‘New normality’ of the covid-19 era: Opportunities, limitations, risks

The article considers some key aspects of the current transformation of social reality. The author argues that the announcement of the pandemic determined an unprecedented situation: humanity faces a completely different concept of reality. In particular, the breakthrough in the development of NBIC technologies (nano, bio, new information and cognitive technologies) contributes to the strengthening of the paradigm that absolutizes the technocratic component of civilizational development. Under the general depression and decline in economic activity, there is an explosive growth in the field of bioengineering, information and cognitive research. The ‘new normality’ of the coronavirus era, associated with the unprecedented development of artificial intelligence systems, video surveillance technologies, geolocation and ‘big data’, in an unusually short time has created new existential and legal problems. The proclaimed threat to public health, being a significant goal-setting, has become a dominant justification for the introduction of serious innovations that allow the ruling elites to block civil rights, in particular, to legalize the use of tracking systems. Under the fight against the pandemic, the personal identification systems based on advanced technologies are being transformed from a security tool of law enforcement agencies into a tool of mass social engineering. Russia has come close to a new stage of digital transformation — a state-wide credential management system (the Unified Federal Information Register). Considering the experience of China in digital segregation, concerns arise: will digitalization turn into something dangerous as the algorithms of artificial intelligence improve, the use of biometric surveillance broaden, etc.? The article emphasizes that scanning the appearance and collecting information about citizens allows to create a gigantic array of data, the use of which can have unpredictable consequences, and the problem of their unauthorized use is not the main one. The power of algorithms, which allows to manipulate a person by means of continuously collected information about him, can turn into a new, sophisticated form of genocide. © 2021, RUDN UNiversity. All rights reserved.