The features of the "electronic nomad" and the risks in his life

Darchinov Edgar Vadimovich Postgraduate student, Department of Philosophy and Socio-Political Disciplines, Kazan Innovative University named after V.G. Timiryasov 42 Moskovskaya str., Kazan, 420111, Russia darchinoved@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

The new industrial revolution is leading to rapid changes in the socio-cultural landscape. The digital age is gaining momentum, a digital society is being formed, and the digital space is proving to be comprehensive, accessible and attractive to humans. A modern individual in a digital environment carries out many business, educational, financial, and entertainment operations. As a result, the personality's worldview, lifestyle, algorithms of actions and consciousness change. As A. A. Andreev noted, today the "established foundations of life in society" (family, duty, patriotism) are being transformed, which is due to spending a lot of time in a virtual environment ^[1]. The modern individual himself receives a new form of identity, which researchers E. L. Yakovleva, N. S. Seliverstova, O. V. Grigorieva call "electronic nomadism" ^[1].

Methods. The object of the study is the "electronic nomad" and the risks arising in his life. The article uses an interdisciplinary approach and an analytical method that helps to identify the features of the "electronic nomad" and the problems that appear in his being. Many of them have not yet been widely used in philosophical discourse, which has become the novelty of the analysis undertaken.

A literary review. Both foreign and domestic researchers have contributed to the study of "electronic nomadism". Among foreign researchers, one can single out J. Attali, S. McQuire, W. Mitchell, from domestic sources – V. A. Kutyrev and E. L. Yakovlev. Based on their ideas, the author constructs a portrait of an "electronic nomad" and identifies the risks of his existence, which have already begun to assert themselves in a digital society.

Results and discussion

Let's start our analysis with the "electronic nomad". Jacques Attali calls modernity the era of global nomadism ^[3]. There are more and more people in society who lead a nomadic lifestyle rather than a sedentary one.  At the same time, nomadism is carried out not so much in the real world as in the digital world. The "electronic nomad" moves in a digital environment, and its attributes are considered technical devices (computer, mobile phone), thanks to which access to the Network is provided.

The term "digital nomads"/"digital nomads" was used in their work by T. Makimoto and D. Manners (1990). According to the authors, this category of people includes those who actively use modern technologies through mobile communication ^[4]. These ideas have been continued by other researchers.

In 1991, Jacques Attali described people as "nomads" in his work "On the Threshold of the New Millennium", describing the future. In 2006, in "A Brief History of the Future", he talks about "objects of nomadism" "or mobile devices – miniature devices that allow you to store, process, transmit information (sound, image, data) at very high speed" ^{[3, p. 39]}. As a result, a mobile phone, having miniature parameters and great functionality, becomes an impulse to change the "nomad" and his worldview ^{[3, p. 53]}.

In 2003, W. Mitchell used the phrase "electronic nomad" for the first time, meaning a technoman by it. For him, places become favorite "where electronic information flows, mobile subjects and real spaces converge in the most useful and pleasant way" ^{[3, p. 10]}. This position is confirmed by the key life principle of the "nomad": "I am part of the networks, and the network is part of me… I am in touch, so I exist" ^{[5, p. 85]}. The researcher emphasized, "in the nomadic electronic world, I become a two-legged terminal, a walking IP address, and maybe also a wireless router in an improvised mobile network" ^{[5, p. 80]}, as a result of which "I am inscribed ... in circles of electromagnetic waves radiating from me" ^{[5, p. 80]}.

In 2008, S. McQuire developed the idea that an "electronic nomad" is a technoman functioning through technology. The technological environment helps the "electronic nomad" to "build alliances, conclude deals" ^{[6, p. 303]}, but at the same time conceals negative features. As S. McQuire notes, the "electronic nomad" is "forced to live in an atmosphere of risk, where knowledge and change are unstable" ^{[6, p. 303]}. A nomad lives in a techno-world that begins to make adjustments to his lifestyle and actions ^{[6, p. 279]}. As a result of his fascination with the virtual environment, the nomad is alienated from reality, which creates certain difficulties when interacting with it and with Others.

Modern researcher V. A. Kutyrev uses the concept of a technologizing person instead of the word "electronic nomad". He strives "into the void of Nothingness" and begins to function "beyond Being", that is, in a space "not conditioned by nature, matter and society" ^{[7, p. 30]}. Subordination to the digital world contributes to the emergence of a special mode of life "without o-consciousness": "meaningless (without (e) smart) thinking, as if imperceptibly, but rather quickly becomes dominant, a kind of paradigmatic attitude to the world" ^{[73, p. 51]}. Communication in the digital world begins to be built in a non-linguistic, wordless, unconscious format, which leads to a situation of leaving the "electronic nomad" "from his life world to Another" ^{[7, p. 32]}.

Describing the "electronic nomad", researcher E.L. Yakovleva writes: he is "a user, and this quality determines his key need – to have access to the Network and computer, making constant, virtual contact, often it does not matter with whom" ^[8].

D. Prester, D. Chechez-Keshmanovich and D. Schlagwein emphasize that the digital environment meets the needs of the "electronic nomad" to be free, including in movement, self-realization, activity, and communication ^[9]. At the same time, the nomad is not afraid to fall out of his online communities, since, being anywhere in the world, if there is a connection, after a certain pause he can find out about all the events he missed and continue communication.

Characterizing the "electronic nomad" and describing its format of life, many researchers focus on the inconsistency of its existence and the emergence of risks in it. Thus, constant functioning in the digital environment and continuous communication with it begin to make adjustments to the lifestyle and actions of the "electronic nomad". His perception of the boundary between the real world and the digital environment is blurred. The "nomad" often does not notice the boundaries of the transition from reality to virtuality (and vice versa), does not understand the phenomenological difference between the worlds. The transitions themselves "from one reality to another leave the nomad with a vague feeling of something missed in life": "the individual feels the loss of important opportunities, difficult to define due to life obeying the logic of the fault" and "the constant change of modes of manifestation (in the real and digital worlds)" ^[10]. The above makes the "electronic nomad" confused in understanding the existence /situations/ Self/Others.

The lack of access to the Network unnerves the "nomad", making him feel uncomfortable. This reveals an unconscious computer addiction, which testifies in favor of Berdyaev's prophecy. The Russian thinker emphasized back in the 1919-1920s that technology "stands between man and nature, it not only apparently conquers the natural elements to man, but it also conquers man himself: it not only liberates in some way, but also enslaves him in a new way" ^[11]. Psychologists, psychoanalysts and anthropologists will have to deal with computer addiction in the near future. It can be argued that today this kind of addiction creates spaces of discomfort for the "electronic nomad" himself, who begins to act against himself and accumulates negative energy.

What is the "nomad" tied to? The answer to this question is as follows: the "electronic nomad" is tied to the technological environment. The view from a computer window "can be called "posthumanistic", since it no longer corresponds to the human eye, but is produced using technical equipment" ^{[6, p. 279]}. The neural network used in the digital environment today is capable of creating plausible images based on text instructions. At the same time, the "electronic nomad" begins to admire the technically created and non-existent in reality, ignoring the beauty of the world around him. In this regard, one more feature of the "nomad" should be mentioned, which carries risks. S. McQuire rightly believes that high technologies contribute to the alienation of the "nomad" from reality and switch it to the mainstream of posthumanity. At the same time, the alienation turns out to be multidimensional. The "electronic nomad" is alienated not only from the surrounding spaces ("the more you use dematerialized goods, the less you care about location and distance" ^{[6, p. 136]}, "the worse the connections that determine the essence of what is happening" ^{[3, p. 136]}.), but also from people. This trait can be attributed to the negative aspects of being an "electronic nomad", which leads to certain difficulties in direct interaction with Others.

Continuing the topic of risks with negative consequences for the "electronic nomad", let's pay attention to another problem – transparent manipulation. The digital environment offers the "nomad" a lot of "interesting" information. Immersed in a digital environment, the "electronic nomad" lives in streams of necessary/random messages. He reads the materials without delving into them, forgetting and getting tired of the volumes imposed on him. But at the same time, some of the repeated information is absorbed on an unconscious level and taken (passively/actively) into account. We emphasize that this information may have a negative connotation along with a positive message, contributing to the formation of aggressive ideological attitudes of the "electronic nomad", which form the algorithms of his behavior and actions. Thus, the replication of scandalous and cynical episodes (especially from the lives of media personalities) has negative consequences and leads to their perception by the "electronic nomad" as the norm. Under the influence of immoral information, the "electronic nomad", without reflecting on the situation, often manifests itself in a similar way in the digital environment: licentious, unceremonious, aggressive, conflictual. As E.L. rightly pointed out. According to Yakovleva, the digital environment "turns out to be a place of many possible implementation options (often with anonymity), manifestations of unlimited freedom, hypocritical lies, resourcefulness and even disregard for etiquette and moral principles" ^[10]. This situation requires the immediate development of ethical principles of networking and digital etiquette, which many researchers have begun to develop ^{[11, 12, 13]}.

Interesting in the context of our research are the ideas of J. Attali, who stressed that digitalization makes many aspects of life transparent, including the competitive war of the "nomads" with each other.  Competition in the digital environment turns out to be imperceptible, however, it manifests itself in the intensity of the positioning of some "nomads" on social platforms, stealing ideas from each other, and non-punishability for actions (including due to the lack of an ethical and regulatory framework governing the relations of individuals in the digital environment). W. Mitchell, calling technical devices electronic parasites, emphasizes that they are subject to various kinds of cyber attacks. But "it is almost impossible to identify or track down all potential cyber opponents, not only for private companies, but also for governments" ^{[6, p. 228]}. Despite the fact that a sufficient amount of time has passed since the writing of the book, nevertheless, cyber attacks, constantly evolving, threaten the security of information systems that nomad works with. The problem identified in 2003 by W. Mitchell is still unresolved, and its solution is unlikely to be possible in the near future.

The vulnerability of the "nomad" is also related to his personal data, which can be used without his knowledge. The constant functioning of the network leads to the fact that the data of the "electronic nomad" (photos, contacts, correspondence and much more) they accumulate, forming databases of big data – Big data. In turn, social networks, giant IT corporations and other organizations that collect personal information create risks of personal data leakage. But big data leads not only to the leakage of personal data, but also to the risk of total control, which is not always welcomed by the electronic nomad.

A large number of authors (including J. Wattimo ^[14], R. Sennett ^[15], J. Mitchell ^[5]) emphasizes that "social networks are becoming not only a space for the realization of professionalism, but also a means of control" ^[16]. It should be noted that control is carried out not only by law enforcement agencies and employers, but also by other users who get access to the results of the activities of a particular "nomad" and have the opportunity to publicly (for example, on social networks) leave a comment. Thus, I. V. Matsyshina in her article "Flexible time of the digital age: from deviation to a new order of control" emphasizes that digitalization leaves an imprint on the entire process of organizing the activities of working "electronic nomads" ^[16]. V. I. Talanin in the article "The beginning of the end of modern civilization: the virus of devilry" writes that over citizens Digital control is being introduced in different countries, which consists in tracking their movements and contacts ^[17]. As a result, the "electronic nomads" lose their understanding of public and private spaces. According to T. Hofmann, the digital age is changing the way we understand privacy ^[18]. Based on the above, we can talk about the emergence of new types of risks, including being under constant supervision, leakage of personal information and the possibility of using it for profitable purposes by other "electronic nomads". These problems have an ethical dimension, forcing us to recall the right of everyone to have freedom and personal inviolability (paragraph 1 of Article 22 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation ^[19]), the right to privacy, personal and family secrets (Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation ^[20]). The digitalization of modern society destroys the boundaries of personal spaces, which is not always positive for her and introduces (conscious/unconscious) psychological discomfort into her being.

Among the risks in the life of an "electronic nomad", W. Mitchell considers the destruction of "the boundaries of gender, race and even biological species" ^{[5, p. 84]}. This thesis implicitly indicates that the "electronic nomad" is capable of slipping away or getting lost in the digital environment after committing an unseemly act that violates ethical norms. Admittedly, some "nomads" like the game of slipping away, as a result of which they become violators of social norms in the digital environment.

In the light of the above, the problems of not only the formation of moral principles in the digital environment, but also the rights of "electronic nomads" are actualized. These issues are currently under development. The scientific community has yet to comprehend the problems of social adaptation to the digital environment, the manifestation (of it and in it) of cultural marginality, the moral behavior of the "electronic nomad", etc. Nevertheless, a number of works can be identified that are interdisciplinary in nature and open up a wide discourse for philosophical understanding of the problem.

Today, the issue of digital rights of the individual is on the agenda. S. D. Afanasyev and A. S. Shatilina emphasize, "digital human rights are the concretization (through law and law enforcement, including judicial acts) of universal human rights guaranteed by international law and state constitutions" ^[21]. Researchers actualize the problem of subjects who have access to information obtained through surveillance cameras and are able to use the data with both good and negative intentions. The above turns out to be a serious problem, and the delay in legal decisions based on an adequate attitude to the current situation poses a certain threat to the "electronic nomad". 

In the context of digitalization, we can talk about the emergence of new rights and freedoms for the "electronic nomad": the rights to access the Internet, digital oblivion and death ^[21]. Joining the position of researchers, we believe that their implementation is necessary throughout the globalizing world, entangled by the World Wide Web.

I. S. Malysheva researched online human rights: "the right of an individual to freely search, receive, transmit, produce and distribute information in any legal way" ^[22], including on social networks through likes and reposts, which were not regulated by law until 2014. But since 2014, Russia has introduced responsibility "for actions inciting hatred or enmity, as well as degrading human dignity, committed on the Internet (Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)" ^[22]. As a result, criminal cases are being initiated today for any likes (even those showing a person's negative attitude to information or photos). Since 2019, the Code of Administrative Offences has been applied for such actions. This fact indicates that, under the influence of the public, the state is taking "steps related to the recognition of online personal rights and ensuring their protection" ^[22]. At the same time, as A. G. Anisimov emphasizes, many "rights can become a fiction in the digital environment": for example, "inalienable human rights like the right to free movement, the right to work" are becoming "more and more blurred", which requires their immediate legal rethinking ^[23]. In general, the emergence of new rights related to the digitalization of society is "extremely difficult to ensure and protect" ^[23]. And this problem turns out to be unsolvable so far.

Conclusion

The digitalization of society leads to the emergence of a new type of personality – the "electronic nomad". This is an individual who has integrated into new realities, roams freely in the digital environment and spends most of his time in it, functioning in various ways using mobile devices. Despite the expansion of opportunities through the introduction of high technologies and freedom in the virtual space, the "electronic nomad" also faces numerous risks. Among the ambiguous phenomena are computer addiction, alienation, manipulation of information, total control over "electronic nomads", the possibility of leakage of personal data and other information related to personality, immoral relationships in the digital environment, the competitive war of "nomads". But the loss of human proportionality and subordination to technology lead to the fact that most "electronic nomads" do not understand the full scale of the negative consequences of the current situation. This provision forces us to seek help in the field of law. It is the formation of digital law, which affects various aspects of the life of an "electronic nomad", that can reduce the negative impact of risks on the future. It should be noted that these problems have begun to be understood by specialists and scientists, but the creation and implementation of effective legal norms is a matter of the future. Let's pay attention to one more nuance. The implementation of digital law is possible under the condition of the moral position of the "electronic nomad" himself, which forces us to pay attention to the problem of forming digital culture and ethics from childhood, teaching ethical norms and rules of behavior not only in the real world, but also in the digital world. Only if the "electronic nomad" possesses a moral and legal culture, follows the norms of ethics and digital law, it is possible to minimize the risks of the digital environment and their impact on people in the future.