Please meet the fourth issue of the scientific and analytical journal “Information Society” for 2026. The main theme of the issue is Humans and algorithms: new rules of the digital world. The articles in this issue cover, among others, the following topics:
Are neural networks capable of creating new scientific knowledge?
The future of AI: scientific forecast, transhumanism, or a new quasi-religion?
Keynes in the DeFi era: outlines of a new monetary system
How robots collect Internet data for business
Borderless digital markets: Chinese experience and African opportunities for Russia
What competencies do people need in the “Second Machine Age”?
Video games as an information system: the science behind game mechanics
Synthetic population: how to model the demographic future
Can social media data help track epidemics?
Strategy with AI: how to choose alternatives and maintain critical thinking
In her address to readers “Between freedom of choice and machine logic”, the journal’s editor-in-chief Tatiana Ershova wrote:
“The danger is not that computers will one day start thinking like humans, but that humans will one day start thinking like computers.” This statement by American journalist Sidney J. Harris sounds alarming today, not like an abstract hypothesis. We live in an era when “digital” has ceased to be a tool and has become a habitat. But this environment, like any ecosystem, has its own laws. And the most important of these is algorithmic logic, which, unnoticed by us, has begun to restructure not only the economy but the very structure of human thought.
Today’s issue is devoted not so much to technology as to a bifurcation point—we are at a turning point where not just a shift in technological paradigms is taking place, but a paradigm shift in subjectivity. The question is no longer whether artificial intelligence can generate content or optimize logistics. The question is who determines the rules of the game when the digital environment begins to shape our habits, preferences, and even the boundaries of reality. Looking at the panorama of modern research, a paradox becomes apparent. On the one hand, algorithmic systems promise us unprecedented transparency and efficiency. Financial flows are decentralized, trade is becoming global, and social forecasting is becoming highly accurate. We see robotics and network technologies penetrating a wide range of areas: from the management of special economic zones to the modeling of demographic scenarios. It would seem that chaos is being overcome, and reason is triumphant.
But this orderliness has a downside. The more accurately algorithms adapt to us, the narrower our own choice becomes. Recommender systems built on the principles of preference enhancement draw us into so-called “filter bubbles,” where reality is replaced by a personalized illusion. We begin to think not as humans seeking truth, but as machines consuming content—based on the principles of “like/dislike,” “suitable/unsuitable.”
Scientists are trying to find a balance. The question is how to preserve the human dimension in a world dominated by big data and neural networks. This issue explores how digital technologies influence our cultural horizons and how they change the essence of scientific knowledge and creativity. And most importantly, how to build new legal and ethical frameworks to prevent privacy, financial security, and the right to make mistakes from dissolving in the flood of computational optimization.
Digital transformation is not linear progress. It is a mirror in which we simultaneously see both our greatness and our vulnerability. Algorithms may be perfect performers, but they will never become inspired creators. Until we humans lose the ability to reflect, think critically, and, most importantly, to question, we still have a chance of avoiding becoming “thinking machines.”
This issue is not a collection of ready-made recipes, but an invitation to conversation. Read, debate, think—otherwise, the algorithm will do it for you.
The full text of the issue can be found on the journal’s website.