Philosophical Aspects of the Relations Between the Human and Technology in the Space of Culture

The article proposes a view of culture as a space requiring a certain “cybernetic foresight”, evolving with the development of means of technical reproducibility and helping us to orientate ourselves in the surrounding reality. It explores the classic theme of man and his expansion, resulting in a space of culture and technology — a world of exemplars and paradigms, a world of tools, doppelgangers, and human assistants. Relating oneself to this world is one of the main ways of human development, in the course of which a special virtual, i.e. force, energy field is created. On this basis, the system “man — culture” can be understood as a virtual reality. In this perspective, the life of an individual appears as a process of transformation, when he finds himself in correlation or even merging with the virtual image. At the same time, it is important for him to maintain a balance between the internal and the external in order to maintain himself as a subject of action. The paper conceptualizes the notions of synthetic and synthesized culture, and traces their relationship with “hot” and “cold” virtuality, in M. McLuhan’s terms. The type of culture that allows maintaining this balance is labelled as synthetic culture. When man “leaves” himself, forgetting himself in external activity, it loses its unity and becomes a culture synthesized from random, somewhat alien elements. In such a culture, the individual runs the risk of being replaced by his or her doppelgangers — machines, of ceasing to be the master of the house he or she has built, and even of being expelled from it. Attempts to get this home in many ways resemble ghettoization, inevitable confinement within the network space, which is a symptom of a synthesized culture with a “hot” level of virtuality.