Introduction

Can we really dialogue? Each person has his/her prejudices, his/her convictions, his/her subconscious representations. When two people try to communicate there is inevitably a confrontation: representation against representation, subconscious against subconscious. As this confrontation is subconscious, it often degenerates into conflict.

Language is the vehicle of these subconscious representations. We use the same words, but their meaning can be radically different. We are manipulated by our own representations. The dialogue is strictly impossible in the absence of a methodology of dialogue. We can only monologue. It is impossible to be at the place of the other.

The same considerations apply in the case of nations, cultures, religions and spiritualities: interest against interest, representation against representation, dogma against dogma, hidden spiritual assumptions against hidden spiritual assumptions. This situation is aggravated by the large number of languages ​​(more than 6000), which display each its own systems of representations and values. A completely accurate translation from one language to another is impossible.

This is also aggravated by the contemporary immense means of destruction and the continuing destruction of the environment. The inevitable conflicts could lead, for the first time in the history of mankind, at the disappearance of the human species.

A new model of civilization is necessary, the keystone is the dialogue between human beings, nations, cultures and religions for the survival of humanity.

Methodology of transdisciplinarity

The meaning “beyond disciplines”, implied by the Latin word “trans”, leads us to an immense space of new knowledge.

A remarkable achievement of transdisciplinarity is, of course, the formulation of the methodology of transdisciplinarity, accepted and applied by a significant number of researchers in many countries of the world. The axiomatic character of the methodology of transdisciplinarity is an important aspect. We have to limit the number of axioms to a minimum number. After many years of research, I have arrived at the following three axioms of the methodology of transdisciplinarity [1]:

1. The ontological axiom: There are, in nature and in our knowledge of nature, different levels of Reality of the Object and, correspondingly, different levels of Reality of the Subject.
2. The logical axiom: The passage from one level of Reality to another is insured by the logic of the included middle.
3. The epistemological axiom: The structure of the totality of levels of Reality is a complex structure: every level is what it is because all the levels exist at the same time.

The above three axioms give a precise and rigorous definition of transdisciplinarity. I will describe in my talk the essentials of them.

In the transdisciplinary approach, the Subject and the Object are immersed in the Hidden Third, which mediates the interaction between Subject and Object. We have to distinguish between physical information and spiritual information.

The transdisciplinary Subject and its levels, the transdisciplinary Object and its levels, and the Hidden Third define the transdisciplinary Reality or trans-Reality.

The Hidden Third, in its relationship with the levels of Reality, is fundamental for the understanding of unus mundus described by cosmodernity. Reality is simultaneously a single and a multiple One. If one remains confined to the Hidden Third, then the unity is undifferentiated, symmetric, situated in the non-time. If one remains confined to the levels of Reality, there are only differences, asymmetries, located in time. To simultaneously consider the levels of Reality and the Hidden Third one introduces a breaking in the symmetry of unus mundus. In fact, the levels of Reality are generated precisely by this breaking of symmetry introduced by time.

In the transdisciplinary approach, the Hidden Third appears as the source of knowledge but, in its turn, needs the Subject in order to know the world: the Subject, the Object and the Hidden Third are inter-related.

Cultures, religions, spiritualities and technoscience

Cultures, religions and spiritualities are not concerned, as academic disciplines are, with fragments of levels of Reality only: they simultaneously involve one or several levels of Reality of the object, one or several levels of Reality of the Subject and the non-resistance zone of the Hidden Third. Technoscience is entirely situated in the zone of the Object, while cultures and religions cross all three terms: the Object, the Subject and the Hidden Third. This asymmetry demonstrates a difficulty of their dialogue: this dialogue can occur only when technoscience converses towards values, i.e. when the techno-scientific culture becomes a true culture [2]. It is precisely this conversion that transdisciplinarity is able to perform. This dialogue is methodologically possible, because the Hidden Third crosses all levels of Reality.

Technoscience is in a quite paradoxical situation. In itself, it is blind to values. However, when it enters into dialogue with cultures and religions, it becomes the best mediator of the reconciliation of different cultures and different religions.

The only way to avoid the dead end of homo religiosus versus homo economicus debate is to adopt transdisciplinary hermeneutics [3]. Transdisciplinary hermeneutics is a natural outcome of transdisciplinary methodology. Transdisciplinary hermeneutics is able to identify the common germ of homo religiosus and of homo economicus, which can be called homo sui transcendentalis.

Conclusions

The irreducible mystery of the world coexists with the wonders discovered by reason. The unknown enters every pore of the known, but without the known, the unknown would be a hollow word. Every human being on this Earth recognizes his/her face in any other human being, independent of his/her particular religious or philosophical beliefs, and all humanity recognizes itself in the infinite Otherness.

A new spirituality, free of dogmas is already potentially present on our planet. There are exemplary signs and arguments for its birth—from quantum physics to theatre, literature and art [4]. We are at the threshold of a true new renaissance which asks for a new, cosmodern consciousness.

References

1. Nicolescu, B. Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, Voss, K-C. (Trans.); State University of New York (SUNY) Press: New York, USA, 2002. The first edition appeared in French in 1996.
2. Nicolescu, B. Toward a Methodological Foundation of the Dialogue between the Technoscientific and Spiritual Cultures. In Differentiation and Integration of Worldviews; Moreva, L. Ed.; Eidos: Sankt Petersburg, Russia, 2004; pp. 139–152.
3. Nicolescu, B. Transdisciplinarity as Methodological Framework for Going beyond the Science and Religion Debate. Transdisciplinarity in Science and Religion 2007, 2, 35–60.
4. Nicolescu, B. 2014. From Modernity to Cosmodernity – Science, Culture, and Spirituality; State University of New York (SUNY) Press: New York, USA, 2014.

The article deals with the problems of correlation of information and artistic image, of opportunities and sense of the notion of information in the theory of art (basing on Yuri Lotman’s ideas). As the examples of application of the informational approach, Alexey Losev's ideas about the depth of music and Alexander Mikhailov’s ideas about the «spherical sense» in music are studied. The last notion is positioned within the certain contextual sequence: the depth – the superficiality. The role of symmetry in musical texts as the carriers of information is especially studied.

Information and specific character of artistic message

V.V. Medushevskiy in his article «The sense and the information» discussing with E. Enfiandzhyan talks about the position of information in the art and in the existence, in objective reality, and about its role as the «tool» with respect to mental phenomena. Comparison of the two notions in the title of Medushevskiy’s article is intended to highlight the priority the first notion – «the sense» and strict especial instrumentality, accessory role of the second one – «the information»: «… the information is not the exhaustive notion, and all the most important lay beyond its borders – the existent being as itself»^[i](V.V.Medushevskiy, 2013). The discussion was arose by the question asked by Enfiandzhyan and also qualified by him as the «key one»: «Whether those technologies [musical-and-digital] might contribute somewhat «spiritual dimension» into music»^[ii](E. Enfiandzhyan, 2013). We will come back to this question later on, but now let us note that the discussion of our respectable colleagues was rather of some publicistic nature than of scientific one.

Certainly, information as itself in the art is not of the most important in all, and as we will see, the value of a piece of art is not nowise proportioned to the quantity of information carried by it. Otherwise we need to mean by the notion of «artistic information» somewhat specific or particular that does not coincide in full with common generally accepted notion of the information.

At the same time, inasmuch as the art includes such compulsive components as language, technics, and as the most important for our theme, the text, we cannot avoid the analysis for such significant part of the artistic sense as the information; that would scarcely well grounded. There are lots of essential art scientific works in which this notion is used. Y.M. Lotman, who was on of the outstanding humanitarian scientists of the Soviet epoch and a prominent representative of Tartu and Moscow semiotic schools, used the notion of information. He was the first one who has introduced the term «artmetry». Special attention to the problem of «information and art» was paid in works of G. A. Golytsyn^[iii](1997), V. M. Petrov^[iv](2004), and of a number of other scientists thoroughly understanding the essence and the specificity of artistic endeavor.

The problematics of information has its own specific peculiarities dependent on the certain kinds of art. For instance, it is absolutely obvious that pieces of painting, sculpture, literature, theater (including opera and ballet), and cinema, all them communicate the certain non-artistic information either about contemporary life or history. No doubt, not all those evidences make the specific art information, but all of them are also included into the text, in the artistic form, and, let say, are aggregated in art by that. Nevertheless, pictures and novels are created not only for sake of some or other facts representation (if not - this is not the real art as itself). Artist demonstrates his own views of the world and of human being, those which he tries to inculcate into the spectator’s mind (reader’s, listener’s mind) as some kind of a program of personality transformation – this is the genuine task of the real art. This is why a piece of art should carry first and foremost the information about this program. Let us agree to note as art information all that contained in the text and that is perceived by listener (reader, spectator notwithstanding of the degree of the text perspicuity. It follows herefrom that the information of specific art nature falls a long way short of the information in its common sense because of it might not be reduced to communication of the certain unambiguous meanings and values only. Artistic text always teeters on the edge of information and entropy.

Preliminary we can articulate a number of states:

- the information contained in the art is related first and foremost of all to the content of the art as itself (artistic information), and merely facultatively – the vital reality beyond the art. This concept achieves its maximum in music as that practically tells us nothing about «life».

- the source of artistic information it the entire piece of art in full: a picture, a statue, a novel, a symphony, etc.;

- preceding thesis in the context of the works of art evolving in time (literature, theater, cinema, music), is added with the following: comprehensive content reveals itself gradually, and the very perceptual process is controlled by the certain objective laws of information transmission; herein such notions as the probability, the ambiguity, the redundancy, etc., become actual ones;

- the entire process of transmission of information has two sides: information about the events of the art kingdom of the art piece, about its content: «material», «images», «ideas», and – the information provided by the entire structure of the piece of art (the information of art structure about itself) – about the language, grammar, the logical connections, the composition, as Y.M .Lotman told «information about the code»^[v].

- artistic information is «procreant» with respect to the other information which is get by a spectator (reader, listener) as the result of the piece of art perception.

The latter of the statements articulated was always emphasized by Y.M.Lotman. The scientist writes about such forms of information for which the most crucial is not communication of facts but videlicet agitation of creative activity. Moreover, Lotman studies two types of transmission of information in which the volume of data does not increase.

One of those is transmission via the channel «Me – Me», in which «one can say about the growth of information, its transformation, re-formulation, at that no new messages but new codes are introduced, and here the transmitter and the receiver are consisted in the one sole person»^[vi](Y.M. Lotman, 1996). In this case, «the text carries threefold values: the primary ones – common lingual, the second ones – created due to syntagmemic reorganization of the text and resistance of its primary units, and the third – by virtue of inclusion of extra-textual associations of different levels either common so exclusively private ones into the message»^[vii](Y.M. Lotman, 1996).

Here Lotman makes the important conclusion: «There is no need to prove that the mechanism described by us might be represented simultaneously also as the characteristic of the processes making grounds for poetry writing»^[viii](Y.M. Lotman, 1996).

To the other type of communication of already known information Lotman has dedicated his work named «Canonical art as an informational paradox»^[ix](Y.M. Lotman, 1992). As canonical art here is understood as the art based on the concept of «the aesthetics of identity» and that does not pretend to some novelty. Power and conciseness of ritual forms of art reside in their continuous repetitive accuracy in the unalterable manner. Lotman refers the medieval art and folklore to the aesthetics of identity, and we can add here from our side also many extra-European cultures. Moreover, let us amend that there is some intermediate epoch between the aesthetics of identity and the aesthetics of invention or novelty (and logically it cannot be otherwise. Probably, music of the epochs of Baroque and Early Classicism (and till the highest achievement of the Viennese Classicists) makes this intermediate period. And the prosperity of the aesthetics of novelty in music is connected already with the 19 and 20 Centuries.

Difference between those two types of art from the point of view of information approach is characterized by Lotman as follows: «The recipient of the piece of art of XIX Century is the listener first of all – he tends to receiving of the information from the text. The recipient of folklore (and also mediaeval) artistic message is only placed in favorable conditions for tuning in to himself. He is not only a listener but also a creator. This caused also the fact that this canonic system does not lose the information activity»^[x](Y.M. Lotman, 1992). And here Lotman makes very important note: «The listener of folklore is much more the listener of a musical piece than the novel reader»^[xi](Y.M. Lotman, 1992). Putting it otherwise, all the music (not only mediaeval and folklore ones) works for agitation of the listener’s activity but not for transmission of information. At the same time, the aesthetics of novelty was revealed in the most vivid manner in the music of the composers from L.Beethoven to H. Lachenmann, and every created piece of art was introducing something significantly new. With regards to all mentioned, it is necessary at first to view critically to the thoughts of Lotman about the information action of the arts of opposite types, and at the second to reveal the information specific of music, even if in the most general terms.

In point of fact, realism literature of the 19-th Century was organized so that it has contained much non-artistic information within its significant conceptual core: the information about reality environment – politics, economy, social sphere, etc. But even the literature of this type did not abolish in full the effect stimulating the reader’s creative process which might be compared with the effects of either folklore or music. The aesthetics of invention or novelty stimulates also the creative activity, but in literary realist art it might create the illusion only, as if all the meanings of things are inherently transparent and this is dangerous by the phenomena of skimming reading. Conceptual depth of the text is often hidden and it might be revealed in thoughtful reading that accompanied with generation of with stream of extra-textual associations.

The music of 19-th Century which value was also formed in to a considerable extent by virtue of extra-textual associations (first of all, the genre ones) has absolutely another destiny (rather than literature or painting art) as regarded to its relations with audience. Exactly if 19-th Century the idea of music of especial contextual depth and demanding by virtue thereof of full and peremptory listener’s attention was firmly established unambiguously. Exactly if 19-th Century there took place the «earth-shaker» between the «deep» («real», «serious», «academic», etc.) and «entertaining» («superficial», «light», and even «vulgar») music. This noted breach is connected directly with the problem of informativeness of art, because it is clear that in this case we speak not about the quality of music, either artistic-and-aesthetic or mental-and-aesthetic ones (indeed, no one could have doubts about the brilliance and the highest serenity of Johann Strauss’s waltzes), but exactly about somewhat referred to information content of the texts. This issue is directly connected with the role of symmetry in artistic utterance.

Symmetry, transmission and saving of information in art

In two sides of transmission of artistic information mentioned above (information about the material including factual events, and on the other hand, information about the structure and its internal connections), the role of symmetry is diametrically opposed. As to Y. Lotman, «where saving of information is provided by symmetrical structures in the most reliable manner, generation thereof is connected with the mechanisms of asymmetry»^[xii](Y.M. Lotman, 1996). When we hear some new musical material (some unusual consonance never heard before) we receive absolutely new (i.e., advanced) artistic information. But when we look to the same consonance from the point of view of the material as itself, not of the structural connections, there we should find that this new sound infringes our customary perceptions, puts our expectations and assumptions to a nonplus, that is to say, minimizes availability of the information about the structure. Otherwise stated, the more predictability of musical development the less volume of information content accepted by the listener, at the same time, the listener becomes more acknowledged about the form and structural connections. When D. Banney^[xiii] (D. Banney, 2013) has written that the symmetrical structures of harmony introduce ambiguity, that means disorder, and also those carry minimum of information (because those allow the wide range of permissions), actually he had in mind the very information about the structure – i.e., only one sole side of musical informativeness.

On the other hand, Schoenberg reckoned that the less turns in music the less predictable it is, and the more of new material piled as «out of a clear sky» the more saturated the music becomes from the point of view of the information translated, and consequently the less understandable by listeners. In this case, Schoenberg talks about the other side of information – about the material of a piece of art. N.O. Vlasova, when thinking about Schoenberg, uses the notions of «paradigmatics» and «syntagmatics»^[xiv](N.O. Vlasova, 2007), used earlier by L.О. Akopyan, those that are close to the sides of artistic information noted before: «As syntagmatically strong position might be understood as such position of the element where its sense is defined in general by inertness of the text development, by the large degree of its cohesiveness […], paradigmatically strong position is defined by the degree of the certain element «recognizability», by its associative potential allowing recognition of some beginning in it, such that might conjoin and combine it with other elements»^[xv](L.O. Akopyan, 1995). From all mentioned above it becomes clear that where the syntagmatics provides the information about structural connections, there the paradigmatics in its turn – about the material. The classical form has elaborated the mechanisms of balance of different sides of artistic information (either about structure so about material) which work basing on the principle of complementarity, and in ideal case those never achieve their maximal values and «give place» to each other.

Let us pay our attention to the fact that understanding of the structure of the whole during perception of music in connected in the greatest degree with saving of information in listener’s mind needed for the holistic «simultaneous» imagination integrating the whole entire process of perception (let us recall Lotmn’s idea). Structure of the whole is developed during listening process in conditions of maximal possible saving of all the consequently incoming information. Amongst the obvious facts contributing into saving of musical information during the process of its perception, and those which might be recognized as appearances of the various kinds of symmetry, are the following: beat and rhytmical regularity generally, composition recapitulation, regularities of syntax organization. Let us recall the well-known fact: remembering of ancient epic texts of oral tradition was possible due to rhytmical organization thereof only.

About the «spheroidal sense» in music

Within the context of this article it is not unreasonable to recall one metaphor, even more preciously to say the image then the notion, used by А.V. Mikhailov: the scientist wrote about «sphericity» of musical sense thinking about the music of Saint-Saëns^[xvi](A.V. Mikhailov, 1998). Actually, Saint-Saëns in this case was the cause only, but this metaphor as it follows from the entire chain of Mikhailov’s discourse might characterize the music of Mozart, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov (and according to the context, this list stays open). «This is the sphere of the sense, or even the sense that became visible in full, and that became completely spherical due to its perfection»^[xvii](A.V. Mikhailov, 1998).

Let us try to the extent it is possible to analyse the metaphor proposed by Mikhailov. First of all, the sphericity is the uttermost manifestation of symmetry, however, reading thoroughly the comments of А.V. Mikhailov (we need to say that those are very short and those rather are to coordinate the reader than to explain and to provide reader with more or less exact definitions), one can see that this refers to optimal concentration of information (but neither about its maximum nor the minimum) and about the most equal «distribution» of the sense in the musical utterance. Now, since A.V. Mikhailov has not done so, let us try to include this significantly exotic metaphor to the corresponding historic and cultural context since such had taken place and so A.V. Mikhailov’s metaphor has not been derived «from scratch».

The first thing predicted by spherisity is the ideality of form, no doubt; at that, it seems to be appropriated to recall Plato’s eidoses as the source of the metaphor mentioned above, and first and foremost of all the spherical supreme eidos - the eidos of the Good. The ideal form or shape is revealed through comleteness, through the ultimate eurhythmy, and moreover, not through the simple completeness as itself but through completenes achiving the «polished» degree (this word Mikhailov uses): exactly «polishness» of each of the smallest element of utterances one can hear in the music of Saint-Saëns. Similar style excellence was intrinsic in general to many French composers of different epochs: for this reason besides Saint-Saëns we could remember also F. Couperin, J. Offenbach, G. Bizet, L. Delibes, J. Massenet, C. Debussy, M. Ravel, F. Poulenc, O. Messiaen, and many others. Asafyev characterizes the features of French national style very preciously pointing out laconism of composition, exactness of utterance, and visibleness («ostensiveness») of musical idea: «Tone-painting […] from of old makes the main content of French music, and well developed senses of nature and realm of the composers always gives them the rise to air, light, play of colors, and to alteration of chiaroscuros. And further and consequently – to conciseness, exactness, and to flexible detailing»^[xviii](B. Asafyev, 1975).

The sphericity of sense in A.V. Mikhailov’s text predicts also something much more specific: harmonized and balanced flow of sense without any «lacunas» and «clots», where the sense «does not protrude outside apart»^[xix]. In this regard the scientist also makes one of few concretizing comments of history and stylistic nature: «Mozart did not incurred yet the temptation to segregate the sense as something selfcontained»^[xx](A.V. Mikhailov, 1998). Origin of this idea is sufficiently obvious: this is Hegel’s concept of the classical artistic form the sense (idea) and the matter (vehicle, idiom) are harmonized completely. Hegel’s «vestige» appears also in Mikhailov’s idea that in XIX Century «the art – in its entire «compactness» – has even expired»^[xxi](A.V. Mikhailov, 1998). Hence, Saint-Saëns’s rise was appropriated by the researcher as «the miracle».

Next moment of extreme importance – this is the idea about transparency of the spheroidal sense, about unhampered insight of the listener in the depth of sense. Mikhailov even speaks about «the sphere turned inside out» - this metaphor is difficult to imagine visually, however, it is very important for the scientist’s further considerations about the profundity of pieces of art. As some logical parallelism, we also may recall Maria Yudina’s statement in the novel be B. Pasternak «Doctor Zhivago» which was compared by the pianist with «her beloved classicism»: with Mozart, Gluck, and also with the architecture of St.Petersburg: she said about the feeling «deeply sigillated under the clarity of form»^[xxii](M.V. Yudina, 2006). It has emerged that, «clarity» - that is to say, unconcealedness (aleteia), enlighteness, sereneness (claritos) – might «thoroughly seal» something.

Let us note also another possible aspects (and even provoking ones) of sphericity of musical sense. Those are, inter alia, amongst other appearances of harmony, the harmonisity of private and subjective, let say, extra-personal experience, where nothing that is extra individual also does not «protrude outside», where it is not any intention to singularityи, but where is some distance (and can anybody can conceive the sphere another way but aloof?).

Finally, it is common to imagine that some spherical (i.e., maximally compact) and also transparent sense might be perceived as something single-step, as something ready for perception by the mind without and especial efforts.

Resulting from Mikhailov's ideas one could unwittingly remember Scriabin who creating preliminary «drawings» of his musical compositions often assign the lead role to the sphere. And in his turn, B.A. Zimmermann has created the concept of spheroidal musical time – as soon as musical time is the most important carrier of the sense, if even not the sense as itself, it would not be proper to forget about it. However, in his concept of sphericity Zimmermann pointed out absolutely nothing that could connect it with Mikhailov’s metaphor, excluding by the way the only one thing: the transparency (visibility) of all the time layers in the cohesion thereof. Also here we could recall the spheroidal perspective (space) in the painting art of Petrov-Vodkin.

But the main origin, or better to say, conceptual context of this metaphor was highlighted by Mikhailov himself: these is A.F. Losev’s words about the opera by Rimsky-Korsakov «The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka)» extracted from his early work of 1916^[xxiii](A.F. Losev, 1995). Losev wrote that music of the opera «neither superficial nor profound»^[xxiv](A.F. Losev, 1995). This very characteristic was connected by Mikhailov with his image of spheroidal musical sense. That is why it is necessary to try to articulate what is generally mentioned by profoundness (or its lack) in art and in music, and in particular, what did Losev mean here?

«Profoundness» in music: between information and entropy. About the faces of artistic-and-imaginary information

In his early work named «The feature story about music»^[xxv] (A.F. Losev, 1995) Losev has almost came closely to artmetry approach by creating the hierarchic ranks of musical pieces written by various authors and of different styles from the point of view of the degree of development of some certain characteristics therein, as follows: tension, formatting (appearance), and individual actuality (these notions were introduced by Losev himself). The distinction of Losev’s approach from artmetry as itself is in the fact, that Losev makes comparison basing on his own subjective feelings instead of measurable values. At that, he compares the «quantitative values» drawn, let say, «by rule of thumb».

In this case, the most interesting for us is what Losev understands as the profoundness of music, and so as its artistic informativeness. As to Losev, the more intensive is the appearance of essential specificity of music connected with ambiguity of its sense and with its fluid and chaotic nature, the more profound this music is. So, the most deep, profound music would have higher tension and less shape completeness.

The word «profundity», despite that it is very often used in converations about the art, did not become the notion of art criticism. Nevertheless, exactly within the context of informational approach the analysis of this notion would be absolutely full of decency. The most of terms and notions of art criticism come from «the thick of common life», and so those are used liberally enough. But whatever might be more precious the words of ingenious poet – the words of Pushkin? Let us recall the poet’s words said by his personage Salieri about Mozart’s music: «What’s the depth! What’s the courage, and what’s the harmony!»^[xxvi](A.S.Pushkin, edition of 1986). What is specific in this case in the meaning of word «the depth» when we do not connect this with the notions of genius, charisma, excellence, perfection and so on? Probably, it is some inexhaustibility of artistic sense, intention to approach to its comprehension again and again. As Lotman has found, in canonic art each new communication with the information already known restructures the human personality and the mental world all over again. But Pushkin’s «The small tragedies» – is absolutely non-canonic art, more than that, even yet the theme of «Mozart and Salieri» is the problem of genius as an extraordinary phenomena that distinct it crucially from all his other art. Obviously, Pushkin finds in Mozart’s music not canonic and common-style profoundness but some individual, inimitable Mozart’s depth.

The second word «courage» actually highlights the distinction of Mozart’s music from common generally accepted canons, its increased informativeness. The third word «harmony» highlights the distinctively concentrated informativeness communicated by Mozart’s music about its structure and structural connections.

It is also obvious that maximally succinct and laconic Pushkin’s characteristic enunciates not only the opinions of Pushkin and of the hero of tragedy, but has also its own universal meaning. At that, the profoundness of Mozart’s music is absolutely not the profoundness of the music of Beethoven, Bach, Liszt or Brahms. Mozart is the personification of the ideal of classical canonical form (in Hegel’s concept too), so he «turned inside out» any profundity («led to the surface») any profundity, expressed differently, this depth or profundity is absolutely transparent, maximally artistically informative. A.V. Mikhailov talking about the music of «The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka)» by Rimsky-Korsakov, said: «deeper than the deepest»^[xxvii] (A.V. Mikhailov, 1998) (it is difficult to imagine such somebody speaking so about Saint-Saëns). The sphere of sense «turned inside out» comes laden with optimal information richness and harmony of different information flows including information: about material, about idea, about extra-textual interconnections, about structure, about style of certain epoch, about individual style.

Thus, the especial profundity or «depth» in music is possible – which is revealed on the surface in full and which does ton emphasize itself. And we all understand that in general the situation with profundity is different now – the significant part of the information is closed, and it is not easy to get it (in such cases one can tell about «bottomlessness», inexhaustibility. Well, such is the case of Beethoven’s music, especially with one of his later period, and of the music of romanticist too. Indeed, according to Hegel, romantic art formation foresees predominancy of the idea on its implementation, so in this situation with the profundity the cryptic nature of information becomes inevitable and inherent. It is interesting that Wagner has compared melody with the surface of ocean and the harmony with its depth^[xxviii](R. Wagner, edition of 1978). But such a comparison might come to mind of composer romantist only, to whom opinion the harmony as such manifests ulterior spiritual motions, realized and unrealized strivings (vexation, Sehnsucht), and often it not rather clear the logic of structure but riddles and challenges the listener by uncertainty of further way choice. Actually, music becomes more profound due to decrease of informativeness - as about the material so about the structure. At that, simultaneously the share of new information increases – the share of new unknown information which demands to search «keys» to understanding, also the density of extra-textual interconnections of ideas and senses increases too. All that mentioned makes the music so profound that it effects listeners some another way in each new turn, and every such turn it reveals its depths more and more, at that the felling of something that has not been seen yet never leave the listener – this feeling is inherent to romantic art form. We need to clarify that in this case we are not speaking about some persistent freshness of viewpoint inherent to any genius art (including the canonic one) but about principle opacity of the structure of romantic art and of later ones.

But what do we mind speaking about «searching of keys» for new musical information unexperienced yet (harmonies, modus, melodic idioms, rhythms)?

Its necessity of its comparison with the information base of listeners is obvious – with intonational vocabulary available for listeners which is to a greater or a lesser extent the projection of common intonational vocabulary of the epoch. The more distinctions of new text from the intonational vocabulary of the epoch the more intensively the creative work of a listener develops, including activation of extra-textual interconnections.

At that, profundity of romantic artistic appearance in music is created in conditions of new information growth (oftentimes, excessive one) accompanied with its suppression (profundity as the condition of chaotic nature, the consequence of multiplicity of senses and of incomplete statefulness). Thus, image-and-emotional effect of art as itself is based exclusively of the grounds of textual information, at that, all the information communicated by art idea to us does not require some logical explanations. As the sides and edges of this integral art-and-image information it is possible to distinguish such information flows destined возможно выделить те информационные потоки, которые направлены на to the growth of information in common non-artistic sense, i.e., the information clarifying either image hierarchy or language notions, or the structure. So, the main ones amongst those flows might be attributed to semantic and structural information.

In the music of XIX Century there takes place crucial growth and saturation of artistic-and-imaginal information, and so individualization of utterance leads to specific decreasing of its semantic and structural sides (a lot of very different and even opposite opinions about semantics in music and its structure might be articulated). This particular creates most commonly the feeling of hardly conceived depth of a text, in contradistinction from the profundity of Mozart’s music which is «deeper than the deepest» and also which became absolutely transparent, «turned inside out» appeared as symmetrical («spheroidal») shape of the sense.

The certain deficit of clarifying information in saturation of information flow was already very common for the music of XIX Century, but it has achieved its crucial value in the music of avant-garde in new XX Century. In music of Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg, the art-and-image information and its density has grown to its maximal value. At that, the principle of avoidance of any traditional elements stated by Schoenberg led to the situation where the listener deals with the sound being far apart from common intonation vocabulary of the epoch. As the sequence, semantic information crucially decreases. The same thing happens with the structure of information: even the use of dodecaphonic technic, which might be simply found in the analysis, does not allow the listener to imagine the following stages of development and also about the essence of structural interconnections of the whole. O.S. Semenov wrote that in painting art of modernism the part of information is minimal; as the most eloquent example of this here might be used «The Black Square» by K. Malevich: «However, such powerful signal in general carries the minimal information. This is not even the information as itself, but some initiating pulse»^[xxix].

At that, this minimum of information received by a spectator generates active creative process – the same effect we can see in the music of New Viennese School where the maximum of art-and-image information transforms to its antithesis (near-zero semantic and structural information). And the very «near-zero» (just like «The Black Square») creating the principle deficit of information might in the certain conditions cause the tendency to generating of senses by listener himself, this is where the listener is brought in such conditions that he is encouraged to give some sense to some informational indefinite utterance (just like a foreign language utterance), i.e., to structure the sense all over again by himself overcoming informational entropy.

What are those conditions? The informational indefinite utterance should not be energetically amorphous. For the matter of that, this program of personal restructuring carried by generally known canonic art now is impressed to listener’s (spectator’s, reader’s) mind using not only unknown texts, but also by the text incomprehensible in principle which create their own language. Stating the case another way, the listener receives powerful impetus for creation of the program of self-transformation indoctrinated by the author.

The absoluteness and the completeness of spheroidal sense might be breached is the view of sphere is remained but the density of semantic and structural information suddenly decreases – the sphere becomes «saggy» and the music – not deep, superficial. It is the structure of almost all pieces of «light», entertaining, popular music that is not intended for personal transformation but contrary for providing the person with freedom to live «by inertia», «downstream». We are very far from saying that it should be certainly should condemned: beautiful music pieces are, for instance, the waltzes by Johann Strauss or I. Dunayevsky, might let a rest, relaxation, but primitively rude and foppishly vulgar music might only be somewhat as drugs. It is possible to suppose that it is not unreasonable to study of effect of various types of music within the context of the topic named «informative energetics of music».

At that, it is the most important to understand that information is the powerful tool of art, but it is neither its essence not a goal in itself. Understanding this we could go back to the question asked by A. Enfiandzhyan: whether musical-and-digital technologies introduce «some spiritual dimension» into music? Here we express solidarity with V.V. Medushevsky: the non-spiritual (technologies) can contribute nothing spiritual, the same as the lifeless cannot give birth to the vital. It should be itemized that in the art any sense might not be separated from the means of its implementation, so all new means and technologies (поэтому новые средства и технологии (whether they are organ, symphony orchestra, pianoforte, rock band or electronic synthesizer) inevitably take part in implementation of new and newest spirit manifestations, place on their trace on those.

Let us highlight once again that reduction of the notion of artistic-and-imaginary sense (i.e., specific imaginary-and-emotional «information») to the information in in the ordinary sense of this word might initiate global humanitarian catastrophe, inasmuch as the hypothetical breed of humans who are not familiar with the basics of artistic-and-imaginary cogitation, create clear and present threat to the world culture.

References

^[i] Medushevsky V.V. (2013) Smysl I Informatsiya [The sense and the information, in Russian], Moscow: Muzyka e elektronika, 2013, Vol. 4, p. 3.

^[ii] Enfiandzhyan A. (2013) Tsyfrovye Tekhnologii Kak Instrument Muzykovedcheskih Innovtsij [Digital technologies as the tool of music science innovations, in Russian], Moscow: Muzyka I Elektronika, 2013, Vol. 3, p. 5.

^[iii] Golytsyn G. A.(1997) Informatsya I Tvorchestvo: Na Puti K Integraljnoy Culture [Information and creative work: In the way towards integral culture, in Russian], Moscow: Russkiy Mir, 2013.

^[iv] Petrov V.M. (2004) Kolichestvennye Metody V Iskusstvoznanii [Quantative methods in art science, in Russian], Moscow: The Academic Project, The Foundation «Mir», 2004.

^[v] Lotman Y.M. (1994) Lektsii Po Strukturaljnoy Poetike [Lections of structural poetics, in Russian], In: Lotman Y.M. I Tarussko-Moskovskaya Semioticheskaya Shkola [Lotman Y.M. and Tartu and Moscow semiotic school, in Russian), Edt. A.D. Koshelev. Moscow: «Gnozis», 1994, p. 238

^[vi] Lotman Y.M. (1996) Vhutri Myslaschikh Mirov. Chelovek - Tekst - Semiosfera - Istoriya [Inside the intelligent worlds. Human - text - semiosphere – history, in Russian]. Moscow: «Yazyki russkoy kuljtury» [Languages of Russian culture, in Russian], 1996, p. 36.

^[vii] lbid., p. 35

^[viii] lbid.

^[ix] Lotman Y.M. (1992) Selected papers in three volumes, Vol. 1, Tallinn: Alexandra, 1992, p. 243 – 247.

^[x] lbid., p. 245.

^[xi] lbid.

^[xii] Lotman Y.M. (1996) Tekst V Protsese Dvizheniya: Avtor - Auditoriya. Zamysel - Tekst [Text in the process of motion: Author – Audience, Idea – Text, in Russian] // Lotman Y.M. Vhutri Myslaschikh Mirov. Chelovek - Tekst - Semiosfera - Istoriya [Inside the intelligent worlds. Human - text - semiosphere – history, in Russian]., Moscow: «Yazyki russkoy kuljtury» [Languages of Russian culture, in Russian], 1996, p. 103.

^[xiii] Banney David (2013) Cristallising Wagner: Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking in Wagner’s Tristan Prelude, Symmetry: Culture and Science, 24, No. 1-4, 347-366 and 353

^[xiv] Vlasova N.O.(2007) Tvorchestvo Arnolda Shyonberga [Art of Arnold Schoenberg, in Russian], Moscow: The Publishing House LKI, 2007, p. 32.

^[xv] Akopyan L.O. (1995) Analiz Glubinnoy Struktury Muzykaljnogo Teksta [Analysis of deep structure of musical text, in Russian], Moscow: Moscow, 1995, p. 8-9.

^[xvi] Mikhailov A.V. (1998) O Sen-Sanse V Sharoobraznom Smysle [About Saint-Saëns and spheroidal sense, in Russian] In: Mikhailov A.V. Muzyka V Istorii Kuljtury [Music in the history of culture, in Russian], Selected Papers. Moscow: Moscow State Conservatory, 1998, p. 223 – 225.

^[xvii] lbid., p. 223.

^[xviii] Asafyev B. (1998) Frantsuzskaya Muzyka I Ee Sovremennye Predstavitely [French music and its modern representatives, in Russian]. In: Zarubezhnaya muzyka XX veka [Foreign music of XX Century, in Russian], Moscow: Moscow, 1975. p. 113

^[xix] Mikhailov A.V. (1998) O Sen-Sanse V Sharoobraznom Smysle [About Saint-Saëns and spheroidal sense] In: Mikhailov A.V. Muzyka V Istorii Kuljtury [Music in the history of culture, in Russian]. Selected Papers. Moscow: Moscow State Conservatory, 1998, p. 224.

^[xx] lbid.

^[xxi] lbid.

^[xxii] Yudina M.V. (2006) Vysokiy Stoykiy Dukh: Perepiska 1918 – 1945 gg. [High brave spirit: Letters of 1918 – 1945, in Russian]. Moscow: Moscow, 2006, p. 321.

^[xxiii] Losev A.F. (1995) O Muzukaljnom Oschuschenii Lubvi I Prirody [About musical sense of love and nature, in Russian]. In: Losev A.F. Forma - Stilj - Vyrazhenie [Appearance – Style – Expression, in Russian], Edt: A.A. Takho-Godi, Moscow: Myslj, 1995, p. 603 – 621.

^[xxiv] lbid., p. 620.

^[xxv] Losev A.F. Ocherk O Muzyke [Feature story about music, in Russian],. In: Losev A.F. Forma - Stilj - Vyrazhenie [Appearance – Style – Expression, in Russian], Edt: A.A. Takho-Godi, Moscow: Myslj, 1995, p. 637 – 666.

^[xxvi] Pushkin A.S.(Edt. 1986) Mozart I Saljeri [Mozart and Salшeri, in Russian], In: Pushkin A.S. Works in 3 volumes. Vol. 2. Poems, Eugene Onegin, Drama works., Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literature, 1986, p. 445.

^[xxvii] Mikhailov A.V. (1998) O Sen-Sanse V Sharoobraznom Smysle [About Saint-Saëns and spheroidal sense, in Russian] In: Mikhailov A.V. Muzyka V Istorii Kuljtury [Music in the history of culture, in Russian]. Selected Papers, Moscow: Moscow State Conservatory, 1998, p. 224.

^[xxviii] Wagner R. (Edt. 1978) Opera I Drama [Opera and Drama, in Russian], In: Wagner R. Selected papers, Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1978, p. 434.

^[xxix] Semenov O.S. (1978) Vzaimootnosheniya Avtora, Proizvedeniya I Zritelya (Chitatelya, Slushatelya) V Iskusstve [Relationship of author, work, and spectator (reader, listener) in art, in Russian], In: Muzykaljnoye Iskusstvo I Nauka [Musical art and science, in Russian]. Vol. 3: Сollection of articles / Edt.. E.V. Nazaykinskiy, Moscow: Muzgiz, 1978, p. 102.

Introduction

It is possible to identify the geohistorical era (cca 650 million years ago) of appearance and some characteristics of the first multicellular living beings which were capable to intelligently interact with their environment. The birth of neuropsychological information have connected to a newly evolved ability to modify activity patterns concerning to the forecasted changes of the relevant realms of the environment.

So, information behavior was possible with only the simultaneous existence of three insular, specialized modules (group of cells), strongly interconnected by the embrionary nervous system.

The first one is dedicated to sensation/representation performance, the second is responsible for the semiosis (constitution of meaning, processing, interpreting, signification, decision making) and the third one controls and directs every intentional locomotion and body move (feedbacking the sensory input).

Without these modules there is no information behavior, and without a coexistence of them there is no full information cycle and there is no Big History (1) of Information. Representation without decision/action or decision/action without sensory input are later developments, the same as the perception of effects from the inner world and the locomotion feedback (proprioception).    

Elementary information cycle

To construct an elementary information cycle for the first ‘informationable’ beings it was enough to have a sense to perceive the difference between at least two relevant environmental occasions, having mental patterns, referring to these occasions, and an alternative set of motion types, acting upon the animal’s actual needs.  

Figure 1. Elementary information cycle.

(see PDF version for the Figure).

The information cycle of more developed animals and animal communities, Pre-Hominids, the Homo Sapiens and our whole contemporary human civilization (with its overlapping information communities and sensational information technology ecosystems) are fundamentally similar to the original, early rudimentary forms, on individual and group level, too. Of course, there are quantitative and qualitative differences in sensory and memory capacity, complexity, the size of usable information asset (stock) and the variety and effectivity of possible (re)actions, but the architecture of information behavior is just the same.

It provides a unique opportunity to define common macropatterns (“laws”) and common conceptual framework of (Big) Information History.

Nine Information History Macropattern

Highlighting the following “starter kit” of few, selected macropatterns and concepts would like to iniciate the future enlargement of these opening lists, providing vocabulary for high abstraction level theoretical research and very concrete historical reconstructions at the same time.

1. Multidimensional growth of representation power (sensory organ types, distance, speediness, size, color, resolution, sharpness, etc.). The result is better understanding and mapping of „surrounding reality” (world model), which allows more successful individual and group adaptation/behavior, broadening the channels of possible adiaphore effects, augmenting the anticipation power, maximizing the effectivity of preventive actions. The axes of continuously growing representability are: size (macro and micro level), distance and time-frame. The stages of extending representation capacity are: sensory evolution, usage of (information) tools, development of (extrasomatic) information technology.
2. The emerging inter-organismic information games are about weakening the representation capacity, decision adequacy and action potential of the ‘others’ for gaining advantage (with colourful and diverse evolutionary technics, developed by preys and predators).
3. Extension of adiaphore time leak (the time between perception of an event with relevance on future conditions and the action made to avoid lethal/unpleasant consequences of this future state). This leak have increased from a nano/picoseconds domain to years, and additionally, in the terms of perceivable space, from nano/picometers to light years. Information was originally developed to maximize individual fitness with conquering the future. Culture – defined as a survival tool by Lotman (2) – makes the same on community level. The adiaphore determination scheme was developed by Lajos Kardos (3).
4. Since the Light is the most effective adiaphore effect, the history of augmenting visual representation became the dominant form of perception, starting with the evolution of eye, following the optical technologies (macro-and microscopes and others). Later, Light also became the most effective way of sign transmission.
5. Cooperation is per se about performing common action. Coordination as an exchange of meanings is a precondition for successful cooperation.
6. The size of sign-interchanging communities and the interconnectivity rate of individuals is raising to a power the number of possible transformations, boosts the information flow, creates space for information innovation, augmenting the overall information asset and action capability of the community. We can observe the same effect every time when individuals’ density is growing locally (from hordes to the urbanization process).
7. There is a constant pressure on information accumulation (memory capacity, length of personal life, intergenerational transfer of meaning, culture, memory expanding technologies).
8. The natural environment (and later: public spaces) are also rich in (meaningful) objects as sources of information. Information architecture simultaneously means the enrichment of the environment with information/content, and the design of exformation (objectivation of information to physical form as sign on a carrier, for future usage).
9. Information metabolism can be multiplicative (when the size of information communities or the information asset of a community with fixed size is starting to grow, or separate information communities are merging), distillative (when the reproduction and flow of information is narrowing or hampered - information procedures can be reversible) and invariable. These moments are coexisting, but their role and proportion determine the adaptive power of a community.

Figure 2. Adiaphoria: Widening Time Leak as Big Information History pattern

(see PDF version for the Figure).

Conclusions

Evolution of information behavior produced more and more complex information cycles and (in the Homo period) complex social environment/culture to multiply the long-time existing and persistent patterns. However, we could identify nine macropatterns, adaptable for not only the human part, but for the whole Big Information History

References and Notes

1. Christian, D. 2011: Maps of Time. An Introduction to Big History University of California Press, First Edition
2. Lotman, Y. M. 1970: Statji po tipologii kulturü Tartu (In Hungarian: Szöveg, modell, típus Gondolat, 1973)
3. Kardos, L. 1984: The origin of Neuropsychological Information Akadémiai Kiadó: Budapest, Hungary

Introduction

Over the past few years, major Internet, hardware and software companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM have conducted considerable research in AI and robotics, and made substantial investments in firms that are active in those fields. For example, at the beginning of 2014, Google acquired DeepMind, an AI company based in London and co-founded by a former child chess prodigy, Demis Hassabis, for around £400m. In October of that year, Google also bought two other AI British spin-offs of Oxford University: Dark Blue, a company working on machine learning techniques for natural languages, and Vision Factory, who are working on computer vision. The Web search giant also launched a partnership between the Google AI structure and the AI research group at Oxford University. All these AI acquisitions, partnerships and investments followed a long list of acquisitions of robotics companies over the past few years. A major component of this list was Boston Dynamics, a company whose primary clients are the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps (Cohen 2014).

Google clearly needs this kind of technology to deal not only with their core business, but also with their more innovative developments, such as Google Glass, self-driving cars, etc. But why do AI and robotics appear to be so strategic to Google? Even their core business deals with language understanding and translation, both in processing texts to help formulate responses to query requests, and in understanding the queries themselves through speech recognition. Visual recognition is used in the retrieval of images and videos, and in the development of Google Glass and self-driving cars. All of these areas of interest seem to be covered by the traditional fields of AI that from the 1960s onward has promised solutions to the same kinds of problems that Google is trying to solve today.

Another potential area for AI is the management of Big Data, which, as argued above (cf. 4.5.1), lies at the heart of the marketing and profiling activities of the search engine. In order to process huge amounts of data, adequate correlation algorithms are needed, based mainly on machine learning techniques developed in the field of AI during the 1970s and 1980s. It is not by chance that the director of Research at Google Inc. is now Peter Norwig, a key figure in the field, who was co-author, along with Stuart Russell, of the classical textbook on AI, Artificial Intelligence: a modern approach since 1995.

Some old thoughts about AI definition

According to the paper “Intelligent machinery”, written in 1948 by Alan Turing, considered one of the fathers of the modern thought about AI, the key areas of the field were: “(i) Various games … (ii) The learning of languages, (iii) translation of languages, (iv) Cryptography, (v) mathematics” (Turing 1948/2004, 420). With the inclusion of modern image recognition, these still appear to be the main areas of interest in AI.

Any field in which the same projects remain unaccomplished for so long naturally raises suspicions. But Turing offered another interesting point of view to understand why the potential of AI deserves attention: “the extent to which we regard something as behaving in an intelligent manner is determined as much by our own state of mind and training as by the properties of the object under consideration. If we are able to explain and predict its behavior or if there seems to be a little underlying plan, we have little temptation to imagine intelligence” (Turing 1948/2004, 431).

As suggested by the title of the last paragraph of his paper, intelligence is an emotional and subjective concept, and depends just as much on the observer’s own conception of intelligence, and on his/her mental condition and training, as on the properties of the object under investigation.

According to Turing, the definition of intelligence should not be considered too crucial because: “at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machine thinking without expecting to be contradicted” (Turing 1950/2004, 449).

The suggestion was thus that, in the 50 years following the publication of his paper, the transformation of conscience and beliefs of the general public would be extensive enough to elevate “machine thinking” to the level of the generally perceived notion of “intelligence”.

These two assumptions taken together: the training and mental state of the researcher, and the change in the mentality of the general audience, form the main presupposition of AI. In future it will be agreed that what machines will be able to do will be a reasonable definition of machine intelligence.

The ‘intelligent’ results of DeepMind

The AI results obtained by DeepMind in April 2014 on the First Day of the Tomorrow Technology conference in Paris (See video presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfGD2qveGdQ), as described in (Mnih, Hassabis, et al. 2015), offer an interesting perspective on what may be considered intelligent, for a task achieved by a machine.

The video shows the AI computer program as it learns to play an Arcade game, Breakout, which belongs to the family of the earliest Atari 2600 games, prototyped in 1975 by Wozniak and Jobs (Twilley 2015). The aim of the game is to destroy a wall brick by brick, using a ball launched against it. The “intelligent” program behaves in a very progressive way: at the start it is not very clever, but it quickly learns. After half an hour it becomes as clever as a non-clever human, and after 300 games the program stop missing the ball, and becomes more expert that the most expert human.

According to the description – published as a letter in Nature on the 26^th of February 2015 – behind the great success of the Deep Q-network (DQN) lies two different kinds of “intelligent” tools: the ability to create a representation of an environment using high-dimensional hierarchical sensory inputs, and the ability to reinforce learning strategies based solely on that environment, without any rearrangement of the data, or pre-programming of the learning strategies. DQN was able to develop a winning strategy by simply analyzing the pixels on the screen and the game scores: successful actions resulted from analysis of the sensory description provided by the deep neural network.

According to the description of the experiment: “To use reinforcement learning successfully in situations approaching real-world complexity, however, agents are confronted with a difficult task: they must derive efficient representations of the environment from high-dimensional sensory inputs, and use these to generalize past experience to new situations” (Mnih, Hassabis, et al. 2015, 529). The deep neural network was described by comparing its performance to human behavior. Part of the enthusiasm surrounding this achievement was attributed to the assumption, as declared by the AI experts who described the results, that game-playing expertise can be compared to that needed to solve real-world complexity problems. However this assumption could be called into question, considering the low level of complexity in 1970s arcade games. Their working environments look very different from real world problems, both in terms of the nature of the rudimentary task, and in the computer reconstruction of the limited sensory experience.

To successfully compare human strategies with the neural networks requires an interpretation and analysis all the metaphors used to describe the objectives and accomplishments of the Deep-Q network: “humans and other animals seem to solve this problem through a harmonious combination of reinforcement learning and hierarchical sensory processing systems …, the former evidenced by a wealth of neural data revealing notable parallels between the phasic signals emitted by dopaminergic neurons and temporal difference reinforcement learning algorithms”(Mnih, Hassabis, et al. 2015, p. 529). This reveals an underlying assumption that there is a symmetry between the behavior of dopaminergic neurons, and the function of the reinforcement learning algorithm used by the DQN. When declaring this parallel the researchers did not provide any convincing argument to prove their hypothesis. To this may be added the doubts already mentioned about whether simple success in playing Breakout should be included in any possible definition of human intelligence. Despite these undemonstrated assumptions, many appear ready to appreciate and support the result as an outstanding progress of AI research. This fact may thus be one of the social transformations of the definition of intelligence anticipated by Turing’s 1950 paper.

The current situation thus does not differ too much from that in the 1960s and the 1970s where the game-like problem solutions of AI software prototypes were rhetorically transformed into the first step in climbing the mountain of human-like intelligent performances.

Conclusion: when the controller and the controlled are the same agent

Another noteworthy effect of this exploitation of the AI effect within Google is their creation of an “ethics board”, as required by the DeepMind people when they were taken over by Google. However, it is surely a strange practice to appoint an in-house ethics commission aimed at self-regulation. The board’s task is twofold: on one hand it aims to judge and absolve Google of any potential “sin” when managing AI software, and on the other hand it guarantees that Google is not doing any evil, when trying to emulate certain human abilities via software.

Google thus acts as if it were both the controller and the agent under control: it accepts no authority except itself, when discussing what it does that is right or wrong. This “affirmative discourse” approach (Bunz 2014) to international, social and geopolitical problems became very successful, and sufficiently convincing that other international authorities also accepted it, as suggested by the decision of the European Court of Justice on the right to be forgotten, published in May 2014⁽³⁾ The European Court attributed to Google the role of the European guarantor of the right to be forgotten. Google accepted the role, but at the same time published a report⁽⁵⁾written by the Advisory Council, also nominated by Google, describing how it may act as an advisory committee in performing the role of guarantor. The report suggests rules that the company should follow in protecting the right of some people to have their data forgotten, while maintaining the right of the rest of the Europeans to have their data both available and preserved. It is the same situation of the ethics board for AI: Google is asking itself to be the guarantor of the ethical control over its operations of technological advancement.

References and Notes

1. Bunz, M. 2014, The silent revolution, Palgrave Macmillan, New York
2. Cohen R. “What’s Driving Google’s Obsession with Artificial Intelligence and robots?”, Forbes, 1/28/2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2014/01/28/whats-driving-googles-obsession-with-artificial-intelligence-and-robots/print/ .
3. Court of Justice of the European Union’s ruling in Google Spain and Inc. vs. Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) and Mario Costeja Gonzalez C131/12. Sentence issued in May 2014.
4. Mnih V., Kavukcuoglu K., Hassabis D. et al. “Human-level control through deep reinforcement learning”, in Nature, 26 feb. 2015, Vol. 518, pp. 529-533.
5. Report of the Advisory Council to Google on the Right to be Forgotten https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1UgZshetMd4cEI3SjlvV0hNbDA/view, published on the 6th of February 2015.
6. Turing A. M. “Intelligent Machinery” Report, National Physics Laboratory, 1948, in B. Meltzer D. Michie (Eds.), Machine intelligence, 5, Edinburgh Univ. Press, 1969: 3-23; reprint in Copeland J. (Ed.) The Essential Turing, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2004,410-432.
7. Turing A.M. "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", MIND, 59 (1950), pp.433-460, reprinted in Collected Works of A. M. Turing: mechanical intelligence, D. C. Ince, (Ed.) North-Holland, Amsterdam 1992, pp. 133-160 and in Copeland J. (Ed.) The Essential Turing, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2004, pp.441-464, URL: http://mind.oxfordjournals.org/content/LIX/236/433.full.pdf.
8. Twilley N. “Artificial Intelligence goes to the arcade”, The New Yorker, 2/25/2015, http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/deepmind-artificial-intelligence-video-games.

Introduction

Long before contemporary Science and Technology Studies (STS), Marxism, pragmatism and various theories of modernity were associated with the study of technology. These were broad and often speculative theories that related technology to a social and political context. STS sought to supplant these competing approaches and has been largely successful. Today few look to Mumford or Dewey, Heidegger or Marcuse for insight into technology. However, when STS took what Wiebe Bijker called "the detour into the academy" to focus on empirically based case histories, it gave up the political concerns that had inspired these earlier approaches. This renunciation was easier to justify before the widespread controversies over medical care, the Internet and the environment directly implicated technology in so many different aspects of contemporary politics. Some STS researchers have now also become aware of the more politicized approaches favored in the developing world, especially Latin America. But how can the achievements of STS be preserved in the context of politically charged investigations of controversial issues? This talk proposes one way of doing this, the critical theory of technology.

Critical theory of technology draws on fundamental methodological assumptions of STS to elaborate themes of the earlier tradition of modernity theory, specifically Lukács’s early Marxism and the Frankfurt School. The key such assumptions are the notions of underdetermination, interpretative flexibility, and closure developed in the social constructivist tradition. In addition, the concept of co-construction drawn from actor network theory is useful methodologically, although critical theory of technology does not follow ANT to its radical ontological conclusions. The application of these notions to particular technologies is fruitful, but attempts to generalize them as a full fledged social theory, for example, in the writings of Bruno Latour, are not as successful as the case histories for which STS is famous.

The attempt to build a political theory on the basis of STS needs to confront the principle insight of the earlier tradition, namely, the strange fact that modern societies have a “rational” culture. By this is meant the generalization of methods and concepts from mathematics and natural science as a framework for thought and action in every social sphere. This is not merely a subjective disposition but is reflected in the multiplication bureaucracies, technologies and technical disciplines which effectively organize and control most of social life. A phenomenon of this scope requires a broad approach.

Critical theory of technology addresses this issue from the standpoint of the theory of rationality elaborated by the Frankfurt School. The articulation of this theory in the context of an STS-inspired approach requires significant revisions. Where the Frankfurt School proposed a very general critique of “instrumental rationality,” critical theory of technology looks to a more concrete critique of the social bias of technical disciplines, bureaucracies and technologies. The identification of such biases employs methods explored in STS and yields a critical approach to the culture of modern societies.

Methods

Following STS, critical theory of technology highlights the inherent contingency and complexity of technical artifacts masked by the coherence of technical explanations. In this context I suggest that the concept of a palimpsest can serve as a useful analogy. Technological design resembles a palimpsest: multiple layers of influence coming from very different regions of society and responding to different, even opposed, logics converge on a shared object.

Marx sketched such an approach in the "Introduction to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy." There he writes that "[t]he concrete is concrete, because it is a combination of many objects with different destinations, i.e. a unity of diverse elements. In our thought, it therefore appears as a process of synthesis, as a result, and not as a starting point, although it is the real starting point and, therefore, also the starting point of observation and conception" (Marx 1857/1904, 293).

In this passage Marx anticipates the genealogical method Foucault found in Nietzsche. These de-reifying approaches treat social "things," such as artifacts, institutions and laws, as assemblages of functional components held together by their social roles. The components disaggregate and recombine as society changes. Social history cannot rely on an Aristotelian model in which an essence endures through accidental changes. It must identify these ontological differences in the construction and meaning of its objects.

The genealogical approach is useful in the case of technology. Devices and systems often retain the same name while changing components. Genealogy is especially applicable where the technical code imposed by the dominant actor is not alone in shaping design. In such cases the technology must serve a multiplicity of interests through more or less coherent assemblages of parts with a variety of functions. The interests are also translated into higher level meanings, such as ideologies and worldviews. The technocratic concept of efficiency is an example, at each historical stage translating particular interests and technical arrangements conducive to the exercise of technocratic authority. Technical disciplines and artifacts give a deceptively rational form to the multiple and ambiguous influences that appear clearly for what they are in other social institutions.

Conclusion

The writings of Marx and Foucault free us from a naïve belief in the universality of technological and administrative efficiency. In this they converge with recent Science and Technology Studies which has rediscovered the interdependence of the social and the technical. The technical underdetermination of artifacts leaves room for social choice between different designs that have overlapping functions but better serve one or another social interest. The key point is the influence of the social on the content of the artifact and not merely on such external factors as the pace of development, packaging or usages. This means that context is not merely external to technology, but actually penetrates its rationality, carrying social requirements into the very workings of the device.

References

Feenberg, Andrew (2014). The Philosophy of Praxis. London: Verso.

Feenberg, Andrew (2010). Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

The emergence of Bitcoin as a means to make electronic transactions directly across a peer-to-peer network has sparked interest from many fields, mostly due to its capability to handle such transactions on a large scale, with no recourse to centralised structures of management. This is achieved through its underlying technical architecture, the ‘block chain’: an impressively robust system of recording transactions on a network that’s security is guaranteed via the distribution of all transaction data (in blocks) to every node in the system on an ever-increasing chain. Last year saw the emergence of ‘Bitcoin 2.0’ applications, where vast amounts of investment capital flowed into projects that proposed to develop systems that offer a diverse range of applications beyond crypto-currencies, such as voting systems, electronic contracts, financial services, and identification recognition. What unifies these projects is the desire to replace centralised, human-run organisations, with cryptographically secure, automated peer-to-peer systems. Within this desire is a political vision, a vision that is not at all homogenous, nor harmonious, but nonetheless contains central elements that can be traced in the formation of Bitcoin. This paper seeks to explore this vision, drawing on primary research data to examine the technical politics of crypto-currencies. 

Bitcoin first appeared as a white paper published on The Cryptography Mailing List at metzdowd.com, an open mailing list associated with the internet subculture of cypherpunks – a subculture that fused concerns over increasing state intrusion into everyday life through rapidly growing electronic surveillance, with the open source principles that challenge proprietary software, declare digital technology to be a public good, and thus endeavour to provide alternatives. These values are indeed reflected in Bitcoin’s white paper, and through its public release as an open source project. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and ongoing revelations about coordinated programs of mass state surveillance, many have begun to see Bitcoin as a potentially important public tool. But how exactly, can radical values be embedded in technology? And how does its diffusion among different contexts, and development for different purposes, affect this radical potential? In these respects, I believe it is important to consider the work of Andrew Feenberg.

At the crux of Feenberg’s critical theory is the concept of hegemonic technological rationality which, through a dominant form of reasoning, enframes how we understand technology; and through dominant systems of production, entails the exclusion of the interests of marginal social groups. This has the effect of reproducing dominant hegemonic social values through the practices that consequently prosper in this system, practices that structure much of social life and impinge on environments. Feenberg does however, identify two means for subverting this process: democratic intervention on the part of social groups campaigning for alternative technologies; and tactical practices in which marginal groups can reveal alternative potentialities for technology by finding new ways of appropriating the technologies around them. In the collective and voluntary efforts of disparate developers unified by the conviction that digital technologies are and should be a public good – and not proprietary tools of corporate profiteering and state surveillance – we see this latter form of tactical resistance embodied in the origins of Bitcoin. Bitcoin thus opens up alternative possibilities for technological progress, both in ideological and material ways. Materially, Bitcoin opens up further potentialities for tactical practices, as we are seeing with the various ways in which block chain technology is being adapted. Ideologically, Bitcoin introduces its users to systems of thought that challenge dominant understandings of financial technologies and the social structures they support. In this latter sense, Bitcoin has the potential to be a counter-hegemonic force. In this paper however, I will present data that suggests this is not the case, and that in fact Bitcoin is reinforcing the dominant ideals of neoliberalism. In presenting the details of this process, I aim to demonstrate the importance of understanding the development of ‘cultures of knowledge’ that emerge around contemporary technological practices.

References and Notes

Feenberg, A. (1991) A Critical Theory of Technology . Oxford: University Press

Feenberg, A. (1999) Questioning Technology. London: Routledge

Introduction

In light of "the late capitalist economy where anything and everything is potentially commodifiable" [1], the fact that online social platforms foster a market ideology that commoditizes personal identity as a sellable good has been addressed in recent scholarship [2, 3]. This logic is, at the same time, counterbalanced by a popular faith in the Social Web [4] as the new ground for personal affirmation [5]. Web 2.0 has continued to be portrayed as the symbolic materialization of enterprise culture [6], in a time when the employment scene seems futureless, marked by increased uncertainty for both companies and employees and devoid of any guarantees of economic success or job security. Against the pervasiveness of self-commodification online, regular individuals have the option of leveraging the market logic themselves. This affirmation needs to be placed against the wider cultural background of recent years.

In little over a decade, individuals’ digital immersion has spread to become a global social phenomenon, attesting to the fact that society’s new habitat is the re-ontologised infosphere [7]. Individuals themselves are described as informational entities [8] embedded in this engulfing network of bits, with every piece of personal information available online carrying relevant identity cues [9]. Commercial Internet companies interested in reaping identity data from real individuals have been the first to harvest this realization. While they made social networking online increasingly compelling for participants, they operated a discrete change: reframing privacy "as something users opt into (rather than out of)" [10]. From a space of infinite possibility for anonymous identity play [11, 12, 13], the privately owned Social Web was recast around new ideals of transparency [14, 15].

The massive sharing of personal information that occurred with the widespread adoption of platform logic, corroborated with the "persistence", "replicability", "scalability" and "searchability" of digital information [16] contributed to the discretionary availability of large quantities of personal data online. Along with "communication power" [17], individuals gained great communication vulnerability. Online, flattened contexts allow for both audiences and information to aggregate, displaced from their intended temporal and spatial delineations [18]. Any search engine can bring together authored, co-authored, ambient or random personal information for an unintended audience, free to subjectively re-create the individual’s identity from its digital parts. Our increasingly digital culture [19, 20, 21], where surveillance is embedded in the very process of social interaction, both rewards and sanctions individuals based on who they appear to be online. Under this context, self-promotion has been presented as a normalized practice online [3].

While self-promotion as self-commodification has been the subject of vocal critique in the academic world [1, 22, 23], a popular culture fueled by both the personal development literature genre and a growing marketing practice embraced it as personal branding [10, 23]. For the individual user engaging in self-branding, the Social Web is valorized as enabling the alignment of self to enterprise ideology [2]. Yet, while online and offline identities increasingly merge in social and commercial ways [24] that leave little room for incongruity, the extent to which individuals are aware of both who they are in the infosphere and their possibilities to strategically manage their online selves is questionable.

Methods

The overall goal of my research was to shed light onto the individual practices that shape self-identity communication online, in light of a normalization of self-promotion practices, brought about by Web 2.0 ideology. Aiming for a theoretical sample [25], my orientation was towards the most representative group of individuals for the identity online phenomenon. Informants needed to be, on the one hand, biologically mature and thus credible to talk about self-identity on and offline, and, on the other hand, frequent and savvy users of multiple digital platforms, spending a minimum time of 3 to 4 hours a day engaged in online activities, irrespective of terminal technology or online platform. My 20 informants ranged in age from 21 to 35 and came from various professional backgrounds. Sample size was established as a result of theoretical saturation [25]. I conducted 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews in the homes of my informants, with an average duration of one hour and thirty minutes. The loose discussion guide used as instrument included projective techniques and verbal protocols. Prior to the actual interview, each participant was required to fill in a personal journal over a period of a week. The journals had a pre-set format, prompting respondents to answer (with text and images) specific points, ranging from personal information, to online habits, to actual web pages accessed over the given period of time. All 20 interviews were filmed and then transcribed. Simultaneously, the text was continuously perused for thematical similarities and differences that ultimately enabled the grouping of the data set into concepts and then larger categories, using both emic and etic codes.

Results and Discussion

The study was based on the theoretical assumption that identity online is a forming part of individuals living in our digital culture [24]. Yet, my findings revealed that the large majority of my informants did not acknowledge that the traces they leave online (intentionally or not) can be subjectively corroborated by various third parties to form the individual’s identity narrative. Nor that, in the face of this reality, they could or should make strategic use of the online medium's affordances to craft a strategic personal presence online. One is able to observe a disarming ingenuousness in user's perception of the Social Web as an environment for authentic self-expression. Although the projected self is, to some extent, edited, this practice is grounded on false assumptions. Protective self-presentation [26] is dismissive of the fact that real and imagined audiences [18] can differ and information can at some point aggregate and become available by searching. Identities online thus appear to be published rather then publicized.

While these results emerged out of a qualitative approach, and lack the support of quantitative validation, they encourage compelling threads for discussion. They seem to have surfaced an inequality in the system of sharing, an inconsistency between emerging social realities and actual user practices, which leaves the individual in a clear disadvantage. Commercial interest as the pervasive logic of Web 2.0 is, most often than not, one-sided. This creates an unfair imbalance between commercial entities' proven perception of individuals as products to be sold and individuals' disoriented perception of their own role and potential within Web 2.0 economy, at least in the country where this study has been conducted.

Conclusions

While established economies may have granted individuals an advance in understanding technology's consequences in regard to responsible self-identity communication, in less developed societies, individuals seem to be left exposed. Romania's tendential modernity [27] is historically based on the adoption of forms without substance [28]. In other words, institutional and social efforts towards modernity are undermined by a superficial understanding of its adoption process.

Extrapolating this logic to the online medium and to our current discussion, individuals were fast to adopt an onlife [8] way of living, without a pragmatic awareness of Web 2.0's affordances and pitfalls as technologies of self-construction.

In Romania, frequent users of the Social Web are yet to be educated on the implications of their presence in the new infosphere in order to have the capacity to evaluate the option of engaging in strategic rather than random representations of themselves.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Sectorial Operational Program for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, co-financed by the European Social Fund, under the project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/134650, titled "Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowships for Young Researchers in the Fields of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences and Sociology".

References and Notes

1. Wee, L.; Brooks, A. Personal Branding and the Commodification of Reflexivity. Cultural Sociology 2010, 4 (45), 45-61.
2. Marwick, A. Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Self-branding in Web 2.0. PhD Dissertation, New York University, New York, USA, 2010.
3. van Dijck, J. 'You Have One Identity': Performing the Self on Facebook and LinkedIn. Media Culture Society 2013, 35(2), 199-215.
4. Quittner, J. Mr. Rheingold's Neighborhood. Time Magazine 1996. Available at: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985581,00.html [accessed 12 February 2015]
5. Shirky, C. Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in the Connected Age, 1st ed. The Penguin Group: London, UK, 2010.
6. du Gay, P. Consumption and Identity at Work. Sage: London, UK, 1996.
7. Floridi, L. The Ontological Interpretation of Informational Privacy. Ethics and Information Technology 2005, 7(4), 185-200.
8. Foridi, L. The Informational Nature of Personal Identity. Minds and Machines 2011, 21(4), 549-566.
9. Marwick, A. (2013) Online Identity. In A Companion to New Media Dynamics, 1st ed.; Hartley, J., Burgess, J., Bruns, A., Eds.; Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, UK, 2013; pp. 355-364.
10. Senft, T. Camgirls. Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks, 1st ed.; Peter Lang Publishing: New York, USA, 2008.
11. Rheingold, H. The Virtual Community. Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, 1st ed.; Harper Collins: New York, USA, 1994.
12. Stone, A.R. The War of Desire and Technology at the End of the Mechanical Age, 4th ed.; MIT Press: Cambridge, UK, 2001
13. Turkle, S. Life on the Screen. Identity in the Age of the Internet, 1st ed.; Simon and Schuster: New York, USA, 1995.
14. Bullingham, L.; Vasconcelos, A.C. The Presentation of Self in the Online World: Goffman and the Study of Online Identities. Journal of Information Science 2013, 39(1), 101-112.
15. Hogan, B. Pseudonyms and the Rise of the Real-Name Web. In A Companion to New Media Dynamics, 1st ed.; Hartley, J., Burgess, J., Bruns, A., Eds.; Blackwell Publishing: Oxford, UK, 2013; pp. 290-308.
16. Boyd, D. Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications. In A Networked Self. Identity, Community & Culture on Social Network Sites, 1st ed.; Papacharissi, Z., Ed.; Taylor&Francis: New York, USA, 2011; pp. 39-58.
17. Castells, M. Communication Power, 1st ed; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 2009.
18. Marwick, A.; Boyd, D. I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately: Twitter Users, Context Collapse, and the Imagined Audience. New Media and Society 2011, 13, 96-113
19. Castells, M. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. The Rise of the Network Society, 2nd ed.; Blackwell Publishers: Oxford, UK, 2000.
20. Papacharissi, Z. A Networked Self. In A Networked Self. Identity, Community & Culture on Social Network Sites, 1st ed.; Papacharissi, Z., Ed.; Taylor&Francis: New York, USA, 2011; pp. 304-318.
21. van Dijck, J. The Network Society, 3rd ed.; Sage Publications: London, UK. 2012.
22. Lair, D.J.; Sullivan, K.; Cheney, G. Marketization and the Recasting of the Professional Self. Management Communication Quarterly 2005, 18(3), 307-343.
23. Shepherd, I.D. From Cattle and Coke to Charlie: Meeting the Challenge of Self Marketing and Personal Branding. Journal of Marketing Management 2005, 21(5-6), 589-606.
24. Elwell, J.S. The Transmediated Self. Life Between the Digital and the Analog. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 2014, 20(2), 233-249.
25. Glaser, B.G.; Strauss, A.L. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Strategies for Qualitative Research, 7th ed.; Aldine Transaction: New Brunswick, USA, 2012.
26. Schütz, A. Assertive, Offensive, Protective, and Defensive Styles of Self-presentation: A Taxonomy. The Journal of Psychology 1998, 132(6), 611-628.
27. Schifirneţ, C. Tendential Modernity. Social Science Information 2012, 51(1), 22-51.
28. Schifirnet, C. Forms without Substance, a Romanian Brand. Comunicare.ro: Bucharest, Romania, 2007.

© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI and ISIS. This abstract is distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license.

1)Newton said: time and space are absolute.Kant said: time and space are transcendental. Einstein said: time and space are relative.I understand that: time and space imply information.(2)Dissemination of information certainly takes time.Information storage definitely needs to occupy space.Information is not matter but needs matter.Information is not energy but requires energy.(3)Mass, charge and magnetic charge are matter.Kinetic energy, potential energy, nuclear energy are energy.Data, text, images, sounds belong Information.Matter, energy and information are always together.(4)Information indicates the process of change in matter.Information indicates the state of matter existence. Information indicates the process of changes in energy. Information indicates the state of energy existence.(5)Process always corresponds to the passage of time.State always corresponds to the structure of space.Process, state and transformation are information.Structure, function and fluctuation are information.(6)Information is a measure of systematic order.Information is a sign of biological evolution.Information is the basis of all life in the universe.All knowledge are the subset of information.(7)Information would not exist without times andpace.Time and space would not exist without information.Conservation and transformation of matter and energy.Information can create, replicate, and mutate them.(8)Time and space is the form of matter existence.Time and space is the form of energy present.Time and space is the form of information existence. Matter, energy and information: in the universe forever.(9)As a world only of matter and energy,The universe is always inorganic and inanimate. As a world of matter, energy and information,The universe is always an inorganic and organic unity.(10)Application of logical methods cannot affirm God,Application of logical methods cannot deny God.God and gods are created by human knowledge, God and gods and information: together forever.(11)I have some doubts about the Big Bang model.I do not believe the theory of limited time and space.Concept of information will gradually to unify.Our image of the universe will be greatly changed.(12)Where there are matter and energy, there is information.Dark matter and dark energy correspond dark information.Scientists found dark matter and dark energy,But which of them leads us to dark information ?(13)Newton's absolute space-time theory may be correct.Kant's transcendental space-time may be correct.Einstein's theory of relativity may also be correct.I understand that ontological information may be correct.

Introduction

The last four decades has seen a significant rise in the use of Corporate Social Responsibility strategies by companies seeking to reinforce their “license to operate”. During that time academics and researchers have extensively investigated the importance and benefits that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the communication of that activity can play on a company’s reputation, their brand equity, profitability and even their stock market valuation. Whilst more customer experiences and the sharing of those defining brands and their behaviour (Uwins, 2014) has occurred, marketing has started to be re-thought around the use of ethically messages. Along with a rising tendency to make extensive use of CSR as a tool to enhance marketing strategies and brand development plans, we are today witnessing a phenomenon that sees an increasing number of companies from a wide range of industrial sectors, apparently, over-exploiting CSR communication targeted at their particular audiences. In this sense, CSR is somehow criticised and accused to have failed in achieving its original purpose both in contents and communication (Visser & Hollender, 2011). The international crisis in global companies' public relations and the pressure over the ethical content of their messages are, in fact, starting to raise doubts about their reliability and veracity. That is, when messages that appear to be “too good to be true” or too frequent, they may in fact be perceived as hiding something that would, if publicized, otherwise be seen to have entirely the opposite effect. As a cynic or critical commentator might be heard or seen to comment, “Methinks he doth protest too much.”

To begin or to attempt an answer, this paper aims to explore some specific circumstances relating to companies' use of marketing communications over CSR. These are defined by the authors as CSR over-communication – and it is planned to examine them from both the business and customer perspectives. In particular, the research will centre on a specific sector activity - that seemingly, attempts to exploit, more than most, the benefits of communicating ethical behaviours and good processes and practices towards their customers. That is, the banking sector. Furthermore, as these communications are always directed towards changing the perceptions among the target that they are addressed to; the paper will specifically consider customers' perceptions about CSR over-communication in general and will be applied to the sector above.

Methods

Given the different nationalities and domiciles of the authors analysing the phenomenon, we will provide an investigation between the situation in the UK compared to that in Italy by building empirical case studies with the aim of observing some significant differences and similarities in the way that banking corporates - some of which have been involved in severe financial and PR scandals - still utilize CSR as a factor in attempting to maintain clients' trust, loyalty and business. In particular, the sample for the case studies will include three banking corporates based in the UK (one of which belonging to the cooperative system) and three banking corporates operating in Italy, including also in this analysis one cooperative bank, in order to give coherence and correspondence to the results. A discussion of trust rather than confidence (Sargeant & Lee, 2001) will also be included to provide greater contextual understanding of these perception difficulties. It will be argued that trust is given in the absence of confidence and it is that trust that is most at risk by the inappropriate and overuse use of marketing communications.

Methodologically the authors plan a mixed methods approach. An earlier work in progress paper entitled “Corporate Philanthropy Magic or Myth" (presented by the authors at the International Social Marketing Conference, in May 2012) will be revisited and information from the Anglo Italian participants reanalysed. Moreover, a book chapter entitled “Meanings and Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility and Branding in Grocer Retailers: A comparative study over Italy and the UK" (published by the authors in Handbook of Research on Retailer-Consumer Relationship Development", Business Science Reference, IGI Global 2014) will be used as framework for the different typologies of CSR communications related to marketing and branding.

However the authors also plan some primary research to look more closely at the range of perceptions from the customers’ point of view by using focus group discussions among a target sample composed of postgraduate students of Marketing Communications & Management from both Italy and the UK. Each focus group has been chosen to include students who have knowledge of marketing, branding and CSR; understanding of the financial market globally and awareness of the latest scandals hitting banking corporates in their nations. These students will be presented with some live case data and a fictitious case study to monitor and measure their reactions to a range of CSR communications.

Results and Discussion

The purpose of this investigation is to create and explore a spectrum of potential customers' perceptions deriving from those CSR communications with the intent of understanding to what extent communication is accepted as coherent and real or when, at the opposite end of the spectrum, it starts becoming unbelievable and raises cynical reactions, despite any ethical intent.

Conclusions

It is planned that in conclusion, this spectrum of perceptions will be applied to the CSR communications of the sample of banking corporates in Italy and the UK so as to inform the communication issue discussed. In short, it was in fact William Shakespeare who, in his 1603 work Hamlet has Queen Gertrude say of the protagonist in the play within the play, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

References and Notes

1. Candelo, E.; Casalegno, C.; & Civera, C. Meanings and Implications of Corporate Social Responsibility and Branding in Grocer Retailers: A Comparative Study over Italy and the UK. Handbook of Research on Retailer-Consumer Relationship Development, IGI Global , UK, 2014, pp. 351- 371
2. Sargeant, A; Lee, S. "Improving public trust in the voluntary sector: An empirical analysis." International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing 2001 7.1, 68-83.
3. Maple, P & Civera, C. Corporate Social Responsibility, Magic or Myth? International Social Marketing Conference, May 2012, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
4. Shakespeare, W, (1603) Cited by: http://shakespeareauthorship.com/howdowe.html accessed 22nd February 2015
5. Uwins, 2014
6. Visser; Hollender, 2011

Introduction

The paper addresses the question whether the development of technology will really lead to the end of work and, if yes, what will be the consequences, if not, how to prevent the end of work. The paper argues that it is not the technology alone that causes the end of work, even if we experienced until now only three waves of informational revolution (personal computers, mobile telephony and Internet) and three further will yet come (more universal social use of robots, of knowledge engineering called popularly artificial intelligence, and of biomedical engineering). It is not technology alone, but its utilization by the capitalist system under the slogan of elastic labour market (actually meaning arbitrary determination of working conditions by employers) that accelerates the end of work. Technology gives to capitalists the possibility of minimizing the costs of work, they snap up this possibility and use it to increase own profits, but also unemployment and socio-economic inequality and stratification. This has occurred since the beginning of industrial revolution, but today occurs much faster and on larger scale.

Analysis

If we do not reform essentially the capitalist system, this will result in enormous stratification and in expansion of precariat, much better educated than classical proletariat, in unemployment and social exclusion of well educated people. This would lead to the end of capitalism in a global revolution, but today’s accumulation of nuclear weapons and knowledge of their construction make a global revolution dangerous, leading to a scenario of doom, of an annihilation of intelligent civilization on Earth.

Therefore, the paper proposes another way of evolutionary reform of capitalism through a seemingly small but in fact essential correction of CIT, corporate income tax. Firstly, this tax should be really, not only apparently paid, hence it should be counted from the entire income of an enterprise, not only from its profit that can be easily manipulated by transfer prices. Secondly, it should be a degressive tax that will strongly decrease with increasing employment index, counted as the part of enterprise income used for employees’ salaries. This way, entrepreneurs will be positively financially motivated to actually, not only slogan-like realize their fundamental ethical duty after informational revolution: to create new professions and occupation as well as new working places. This solution is not the only one, it should be supported by other means, such as shortening the working hours or an universal personal rent. However, only this way we can use reforms to prevent the end of work with its catastrophic consequences.

Results and Discussion

Concerning the question, whether we await indeed an end of work, the answer is twofold. Undoubtedly yes, if we upkeep the impact of so called elastic labour market, meaning in reality the licence of employers in determining the conditions of work, what combined with the upcoming waves of informational revolution results in a megatrend of minimizing the costs of work. In other words, the positive feedback between the technology and the market means that the more an employer can exploit information technologies to decrease the costs of work and to increase his own profits, the more he will invest in applications of such technologies. And positive feedbacks result in avalanche-like processes, who end in hitting constraints. In this case, a constraint is a full elimination of human work, such as in nuclear bomb explosion the constraint is the full disintegration of atoms of enriched uranium.

To control the processes resulting from a positive feedback it is necessary ‑ such as in a nuclear reactor ‑ to limit them by applying an additional negative feedback. Concerning the end of work, it is necessary to additionally motivate employers to increase, not to decrease the cost of work. This means an introduction of degressive taxation, a strong negative dependence of taxation rate of corporate income tax, CIT, from an employment index, counted as the ratio of total employees’ salaries (not counting the management salaries) to the total income of the enterprise. This must be connected, however, with an increase of the amount of CIT that was until now avoided by entrepreneurs.

Such a solution has twofold advantage. Firstly, it preserves the work and employment for majority of people, giving them satisfaction, self-realization and money that will sustain a mass demand that is the foundation of contemporary capitalism. Secondly, paying corporate income tax, CIT, in a scale comparable to personal income tax, PIT, will increase the income of public budget that will secure then a sustainable system of income redistribution, since such public sector income ‑ despite the alarmist neoliberal warnings ‑ will suffice for fair old age pensions, pensions for disabled and unemployed, good financing of health service, science and education.

Such a solution constitutes thus a seemingly small, but actually rather radical reform of capitalism, it creates a specific hybrid of capitalism and socialism by introducing in a market system a version of universal right of work. It also induces capitalists to fulfil ‑ while caring of their own profits ‑ their ethical duty of creating new places of work and new professions.

Such a solution has, however, one fundamental disadvantage: it cannot be introduced in a single country since it would cause a flight of capital to other countries. Thus an international agreement about introducing such a solution in majority of countries is necessary. Therefore, we cannot expect a speedy introduction of such modification of CIT; in the hope of promoting such international agreement, however, I am writing a book on this subject (Wierzbicki 2016) both in Polish and in English.

Conclusions

Nevertheless, such international agreement and such reform of capitalism are necessary. This results from the fact that the contemporary minimization of the costs of work and the socio-economic stratification resulting from it led to the emergence of precariat, a social layer (or class) of people unsustainably employed or unemployed. However, precariat becomes better educated, in connection with the world-wide megatrend of bettering education, and is more and more aware of its destiny. The unrest and demonstrations resulting from the social exclusion of precariat become increasingly frequent in the world. Continuing impact of the minimization of costs of work will result in the growth of numbers of precariat, its unrests and demonstrations, together with the growth of revolutionary atmosphere. A part of capitalists and oligarchs notes this, using the slogan “they will come for us with pitchforks”.

However, the actual danger is related to the amassment of nuclear weapons and the knowledge of their construction; a simple accident can result in an escalation of the use of such weapons and the annihilation of intelligent civilization on Earth (it is telling that intelligent civilizations are rare in cosmos). Therefore, it is suicidal to allow an excessive growth of revolutionary atmosphere, particularly related to unemployment of well educated people. A corresponding reform of capitalism and an international agreement about it become thus necessary.

Such a reform will also mean an introduction of a new social redistributions system, providing for the needs of all people; there is no doubt that the society of Earth ‑ precisely because of achievements of technology, if they will be exploited for general welfare, not only for the profits of capitalists ‑ at last could afford such a system.

Keywords

End of work, elastic labour market, precariat, scenario of annihilation, reform of capitalism

References

1. Brynjolfssson E., McAffee, A. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. W.W. Norton & Co, New York 2014
2. Hanauer N. The Pitchforks Are Coming ... for Us Plutocrats. POLITICOMAGAZINE, July/August 2014
3. Standing G. The Precariat. The New Dangerous Class. Bloomsbury Academic, London/New York 2011
4. Stiglitz J. The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future. Norton & Co, New York 2012
5. The Economist Generation jobless: The global rise of youth unemployment. April 27^th, 2013
6. Wierzbicki A.P. The Future of Work in Information Society. In preparation for Springer Verlag 2016