Today, one can often hear arguments about the information society and the so-called information revolution. Interest in this topic is due to significant changes that occur almost daily in the life of every person and the world community as a whole.
What is the information revolution?
In the process of development of human civilization, several information revolutions took place, as a result of which qualitative transformations took place in society, contributing to an increase in the standard of living and culture of people. In the most general sense, the information revolution is a significant improvement in social relations due to fundamental changes in the collection and processing of information. It is well known that information provokes change and is of great importance for social development. Each person, in the course of his personal growth, is faced with something new and previously unknown to himself. This provokes a feeling of uncertainty and even fear. The desire to get rid of this feeling pushesto actions aimed at finding new information.
The volume of information is constantly increasing and at a certain moment ceases to correspond to the bandwidth of communication channels, which entails an information revolution. Thus, the information revolution is a qualitative leap in terms of data processing methods. The definition given by A. I. Rakitov has also become quite widespread today. According to the scientist, the information revolution is an increase in the volume and change in the tools and methods for collecting, processing, storing and transmitting information that is available to the population.
General characteristics of the first information revolution
The first information revolution began simultaneously with the spontaneous emergence of human articulate speech, that is, language. The emergence of speech is a necessity due to the collective form of organization of life and joint labor activity, the development and very existence of which is impossible without an adequate information exchange between individuals. Language has had a tremendous impact on the consciousness of people and their understanding of the world. Knowledge was gradually accumulated and passed on from generation to generation through numerous legends, tales and myths. Primitive communal society was characterized by "living knowledge". Their carriers, keepers and distributors were shamans, elders and priests, after whose death some knowledge was lost, and their re-formation sometimes took more than onecentury.
The first information revolution has exhausted its possibilities and ceased to meet the requirements of the times. That is why, at a certain moment, the realization came that it was necessary to create some kind of auxiliary means that would preserve knowledge in time and space. Documentary recording of data later became a similar tool.
Distinctive features of the second information revolution
The second information revolution began about 5 thousand years ago, when writing appeared in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and then in China and Central America. Initially, people learned to record their knowledge in the form of drawings. "Picture writing" was called pictography. Pictograms (drawings) were applied to the walls of caves or on the surface of rocks and depicted moments of hunting, military scenes, love messages, etc. Due to the fact that pictographic writing does not require special literacy and knowledge of a certain language, it was understandable to every person and preserved to this day.
With the advent of states, writing has also evolved. Governance of the country is impossible to imagine without orderly written documentation, which is necessary to consolidate order within the state, as well as to conclude political, commercial and other types of agreements with neighbors. For such rather complex actions, picture writing is not enough. Gradually, pictograms began to be replaced by conventional signs and graphic symbols, drawings disappeared, and writing was constantlybecame more difficult. The number of literate people grew, especially after the invention of alphabetic writing and the appearance of the first book. The written consolidation of information has significantly accelerated the process of exchanging social experience and developing society and statehood.
The meaning of the third information revolution
The third information revolution belongs to the Renaissance. Most scientists attribute its beginning to the invention of the printing press. The appearance of this innovation is the merit of the German Johannes Guttenberg. The invention of printing made significant adjustments to the socio-political, economic, historical and cultural life of the population. Printing houses and bookselling institutions were opened everywhere, newspapers, notes, magazines, textbooks, maps were printed, institutes were founded in which not only theology was taught, but also such secular disciplines as mathematics, law, medicine, philosophy, etc. Industrial revolution, occurred in the 18th century would not have been possible without the information revolution that preceded it.
The Fourth Information Revolution
It began in the 19th century, during the period of the invention and wide distribution of fundamentally new means of information communication, such as telephone, radio, photography, television, sound recording. These innovations allowed many people located at a distance of thousands of kilometers from each other to exchange voice messages at lightning speed. A new stage in the development of society has begun, sincethe emergence of technological innovation is always associated with economic growth and an increase in the standard of living and culture.
The Fifth Information Revolution
Many scientists consider the fourth and fifth stages not separately, but in combination. They believe that these are the successive stages of the information revolution, which continues today. The achievements of the past have not only not been destroyed, but continue to develop, changing and connecting with new technologies. Since the 50s of the XX century, people began to use digital computing technology in their practical activities. The process of the information revolution is becoming truly global in nature, affecting each person individually and the world community as a whole. The widespread introduction and use of computer technology has provoked a real information boom. The information revolution is a step into a bright, beautiful and successful future.
Alternative periodizations of the information revolution
There are other options for periodization of the information revolution. The most famous concepts belong to O. Toffler and D. Bell. According to the first of them, in the process of development of society, three waves can be distinguished: agrarian, industrial and information, which is based on knowledge. D. Bell also identifies three, not five periods. According to the scientist, the first information revolution took place about 200 years ago, when the steam engine was invented, the second - about 100 years ago.years ago, when breathtaking successes were recorded in the field of energy and chemistry, and the third refers to the present. He argues that today humanity is experiencing a technological revolution, in which information and high-quality information technologies occupy a special place.
The meaning of the information revolution
Today, the process of informatization of society continues to unfold and improve. The modern information revolution has a tremendous impact on the life of society, changing the stereotypes of people's behavior, their way of thinking and culture. Cross-border global information and communication networks do not stop developing, which cover all the continents of the Earth and penetrate into the house of almost every person. Thanks to the information revolutions known to humanity, today it has become possible to integrate all the software and hardware tools existing in the world into a single information space in which both legal entities and individuals, as well as local and central government authorities, operate.
