Anthropogenic “third” nature: The relatively autonomous status of its artificial intellectual subjects

From the standpoint of informatics-cybernetic modeling of the development process of the self-controlling hierarchical-network system of Humankind, an anthropogenic “second” nature is considered in which an important part began to form from the middle of the 20th century with elements of the part of the “first” (inanimate) nature that were able relatively independently to make decisions (hierarchical artificial intelligence) and actively act (intelligent robots), i. e., to function somewhat independently of the person who created them. For this part of the second nature, the term “third” nature is proposed. Its formation became possible with the emergence of basic information technologies — local computers since $\sim$1946 and telecommunications/networks since $\sim$1979. Typical spatial and temporal parameters of the hierarchical-network system of Humankind (the results of a model calculation) are given. It is noted that the activity of the actions of the third nature elements — essentially autonomous components of hierarchical artificial intelligence and intelligent robots — is an existential (humanitarian!) danger for Humankind.