The issue of machine intelligence in the creative work of Valery Bryusov

Abstract

The work analyzes Bryusov’s ideas about machine intelligence and the possible future social role of technology in the context of his doctrine on the fate of culture. The article substantiates the idea that for an outstanding symbolist the interest in the issue of machine intelligence, reflected in his two unfinished texts, was not a random episode that did not have much connection with the main streams of his thoughts. If the first of them refers to the uprise of the machines, prepared by the increasing dependence of people on technical products, which are widely used in everyday life, then the second reflects the situation of the outbreak of First World War, in which Germany relied on technical superiority over the enemies. Bryusov’s reflections are interesting and relevant by comparing human intelligence with the machine one, their difference it emphasizes, but also with some similarity. Since Bryusov connects the possibility of an uprising of the machines with the previous history of mankind, his philosophy of culture includes a number of topics unusual for the scientific mind of his epoch. They are important for the contemporary reader in that they encourage him to think about freedom, responsibility, the meaning of existence.