Digitalization: Public opinion landscapes (on the example of Russia)

Abstract

The authors determine and verify the systems of indicators of public reflection regarding the issues of digitalization in Russia, construct and empirically describe their landscapes. The representatives of the Russian and Belarusian scientific expert communities and ordinary citizens of the Russian Federation were the main nominal groups of respondents in the study undertaken in 2019. The research is of an exploratory nature and serves as a tool for testing techniques for studying the problems posed in the article in the context of the technological «hype» of digitalization. The perception of a number of mass digitalization mythologemes by the experts are of particular interest. A list of mythologemes under estimation goes as follows: «enslaving humanity with artificial intelligence»; «saving humanity by means of artificial intelligence»; «total surveillance is the goal of modern data technology (DT)»; «DT is a way of enriching elites»; Industry 4.0 is just a form of global capitalism»; «DT creates nature and society of the «third-order»; «achieving technological singularity through digitalization»; «reaching the stage of the Posthuman»; «the imminent creation of human-machine symbiots, «cyborgs». As a result of studying the problem of social reflection of digital declarations which are politically imperative for the national economy and sociocultural life of Russia, we can argue that in reality they do not come to the forefront of partnership dialogue in the institutions of the society. Despite the relevance of consolidating social efforts to achieve a technological breakthrough and the marketability of the topic of digitalization, it is not provided with either the political request of elite groups or the research interest of social sciences or understanding of the essence of the issue by the main groups of the population.