The future of labor and the psychology of technology

Relevance. The development of information society technologies becomes a crucial point in the transformation of human labour. Technogenic processes of automation, robotization and development of artificial intelligence models have an impact on the transformation of human labour. The future of labour becomes inseparably linked to an ever-increasing complexity and irreplaceability of technological tools. The need to single out a special field of psychology in order to study and predict the relationship between man and technology in the cultural-historical context of information society is on the agenda.

Purpose. The study’s aim is to show the necessity to study the psychological mechanisms of interaction between man and technology in the information society. It is based on the analysis of the main predictive vectors of transformation of labour activity under the influence of high technologies.

Method. The logic of the present research corresponds to the cultural-historical and activity-semantic paradigm. To achieve these goals the author usestheoreticalanalysis, method of generalization, and mental modelling.

Results. The study analyses possible solutions to the problems posed within modern humanities and associated with the technological replacement of a number of professional activities. Along with the traditional philosophy of technology and the developing sociology of technology, it suggests that the psychology of technologyis singled out as an independent sphere of research. It could provide specialized psychological studies of the interaction between people and the technical tools they use.

Conclusions. The development of information society technologies and their integration into the habitual, everyday life, the processes of replacing natural abilities and historically developed kinds of labour activity with technical tools imply a number of problems, especially those having to do with understanding the complexity of relations within the system “Man-Machine”. The answers may be found within the framework of psychology of technology,the task of which is to provide the basis for studying conditions of interaction between man and the surrounding technologies and “smart machines”that are hard to understand for a human being. Understanding their nature becomes increasingly unattainable. The discipline in question also aims at providing a psychological assessment of the impacts of technological progress on the possibilities of human self-realization.

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