A panel co-sponsored by UVic, the Maker Lab, and the ETCL took place today. Panelists included George Dyson, Barbara Bordalejo (English, U. of Saskatchewan), Alexandrine Boudreault-Fournier (Anthropology), Jeffrey Foss (Philosophy), David Leach (Writing), Jentery Sayers (English), and Victoria Wyatt (History in Art). The abstract is below:
In our so-called digital age, engagements with technologies are
typically associated with speed, immediacy, and convenience: music and
television on demand, messages written on the fly, and search results at
our fingertips. But how do we think about technologies and new media in
the long term? Where will our data and mobile devices be in, say, one
hundred years? How will social networks and search engines shape
history? What might be some of the economic, educational, and
environmental effects of the cloud? And how do we design and make things
for conditions that do not yet exist? With these questions and others in
mind, this event brings together a group of scholars (including famed
science historian, George Dyson) to explore the critical nature of
speculation and long-term thinking in our current moment.