In an article by Rustam Makhmudov, a Leading Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Anthropology and Conflict Studies, published in a collection of materials from the international conference “Digitalization and the Transformation of the Social Order in Central Asian Countries” (Astana, 2025), digitalization is considered a fundamental process that radically changes the nature of knowledge, mechanisms of power, and institutional governance. The author shows that the digital age is destroying the old industrial models of knowledge production based on hierarchical structures and forming a new networked reality where algorithms, platforms, and artificial intelligence are beginning to play a key role.

Particular attention is paid to the philosophical understanding of the hybridization of Karl Popper's “three worlds” and the technological worlds of the digital environment. Makhmudov emphasizes that modern knowledge is becoming an emergent effect of complex interactions between humans, digital objects, and autonomous algorithms. In this logic, algorithms cease to be neutral tools and become co-creators of norms, institutions, and new forms of social reality.

The article also analyzes the transformation of power in a digital society, where power is increasingly shifting from traditional actors to networks, algorithmic decision-making centers, and hyperreality as a space for managing attention and behavior. The author shows that digital power is becoming distributed, opaque, and post-humanistic, requiring a rethinking of classical notions of legitimacy, responsibility, and control.

Concluding his study, Makhmudov identifies education as a key infrastructure for anticipating and adapting to nonlinear technological transitions. In the context of accelerating change, the education system must develop the meta-skills necessary to navigate new digital trajectories, ensuring a balance between technological development, ethical design, and social sustainability. The article is an important contribution to the humanistic understanding of digital transformation and its long-term implications for Central Asia.

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