The Law of a Technogenic Civilization to Face Technological Dehumanization Challenges

Abstract

Law as a regulatory system based on the principle of formal equality in freedom is a socialphenomenon immanently inherent in a technogenic civilization with its cultural matrix, inwhich “gene” of techne (skill based on knowledge) was rooted. The specifics of the currentstage in the technogenic civilization development are determined by NBIK technologies,NBIK technologies, which contain not only tremendous opportunities to improve thequality of human life, but also no less large-scale dangers of dehumanization, due to theirintentions on the posthuman perspectives. The need to resist the destructive potential ofthese technologies in order to keep the techno-humanitarian balance, which still protectshumanity from self-destruction, requires the mobilization of all socio-normative resources,the most important of which is law. However, the problem is modern law, being primarily asystem of human rights, is not able to prevent threats to future generations and humanityas a whole. This is especially clearly seen in the example of research and technologies forinherited editing of the human genome, which development cannot be channeled into themainstream of global legal regulation. The international norms of “soft law” and the worldacademic community self-regulation can no longer restrain technological expansion intohuman nature. An attempt to solve the problem along the path of a post-secular turn inthe hope that religious consciousness will become that saving spiritual resource, whichhelp humanity to keep its technological power within the proper boundaries, is unlikelyto be successful due to the differences in religious anthropologies inherent in differenttypes of religious ideologies. Therefore the task is to develop such a new approach tolaw understanding that goes beyond the technogenic civilization’s spiritual matrix, which,on the one hand, would preserve the basic guarantees of individual freedom, and on theother, would integrate the idea of the rights of future generations.
Forcitation: Lapaeva V.V. (2021) The Law of a Technogenic Civilization to Face Technological Dehumanization Challenges. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki,no 3, pp. 4–35 (in Russian) DOI: 10.17323/2072-8166.2021.3.4.35