Antinomy of the modern transformation of man and society

Artemenkov Aleksey Aleksandrovich ORCID: 0000-0001-7919-3690 PhD in Biology Associate Professor; Department of Theoretical Foundations of Physical Culture, Sports and Health; Cherepovets State University 162600, Russia, Vologda region, Cherepovets, Sovetsky ave., 10, office 304 artemenckov.alexej@yandex.ru

Introduction

Almost everyone today can say that we now live in a paradoxical world and this world is changing rapidly. And although humanity has achieved unprecedented scientific and technological progress, it has not achieved one thing - harmony in the development of man and society. Of course, every year people improve their lives and everything around them, and the development of society does not stand still, that is, its constant transformation takes place. And this social transformation of a person, first of all, affects social relations in almost all spheres of his life. But at the same time, the peculiarity of modern society is its unpredictability. Therefore, a person changes all the time, first of all mentally and spiritually. He has not yet learned to live confidently in modern society, as socio-political and economic processes are changeable in it. But the most important thing is that the worldview of the majority of the population has changed. What has it become? Note that the most pressing worldview problem, in our opinion, concerns the future of man as a subject of a transforming world. And since modern man has changed a lot in this world, it is already possible to talk about the phenomenon of the posthuman, due to the emergence of many factors that bring us closer to the posthuman future.

Apparently, the social transformation of a person is a predetermined and developed measure of proper changes in a person to adapt to life in society. This is a certain internal "shift" in a person, which leads to an increase in his life potential when learning everything new. And the study of all the unknown, as we know, is based on the transcendental doctrine of the principles of I. Kant, who identified two aspects of human cognition – sensuality and reason ^{[9, p. 64]}. They determine the current stage of human development in society, and humanity, due to this, makes a huge leap in its development. And in this development, the human brain and mind undergo changes. Consequently, the modern transformation of a person in society is an adaptation to the prevailing living conditions. This is the process of transformation or transformation of a person in order to "achieve" a certain social result. In other words, the transformation of a person in modern society is an internal change in a person that determines his vision and understanding of the global world around him. Of course, in the current conditions of social existence, these transformations occur in accordance with human needs, but this can become a problem for the person himself among the many challenges of global civilization. The so–called need transformation of a person has at least three aspects - the physical transformation of the body, the mental transformation of the soul and the social transformation of society. And since the needs of a person in society have certainly changed throughout their life, they are completely different now. Social needs and involvement in public life are becoming much more important now. This leads to a change in social roles and stereotypes of human behavior in society.

Paradoxes of modern human and social development

The transformation of a person in society can now be considered as a value-oriented process, the purpose of which is to ensure freedom and a decent standard of living for a person in the era of global transformations ^{[11, p. 9]}. The rapid introduction of new convergent technologies into practice, including the creation of a global information space, is accompanied by changes in the socio-political and cultural development of many countries of the world ^{[1, p. 22]}. After all, modern society is progressing in its development and all changes in it are closely related to man. And the human condition in modern society is changing due to the desire of people to meet the needs of self-improvement and self-development. In this situation, the instinct of self-preservation, aimed at survival in modern society, seems to work. Under the influence of this instinct, people put their own problems first, not others'. But at the same time, modern society has become more open and people have become more friendly towards each other. And it is precisely such social relationships of people that should play an important role in the modern world and positively influence the development of society.

And society, like a living organism, is an open dynamic and self-regulating system that is constantly being improved under the influence of events taking place in it. In such a dynamic society, the person himself is changing, changing all aspects of his life: social needs, lifestyle, culture, norms and rules of behavior. That is, a modern person has to constantly rebuild himself, his thinking and adapt to the changing conditions of social life. For example, to get used to new standards of beauty among young people, since people now differ from each other not only in their natural qualities, but also artificially created body modifications (tattoos, piercings, etc.). But each such experience, even a negative one, still has its own positive practical significance, since society is changing for the better as a result. And the digital transformation of society, which already exists today, creates prerequisites for the study of the structure of individual human consciousness ^{[7, p. 159]}. On the other hand, such a new social reality has a negative impact on modern society. It has already led to the emergence of "information intoxication" of modern man, which, unfortunately, already prevents an adequate understanding of the social changes taking place in the world, as it has created a huge space for manipulation of individual and mass consciousness ^{[12, p. 364]}. It follows that the co-evolution of man and technology in the era of global change has led to the transformation of various spheres of human activity and the creation of a new socio-natural integrity called the "hyperconnected world" ^{[2, p. 230]}.

In such a world, high technologies are developing rapidly, which "forces" a person to move forward all the time to solve social problems. Thus, scientific and technological progress does not stand still, but it has already affected a person's physical and mental abilities and changed his views on life, social and spiritual values. This has become possible only in modern society, in which new principles of human interaction with technology have been established, cultural and ideological ideas have developed that did not exist before. For example, Internet communication (e-mail, chat, forum, blog) has become an extensive social platform for interaction between people from different fields of activity ^{[16, p. 64]}. In other words, the transformation of a person in modern society is happening more and more depending on the scientific discoveries and social events taking place in the world.

Hence, the influence of modern society, technology and information technology on the human brain and mind becomes obvious. In this case, we can talk about a new stage of the noospheric cephalization of modern man, taking place in a technogenic urban environment, since today large and small cities have become centers of human development ^{[3, p. 113]}. But simultaneously with cephalization, the problem of human improvement arises, from the standpoint of the ideas of transhumanism and from the ethical side of changing the physicality and nature of man ^{[4, p. 177]}. Thus, it turns out that information technology, on the one hand, has simplified human life, and on the other hand, has created difficulties in real communication between people with each other. And following the development of technology and artificial intelligence, the human brain began to improve. Y.N. Harari says the following about this: "But as soon as technology allows us to reconstruct the human brain, Homo sapiens will disappear, the history of mankind will end and a completely new process, inaccessible to our understanding, will begin" ^{[18, p. 59]}. Indeed, our brain and mind are already undergoing drastic changes in connection with the information coming into it. The modern world has become complex and multifaceted, which, of course, makes us more sociable, open and more patient. This world is able to meet our material needs well, but not our socio-psychological needs. Therefore, anxiety, depression and loneliness are now widespread all over the world.

Of course, human life has become easier physically due to the automation of labor. But in an urban environment, our body is constantly under stress and adjusts to its rhythm all the time, which creates stress and anxiety for a person. But in connection with the automation of labor, a person has more time for self-realization and development of his personality. That is, in modern society, there is an opportunity for wide freedom of action and choice of activities to your liking, which, of course, contributes to the emergence of new ideas. With the advent of a new sociality, the attitudes of society towards such phenomena as same-sex marriage, euthanasia have changed, that is, there has been a shift in emphasis in human life from the social to the biological. Another important point is the change in communication between people and the formation of new ideas about time and space under the influence of the Internet and computer games ^{[15, p. 17]}.

Of course, modern technologies have become firmly embedded in our lives, because they provide people with more opportunities for the development of cognitive abilities and intelligence. But in addition to the development of the cognitive sphere in modern society, people's relationships to each other and to their place in the world have changed. This was facilitated by a change in people's values. People began to devote more time to self-development, career, and the family, as a unit of society, shifted to the background and its creation ceased to be the main goal of modern man. But at the same time, due to the development of technology and technology, the unification and globalization of culture is now taking place in the world, which has a positive effect on the person himself. Moreover, in modern society there are more opportunities to realize their creative abilities. And due to the imbalance and inconsistency of social processes, each individual develops the ability to see his place in society ^{[14, p. 5]}. And since a person assimilates everything that was accumulated in society earlier, his worldview is formed as a result of conscious experience. And therefore, it is safe to say that an individual person is not able to change outside of society, and this process of change is a social phenomenon. That is, a certain part of people in society is always transformed by the events taking place in it. Therefore, society is becoming more complicated in its development and the whole global world is not standing still. This is because a person living in society is constantly learning something new, which means that human thinking actively develops and improves society. In other words, a person develops together with society. This leads to the urgent problem of the future "posthuman" ^{[8, p. 103]}.

And since a person, as a part of society, changes more mentally, he integrates more quickly into the media space. Such changes in a person are most noticeable when living in the conditions of large megacities of the developed countries of the world. And this is obvious now, because a person always strives for social progress, and with the advent of freedom of action, he also develops the ability to improve himself and realize himself in society. That is why everyone tries to get used to society as quickly as possible and tries to conform to it in everything. After all, a person cannot live without society. He is a part of society. However, a person does not always "manage" to improve after the development of society because it is changing too quickly. Global trends in the socio-economic development of society avalanche into the daily lives of many people and determine the quality of life of the population ^{[19, p. 68]}. It follows that the manifestation of a person's transformation is a change in his habitual way of life and social relationships, ways of communication and habits. Another aspect of human transformation is a change in his attitude to information, access to which has become, in fact, unlimited. But due to its large flow, a lot of "information noise" has appeared, that is, information has become more complex and ambiguous. From the overabundance of information, people began to delve into it less, sometimes making superficial and quick conclusions without reading the texts to the end. Nevertheless, the openness of information and free access to it have a positive value for a person and society. After all, man and information are now much more closely connected than in previous eras. A lot depends on information now: economics, politics, life, safety and human health. In other words, a person and information in modern society are as close as possible, since a person is a carrier of information that enriches him and society. However, with a large flow of information, it is important to be able to "work": analyze it in order to filter out false data, and understand what is really in front of us. This leads to the problem of overloading a person with information due to lack of time for its assimilation. To solve this problem, you need to develop critical thinking skills. Since understanding and using information is an important skill in the modern world, which helps a person to work successfully and live in a modern society.

At the same time, due to the large information flow, the personal qualities of a person have changed greatly. Such qualities as the desire for success, popularity, determination and the ability to self-improvement and self-realization began to come to the fore. For modern people, comfort and coziness have become important first of all, as well as all kinds of entertainment and quick fulfillment of desires. Such people no longer want to leave the zone of comfortable living. But a deeper awareness of the events taking place in society develops the brain and intelligence. And since man has the greatest intellectual potential among all living beings, he is able to change quickly to meet the requirements of modern society.

It follows that the transformation of man in modern society has changed the system of previously existing relations between people, nature and society. But it is annoying to realize that in addition to the progressive development of human society, signs of degradation began to appear in it, and higher spiritual values such as truth, goodness and beauty were often replaced by benefit and profit ^{[6, p. 52]}. Consequently, in modern society, a large number of people began to work for the sake of earning money, and a certain part of human society began to degrade due to lack of purpose in life and due to lack of work. In such a part of society, the main sign of human transformation was the loss of control over the changes taking place, manipulation of behavior and uncertainty in life due to the deployment of systemic contradictions ^{[5, p. 6]}. In addition, people's physical and mental health has become noticeably worse due to the fact that the lifestyle of many people has changed from mobile to sedentary. And the acceleration of the pace of technological and social changes, such as the "growth of instability" in society, has led to the transformation of the natural human body. That is, there are services for changing body parts without the necessary medical indications. A person has become more selfish and expects a lot from society and government. At the same time, the frequent use of digital means of communication has led to an increase in the psychological burden on the human body and an increase in the feeling of loneliness among people around the world, which has created a threat to the well-being of society as a whole ^{[20, p. 97]}.

As we can see, man in modern society has become a carrier of scientific and technological progress in the context of an increasing anthropological crisis, in which there was a reassessment of moral values in the sphere of human existence ^{[10, p. 77]}. It's not for nothing that F. Nietzsche once said the following: "Maybe we are on the threshold of a period that, using a negative phrase, should be called extra-moral" ^{[13, p. 46]}. Ignoring the moral principles of life in modern society has become possible despite the fact that many types of physical activity and improvement of one's own body are available to a person. But despite this, people are increasingly choosing a passive lifestyle instead of active recreation and are content with the automation of everyday life. That is why, due to the lack of movement, physical exercises have become more difficult for people to perform. There was a threat of weakening people physically. Perhaps that is why there are fewer and fewer hardworking people in our society. In fact, modern society is now divided into two types of people: those who cultivate moral and volitional qualities, discipline and responsibility, and those who follow the "flow" of life without making any efforts for their development. Of course, a person is free to choose his life path. And here we should recall the words of K. Jaspers, who said: "With the technicalization of the world, we have embarked on a path that must be followed further. To turn back would mean to complicate existence to the point of impossibility" ^{[21, p. 178]}. Thus, Jaspers understood that there is no way back for humanity to develop. And therefore, human dependence on technology has become the main problem of mankind. Man has not yet learned how to live safely in modern society, but still strives to find his place in this man-made world.

But in addition to the development of technology and technology in modern society, overprotection of children and total control over them began to "flourish" among parents. Maybe that's why some children sometimes become aggressive and ruthless, because they grow up in comfortable conditions provided to them by their parents. And here we should turn to E. Fromm, who, arguing about the prerequisites for the emergence of destructiveness and aggressiveness in humans, pointed out that a person created for himself living conditions conducive to the manifestation of these qualities. Moreover, man deliberately made these conditions the norm of his life and therefore human hyperagressivity should be explained not by a higher potential for aggression in him, but by the fact that conditions causing aggression in human society are much more common than in animals in their natural habitat ^{[17, p. 281]}. The result is an interesting paradox (the antinomy of evolutionary and civilizational development): The better modern technologies are developed and the more comfortable people's living conditions are, the more inactive and "helpless" they become.

Conclusion

Modern society is currently undergoing major changes related to the transformation of a person in terms of changing his biosociality. A person's basic needs, outlook on life and spiritual values have changed. This indicates that we should expect a completely different society in the near future than we are now. The paradox lies in the fact that, on the one hand, a person has become more engaged in self-improvement and self-development, strives for knowledge, discoveries and knowledge of the world in order to survive in it. On the other hand, in modern society, people's lifestyle has changed from active to passive, so people have become physically weaker. Gradually, people's habits and ways of communicating with each other have changed. Such personal qualities as the desire for success and popularity began to come to the fore in a person. People began to appreciate comfort, coziness and fulfillment of their desires more. That is, people's preferences have changed and a new social reality has emerged. In addition, the processes of degradation of people in society have significantly increased and their aggressiveness has increased. But despite these contradictions, society has long been modernizing in all aspects of its development. And the antinomy of modern human transformation in society can become one of the most important methodological foundations of modern theories of social development.