The dialectics of electronic civilization: "thinking machine’’ between idol and ideal

In the research the specific of human being into culture of “new-media” analyzed. The author applies the dialectical method to understanding the relationship of human and “Thinking Machine” into digital civilization based on the works of the Soviet philosopher E. V. Ilyenkov. Ilyenkov finds some duality on that relationship: on the one hand, the “Thinking Machine” is an idol, to which a human obeys and acts according to his rules. From other side, the Machine is the result of the human mind and a tool for the realization of its goals, needs and interests. That is, the Machine is an ideal. Based on Ilyenkov’s thesis, the author develops a synthetic model of self-consciousness in the culture of new media. According to this model, the resolution of the contradiction between the idol and the ideal in relation to human and the “Thinking Machine” is the idea of freedom as an opportunity to realize his creative activity in practice. From the author’s point of view, this principle is applicable to understanding the specifics of human existence and his self-consciousness in the culture of “new media”.