The Evolution of Anthropocentrism in the Perspective of the Complexity Approach

Abstract

The evolution of human civilization in the 21st century is increasingly recog­nized as a convergent-divergent coevolution of a hybrid anthropo-techno-socio-reality, in the context of which digital reality plays a special role, the epistemo­logical-ontological status of which is still poorly understood. The hypothesis is put forward, according to which the digital reality is nothing more than an addi­tion or extension of the semiotic reality. Possible approaches to its comprehen­sion in the context of the emerging paradigm of complex thinking in the optics of a second-order network observer are discussed. This approach implies, among other things, the rejection of hierarchically understood anthropocentrism in favor of a new network-centric anthropocentrism, the restart of the dialogue between man and nature (Prigogine), in which nature is endowed, among other things, with an agent-subject status in a certain sense, on an equal footing with man. Quite often, this transition is referred to as the transition of human civilization to a new state of posthumanism or transhumanism, while linking the latter with the coming era of total digitalization. However, these terms are obviously insuffi­cient to characterize the “here and now” state of the earth’s civilization. Perhaps a more appropriate term-concept would be the concept of metahumanism