DISCOURSES OF TOTALITARIANISM IN THE DIGITAL AGE: COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The article analyzes the discourses of totalitarianism in the digital age and notes the communication challenges and prospects. Today, in the 21st century, digital totalitarianism is a relevant phenomenon and an existential challenge of the modern era. The discourse of digital totalitarianism evokes an allusion to the numerological views of Pythagoreanism – the magical relationships of everything earthly with numbers, with God being represented by the number one. It is emphasized that the kaleidoscope of all social actions is reflected in the media and can act positively or negatively – this ambivalent approach is also applied in understanding the impact of digital technologies, whose perception can range from glorification and sacralization to demonization and infernalization, as many scholars’ express concerns about the potential threats associated with the abnormally rapid development of the discussed technology. In connection with this topic, it is impossible not to mention Chinese capitalism with a socialist face or socialism with Chinese characteristics and its great Chinese electronic firewall. The manifestation of digital totalitarianism, in our opinion, can also be seen in a certain monopolization of production. It can be noted that humanity has alarmist sentiments regarding AI – there are hypothetical notions that humanity is encountering a situation for the first time where something has appeared that will be much smarter than the smartest human. Currently, there are widespread dystopian fears about the possibility of digital totalitarianism and a whole spectrum of diverse attitudes towards high-tech, which brings to the forefront in public memory synonymous concepts such as technophobia and neo-Luddism, as well as computer and Internet addiction as forms of problematic influence of the Global Web. The spectrum and register of the impact of technologies on a specific individual depend not so much on the nature of the Internet itself, but on its users, who increasingly interact on a technological basis.