The article is devoted to the analysis of practices and ways of inventing new functions of technical objects. The purpose of the work is to identify, classify and describe practices that cause new functions of technical objects. The function of a technical object (artifact) is understood as the work performed by an artifact and aimed at realizing a certain purpose set by a person. The authors analyze the duality of the nature of the artifact, due to its physical structure and its involvement in purposeful human activity. The functional and semiotic approaches to understanding technology are compared. The differences between function and meaning of artifacts are identified. The case method is used to analyze how new artifact functions appear. Reinterpretation is defined as a way to create new meanings for an artifact without changing its physical structure of the artifact. Adaptation is considered as the adaptation of technical objects to the needs of the user.It is shown that new functions appear in artifacts both on the physical level, through the introduction of constructive changes, and on the semiotic level, through the transformation of the semantic content of objects. In the final part of the article, a conclusion about the possibility of applying the results obtained in the field of marketing and promotion of technical systems and devices is made.

The article analyzes the practices of production and improving the efficiency of technical knowledge. The field of information technologies was chosen as the base of research. A distinctive feature of the modern stage of development of technology is that knowledge itself becomes a technical object. The requirements of efficiency, high performance, security are beginning to apply to knowledge itself. The authors concept of epistemic practices is used as a methodological basis for the present study. Epistemic practices are defined as methods and techniques for working with technical objects, the result of which is to increase the efficiency of technical knowledge implemented into these objects. The high level of competition and the direct dependence of the profits of IT companies on the efficiency of knowledge production makes the information technology industry a kind of testing ground for the production of epistemic practices. It has been proved that epistemic practices in the field of information technology are the forms of knowledge representation in information systems, the selection of data visualization methods, the improvement of multifactorial mathematical models and the determination of the hardware load configuration. It is concluded that the production of epistemic practices is a condition for the competitiveness of IT companies operating in the sphere of high technologies.

The article reveals the conditions for the science fiction and fantasy fiction to affect formation of technooptimistic and technopessimistic attitude of young readers. Primarily, the work assumes the way fiction heroes understand artefacts with reservations can be considered as the basis to reveal the attitude to engineering among those generations for whom these works were notional points. Technooptimism is defined as a worldview attitude within which nature and the humanbeing cause problems. The article shows that technopessimism identifies the human activity as the problem source. Harry Potter series proved to shape technopessimistic worldview and excuse technology inequality. Through the example of T. Pratchett books the article demonstrates that literature can formalize readers responsible attitude towards equipment if it shows not only the threat that pose technologies (the Promethan mentality), but also remedies to manage effects of machinery use, including those resulting from improper decisions (the Epimethian mentality).

Аннотация. Статья посвящена исследованию отношения студентов вузов к проблеме харассмента в университетах, в том числе выявлению имеющихся у них стереотипов. В рамках настоящей работы были проанализированы отечественные и зарубежные исследования харассмента в академической среде и был разработан опросник для выявления представлений студентов вузов о сущности и практиках харассмента. Всего в опросе приняли участие 250 студентов очной формы одного из российских вузов.Проведённое исследование показало, что в представлении студентов харассмент не сводится к сексуальным домогательствам и включает при этом множество практик, ранее полностью или частично приемлемых для сферы образования. В сознании студентов происходит денормализация травли, оценивания и комментирования личности и внешнего вида, дискриминации по полу, возрасту, политическим взглядам и другим параметрам. Среди студентов наиболее распространены стереотипы о том, что харассмент является медийным конструктом, что носителем практик домогательств является старшее поколение мужчин, а жертвами становятся только женщины; также распространено убеждение, что жертва сама должна справляться с ситуацией в случае домогательств. Также была зафиксирована поляризация мнений в студенческой среде по поводу реальности проблемы и сущности харассмента и стратегий действия в случае домогательств.В результате проведённого исследования авторами статьи были сформулированы предложения по внедрению форм предотвращения харассмента и разрешения конфликтных ситуаций на уровне вуза.

The paper is devoted to the problem of transforming the structure of subject's cognitive attitudes under the influence of the introduction of blockchain technology. It is shown that they are based on the attitude to truth, which determines faith in the attainability of truth, the choice of practices and criteria for verifying knowledge, strategies for managing truth and falsehood. Blockchain as a technology that makes it impossible to change information and the history of transactions destroys the traditional practices of managing the truth and creates a new cognitive situation for the subject in which falsehood, deception, and manipulation are almost impossible and ideology do not work. The result of its implementation is the devaluation of traditional institutions of trust, and, in the long term,-systems for the realization of power accepted by society through the spread of distributed systems.