The fact that our life will change drastically within 15 years due to the technologies is unquestioning. Robotization: for instance, assistants with artificial intelligence will help us in our offices, and some futurists predict that machines will be present even among the executive board of the company. Neurostimulation: human body and brain will be improved more and more for the work performance improvement. From here comes the demand for cybersecurity. Personalization in marketing: our emotions and mood will be the regulators of retail, functionality of smart houses, carrier. The list of innovations is endless, but the only technologies and empirical knowledges are not enough for our future.
A man understood that reflection, communication, search for the answers to «eternal» questions about senses are those things that will influence the human destiny no less than innovations and technologies. The world has become tighter, time — more intense, people — closer, and the information exchange — faster. The circle of acquaintances of our parents contained dozens of people, and our — thousands and more often, ten thousands people. And in such a rapid human development it’s important not to lose the ability to sense, reflect and analyze.
Confidence in the fact that it’s enough to just develop technologies and business was dominant for the long period of time. Humanitarian subjects, including philosophy, the «mother of sciences», was considered only as «articles of expenditure»: the treatment was beneficial, but not too serious. Thereby, UCU Philosophic Summer School combined technological knowledge, business experience and philosophic discussions. 30 participants and 11 lecturers, who delivered 13 lectures, 2 seminars and 2 workshops, took part in the School 2018 «New technologies, social media and future of democracy», organized by the Center of Ethics and Technologies of LvBS together with the UCU Philosophy department with support of Konrad Adenauer foundation and Ukrainian Catholic University.
The participants also took part in the summarizing oxford debates, where they discussed the themes «Whether Ukraine can become the member of «oecumene» — the community of developed nations?» and «Technologies and democracy: assistance or menace?».
The important factor of men’s attitude towards innovations is their understanding of their own identity. Professor Oleksandr Filtz (professional in psychiatry and psychotherapy) suggested an author concept of identity which is based on two principles: trust in your way of living (modus vivendi) and trust in your ability to be open to environment (modus operandi). The important question of modern psychiatry and psychology, which arose due to the spread of experience of «other» realities (virtual, mixed, extended), is also the concept of evidence. During the lectures and practical lessons, the participants also got acquainted with philosophical and psychological approaches to understanding and meaning of «evidence».
Zenoviy Matchyshyn, CTO of Altrana company and a graduate of MSc in Technology Management of UCU Lviv Business School, talked about how modern technologies work, principles of their development and sphere of usage. During the lecture «Introduction to the next-generation technologies» the participants tried to be in a role of developers and understand how artificial intelligence and deep learning, virtual reality, blockchain and quantum computing work. Ivan Leshko, vice-president of financial services of SoftServe company, shared how the future of business will look like, and together with Valeriy Pekar, lecturer of UCU Lviv Business School and Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, the participants learned how to model the future and make the forecasts for different spheres of life: medicine, education, politics etc. During the lecture «Global change of the paradigm: new thinking, new economy, new boundaries» Valeriy Pekar familiarized students with economic, social, psychological and political changes which are currently happening under the pressure of technological jump.
During the lectures in social computing, delivered by Yevhen Laniuk, Candidate of Political Sciences, lecturer of UCU and Lviv National University of Ivan Franko, the participants learned how social networks change the society and politics, were familiarized with up-to-date practice of influence and control (Chinese system of social credit).
During the practical lesson, delivered by Anna-Maria Fokshey, the founder of X-Mind conference, those present learned to analyze the language of social networks and profiles of thought leaders.
Are there the principles of a warfare in the cyberspace? What is the potential of countries and various organizations in those wars? How to calculate the investments in cybersecurity according to the model of Gordon-Lob and what is the «signature» of the cyber wars? Volodymyr Styran, expert in the sphere of cybersecurity, co-founder of «Berezha Security», leader of «OWASP Kyiv», gave the answers to these and other questions.
The influence of new technologies should be discussed integrally by all parties of human society: politicians, scientists, philosophers, businessmen, educators etc. We believe that the participants of UCU Philosophic Summer School-2018 will make the important decisions as leaders of the communities, executives of the companies and members of the governments in the near future. A lot of these decisions will be connected with technologies and innovations and henceforward the participants of the School have more knowledge and understanding of these themes. And we are looking forward to meeting you at the Philosophic Summer School next year!
