Open lecture by Mark Coeckelbergh, Uppsala University and WASP-HS guest professor

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, TEMPORALITY, AND THE POLITICS OF CO-EXISTENCE
12 December 2023, 14.00, Sal IX, Universitetshuset.

Our digital existence is hurried and fast. We are tied to the present, or perhaps we are not present enough: immersed in digital social media and processes by artificial intelligence, we are hardly present to ourselves and to others, and feel alienated from nature. We are also made to fear climate change and the end of humanity. How can we live a good life and give meaning to our lives under these conditions? How can and should we co-exist today? Using process philosophy, narrative theory, and the concept of technoperformances, Mark Coeckelbergh analyzes how digital technologies shape our relation to time and our existence, and discusses what this means in the light of climate change and new technologies such as AI. In a dialogue with contemporary philosophy of technology and media theory and asking original questions about finding common times in what he calls the “Anthropochrone”, he proposes a conceptual framework that helps us to understand how we (should) exist and relate to time today.

The open lecture draws on Mark’s recent book Digital Technologies, Temporality, and the Politics of Co-Existence, Palgrave Macmillan (2022). The lecture will be commented by:
Associate Professor Pedro Sanchez, Umeå University
Professor Teresa Cerratto-Pargman, Stockholm University
Professor Amanda Lagerkvist, Uppsala University

The lecture is expected to finish at 16.00, with an opportunity to stay for a chat and refreshments.Thus, please register for participation by email to matilda.tudor@im.uu.se no later than 4 December.

Mark Coeckelbergh is Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the Philosophy Department of the University of Vienna and Guest Professor at WASP-HS and the University of Uppsala. Previously he was Vice Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy of Education, President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology, and Managing Director of the 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology. Mark is also member of various entities that support policy building in the area of robotics and artificial intelligence, including the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on AI. He is the author of 17 philosophy books and numerous articles. More info: https://coeckelbergh.wordpress.com/

For the period 2023 – 2028, Uppsala University has the great privilege of welcoming Mark Coeckelbergh as WASP-HS guest professor. In this capacity, professor Coeckelbergh will lead the research project AI Design Futures, also including Professor Amanda Lagerkvist (Department of Informatics and Media) and Associate Professor Magnus Strand (Department of Business Studies), as well as postdoc researcher Dr Matilda Tudor (Department of Informatics and Media) and doctoral students Victor Larsson and Martin Lindstam. The AI Design Futures project seeks to conceptualize and bring about existential, political and institutional design futures, by means of engaging both political and existential philosophy, so as to imagine and create new narratives for alternative AI Design Futures. The project is funded by The Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanities and Society (WASP-HS). This second open lecture by Professor Mark Coeckelbergh is a co-arrangement between AI Design Futures and the WASP-HS Cross-Project Collaborations Network Crafting Livable AI Futures: Existential, Critical and Institutional Perspectives on the Sociotechnical Imaginary, including UppsalaUniversity, Stockholm University, Umeå University and Malmö University.

Welcome!