How knowledge becomes a technical object: epistemic practices in information technology

Abstract

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.