge of hypothetical thinking and presents practical strategies for its promotion.

Virtual Personal Assistants (VPI) are becoming part of our daily lives. The possibility of voice communication marks a new stage in the development of the interaction between people and computers. New challenges are associated not only with security issues and lack of the VPIs ability to give relevant answers to critical questions but also with the fact that the new artificial interlocutor does not always meet people’s expectations. The article discusses how the answers to the tricky questions of the virtual assistant Alice have been changing from the moment of its creation in 2017 to 2020. It was revealed that Alice not only developed the ability to respond to questions more correctly and avoid problematic topics (including those that could offend a human interlocutor), but also became more “modest” and less gender-oriented. Alice’s small talk and answers to personal questions have changed, thus the VPI hesitates to express her own opinion and make free jokes, begins to make excuses, and promises to improve, which was not observed earlier.

This essay for the inaugural issue of Technology and Language discusses the problem of finding an optimal form of human-machine communication. In the ongoing search for an alien mind, humanity seems to find it not in the infinities of space, but in its own environment. Changes in the language of human-machine interaction made it understandable not only to trained specialists but to every household. In the course of time, home appliances and devices have developed their language abilities even more and reached a very advanced level – by way of status indicators, displays, emergency sound and color signals. The transition to computer-assisted communication brought about a great diversity of human expression forms translated into the discrete digital language of technologies. According to some prognoses, the first human-robot marriage might be registered in the future, however, such a union is not the only possible human-machine alliance.

Immersing in the virtual world of the Internet, information and communication technologies are changing the human being. In spite of the apparent similarity of on-line and off-line, social laws of their existence are different. According to the analysis of games, based on the violation of the accepted laws of the world off-line, their censoring, as well as the cheating, features of formation and violations of social norms in virtual worlds were formulated. Although the creators of the games have priority in the standardization of the virtual world, society as well as players can have impact on it to reduce the realism. The violation of the prescribed rules by a player is regarded as cheating. And it is subjected to sanctions, but the attitude toward it is ambiguous, sometimes positive. Some rules are formed as a result of the interaction between players.

The study of a person existence in Internet space is certainly an actual task, since the Internet is not only a source of innovation, but also the cause of society's transformations and the social and cultural problems that arise in connection with this. Computer network is global. It is used by people of different professions, age, level and nature of education, living around the world and belonging to different cultures. It complicates the problem of developing common standards of behavior, a system of norms and rules that could be widely accepted by all users. On the other hand, the Internet space can be viewed as a new form of existence where physical laws do not work, and in connection with this, social ones are often questioned. This paper focuses on how social norms regulate relations in Internet space. The authors represents the typology of deviant behavior in the network. The empirical basis of the research includes the sociological survey of students of the senior courses in the Institute of Computer Science and Technology of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. Sociological survey allows to identify students’ understanding of Internet space. The selection of students is conditioned by the fact that IT professionals are considered simultaneously as ordinary users of the network and as future professionals in this field.

Information technologies are fundamentally changing modern society. Almost any human activity, including the caring for a pet, is acquiring new formats related to communication in the virtual space. The authors analyzed such a phenomenon as a virtual pet that has been developing since the early 90s of the 20th century on the basis of more than 100 different virtual pet modifications. The most popular among users and purchased more than 1 million times a year around the world are examined in details in this research (video game Petz, Tamagotchi, Furby, Nintendogs, Neopets, My Talking Tom). Thus in this study the evolution of a digital pet is represented. We analyzed how a person models it according to his needs and identified the main trends of the virtual pet development. These basic directions are advanced similarity with a real pet, development of entertaining aspect, virtual pet applying for practical purposes. We proposed four main factors for analyzing changes in the human-virtual pet relationship: touch, game, communication and social interaction concerning the pet.