VIRTUALIZATION OF MODERN SOCIETY: ONTOLOGICAL, EPISTEMOLOGICAL, AXIOLOGICAL, ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS

The phenomenon of the Internet can be considered as a consequence of virtualization of society. The possibility of obtaining data about the object as close as possible to reality, which constitute its image, has become a qualitatively new aspect of the informatization of society. If to understand virtualization as a substitution of reality by its simulation (image) not necessarily using the computer technology, but necessarily using virtual reality logic (immaterial impact, convention of parameters, evanescence) the following question arises: Is virtualization an information process, and if so, what are its main characteristics? Virtual reality is a term characterizing a special type of interaction between heterogeneous objects (located at different hierarchical levels), as well as specific relations between them, i.e. generation and interactivity. Objects of the virtual level are generated by objects of the underlying level, but, despite their generation status, they interact with the objects of the generating reality as ontologically equal. The combination of virtual objects relative to the generating reality forms a virtual reality. Virtual objects exist only "here and now", while in the generating reality there are processes generating them. The virtual objects disappear when the process of generation is over. It also makes sense to talk about virtual reality as a reality, because virtual reality has its own laws of nature, its own characteristics of time and space, which cannot be reduced to laws, time and space of the generating reality. An example of these kinds of objects can be virtual particles. (C) 2019 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.UK