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AIT Forum on Histories of the internet - last minute booking
by tom＠abram.co 22 Dec '23

22 Dec '23

Last few places remaining in London - good availability for online https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/archives-of-it-forum-on-the-histories-of-the- internet-tickets-691738758247 Tom Abram Director - Archives of IT <mailto:research@archivesit.org.uk> research(a)archivesit.org.uk <http://www.archivesit.org.uk/> www.archivesit.org.uk > <https://archivesit.org.uk/sign-up/> Subscribe to our e-newsletter > Follow us on Twitter <https://twitter.com/ArchivesIT> @ArchivesIT > Please support us at <https://archivesit.org.uk/get-involved-4/make-a-difference/> https://archivesit.org.uk/get-involved-4/make-a-difference/ Registered Charity No: 1164198 This e-mail is confidential and may be privileged. It may be read, copied and used only by the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please contact the sender immediately by return e-mail. Please then delete the e-mail and do not disclose its contents to any person.

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updates on SHOT/SIGCIS in Chile
by Elizabeth Petrick 21 Dec '23

21 Dec '23

Dear SIGCIS, Melanie and I met with SHOT leadership this week and wanted to share some additional information with you on the conference in Chile in July. https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2024-joint-icohtec-shot-… First, we are planning to have our usual Friday SIGCIS lunch (with book auction!) and Sunday SIGCIS workshop. Stay tuned for the CfP, coming soon. Second, for the SHOT portion of the conference, they are planning to run two tracks of remote/hybrid sessions. So feel welcome to submit proposals for talks even if you can't be there in person. Proposals for full panels or individual papers due January 10th. Finally, while SHOT is still working on all the logistics, we're told that SHOT is planning to have people at the Santiago airport to direct attendees to transit to Viña del Mar where the conference will be held. There will also soon be information about different nearby hotels, within close distance of the conference. Best, Liz ------------- Elizabeth Petrick Co-Director, STS Program Associate Professor Department of History Rice University http://elizabethpetrick.com/

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Books on Women in Computing
by Brian Randell 19 Dec '23

19 Dec '23

Hi: We are planning to provide a permanent display in our School of Computing, in a prominent location that will be readily visible to our undergraduate students in particular, of published books on Women in Computing. The hope is that this might help to redress the imbalance in the students’ popular perception of computing pioneers as being an almost entirely male crew. I attach below a first list of contenders (other than Ada Lovelace) for space in this display – comments, both positive and negative, on this list will be welcome. (Ada Lovelace will of course be well-represented – however I’ve already had detailed advice on which of the plethora of works on Ada to include, so I’m keen to make sure that other worthy contenders for display space are not accidently omitted. At present it is undecided whether to include, and if so whether to have a separate set of books on, Women in Code-Breaking – see the presently-separate second list below, on which comments are also sought.) I’m looking for biographies, autobiographies, and good scholarly accounts on the contribution of women to the computing world, not books aimed at young school pupils. The plan is that copies of all the books on display will also be available for borrowing from the University Library. My apologies, especially to the authors, for any accidental egregious omissions from these lists! Season’s Greetings Brian Randell Books on Women in Computing (other than Ada Lovelace) Janet Abbate. Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing. (2017). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Recoding-Gender-History-Computing-Abbate/dp/026253… Crystal Bennes, Klara and the Bomb (2022). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klara-Bomb-Crystal-Bennes/dp/9492051826 Kurt W. W. Beyer. Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age, (2012). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Information-Lemelson-Studies-Innovation/… Claire L. Evans. Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, (2020). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broad-Band-Untold-Story-Internet/dp/0593329449/ David Alan Grier. When Computers Were Human. (2007) https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Computers-Human-David-Grier/dp/0691133824 Kathy Kleiman. Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer, (2022). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proving-Ground-Untold-Programmed-Computer/dp/17873… Mark Jones Lorenzo. Everlasting Code: The Education of Grace Hopper and the History of COBOL, (2021). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everlasting-Code-Education-Business-Oriented-Langu… Richard Rhodes . Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. (@012) https://www.amazon.com/Hedys-Folly-Breakthrough-Inventions-Beautiful/dp/030… Jon T Rickman and Kim D Todd. Pioneer Programmer: Jean Jennings Bartik & the Computer That Changed the World. (2013) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-Programmer-Jennings-Computer-Changed/dp/16… Carl J Schneider. Grace Murray Hopper: Working to create the future. (1998). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Title-Murray-Hopper-Working-create/dp/1571636064 Dame Stephanie Shirley. Let It Go: My Extraordinary Story - From Refugee to Entrepreneur to Philanthropist. (2019). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Go-Extraordinary-Entrepreneur-Philanthropist/d… Kathleen Broom Williams. Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea, (2013). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grace-Hopper-Admiral-Cyber-Sea/dp/1591149789 Books on Women in Code-Breaking Jason Fagone. The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies (2017). https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0062430483/ Peter Hore. Bletchley Park's Secret Source: Churchill's Wrens and the Y Service in World War II, (2021). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bletchleys-Secret-Source-Wrens-Y-Service/dp/178438… Liza Mundy. Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II. (2018). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Girls-Untold-American-Breakers/dp/0316352543 Patricia Owtram and Jean Owtram. Codebreaking Sisters: Our Secret War. (2020). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codebreaking-Sisters-Our-Secret-War/dp/1913406059 Mair Russell-Jones and Gethin Russell-Jones. My Secret Life in Hut Six: One Woman's Experiences At Bletchley Park, (2014). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-Hut-Six-Experiences/dp/0745956645 Jan Slimming. Codebreaker Girls: A Secret Life at Bletchley Park. (2021) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codebreaker-Girls-Secret-Life-Bletchley/dp/1526784… Jan Slimming. The Secret Life of an American Codebreaker: Codebreaker Girls. (2022) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-American-Codebreaker-Girls-ebook/dp/B0… Michael Smith. The Debs of Bletchley Park. (2015). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Debs-Bletchley-Park-Michael-Smith/dp/1781313881 Betty Webb and Kerry Howard. No More Secrets: My Part in Codebreaking at Bletchley Park and the Pentagon. (2023). https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-More-Secrets-Codebreaking-Bletchley/dp/B0C43L3M… — School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html

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SHOT 2024 Session Proposal: Embodiment and Computing
by Elizabeth Petrick 15 Dec '23

15 Dec '23

Hello SIGCIS, This is super last-minute, but Andrew McGee and I are attempting to assemble a session proposal for SHOT in July next year on histories of Embodiment and Computing. My paper will concern proposed technologies at Xerox PARC in the 1970s-1980s and how bodies of users were imagined to interact with them. The deadline for proposals is Dec 18, so if anyone is interested in joining us please contact me ASAP. Also, if you're not interested in giving a paper but might like to chair such a session, please let me know as well. Best, Liz ------------- Elizabeth Petrick Co-Director, STS Program Associate Professor Department of History Rice University http://elizabethpetrick.com/

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new line of research?
by Jonathan Coopersmith 13 Dec '23

13 Dec '23

>From the July 29 Economist: There is also a growing demand for faster or more specific forecasts than can be provided by public institutions (which, being mostly funded by taxpayers, tend to produce what will be the most helpful to the most people). Private companies are filling the gaps. In 2016, for instance, ibm, an American computing firm, bought the Weather Company, which specialised in combining different governmental models, for an estimated $2bn. (Sceptics joked that ibm had invested in the wrong type of cloud.) Within a year the firm began selling “hyper-local” forecasts to businesses, designed to predict the weather in a small area between two and 12 hours ahead. By 2020, according to Comscore, an American media-analytics firm, ibm was the biggest provider of weather forecasts in the world. The firm’s success stems, in part, from its freedom to pick its own priorities. Predicting the weather only a few hours ahead drastically reduces the amount of number-crunching required. That, says Peter Neilley, the Weather Company’s chief meteorologist, allowed the firm to develop a global model with a 3km resolution that churns out a new forecast once an hour. (The ecmwf’s high-resolution global model, by contrast, produces a new forecast every six hours.) https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/07/26/the-high-tech-r… Stay sane, Jonathan Jonathan Coopersmith Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Professor Emeritus Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.739.4708 (cell) John Mather "Instrument Maker to the Stars," <https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/departments/instrument-maker-to-the-stars/> *Aerospace America* November 2023 "Technological obsolescence, <https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/05/technological-obsolescence>" National Academy of Engineering *Perspectives* May 23, 2023 Preserving space archives: https://www.toboldlypreserve.space/

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job posting of possible interest
by Jonathan Coopersmith 13 Dec '23

13 Dec '23

a job posting - thank you. , CFR’s David Rockefeller Studies Program has launched a search for a fellow or senior fellow for technology. The job description is below and at this link <https://careers-cfr.icims.com/jobs/2378/fellow-or-senior-fellow-for-technol…>. There may be someone in your network who might be interested. *Fellow or Senior Fellow for Technology* *Department* David Rockefeller Studies Program *City* New York *State* NY *Additional Locations* US-DC-Washington *Overview* The David Rockefeller Studies Program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is seeking to hire a fellow or senior fellow for technology, with the title depending on the successful candidate’s level of experience. The fellow will be expected to conduct original research on the challenges and opportunities that new technologies create for U.S. national security, economic policy, intelligence policy, and/or foreign policy, and to identify specific steps that policymakers should take in response. This is an extraordinary opportunity for someone looking to shape the national conversation on the intersection of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, or synthetic biology with America’s role in the world. *The major responsibilities of this position will include (but are not limited to):* - Producing original written research on the intersection of technology with national security policy, economic policy, intelligence policy, and/or foreign policy. - Organizing and leading meetings on issues at the intersection of technology and national security policy, economic policy, intelligence policy, and/or foreign policy. - Collaborating with other CFR staff on institutional initiatives on technology and foreign policy. - Participating in other CFR programs and activities. - Working with CFR’s distinguished membership, including those with deep experience in technology. - Briefing administration officials, members of Congress, and others on research findings and recommendations. - Building bridges between the technology and policy communities. - Educating the broader public through media interviews and public speaking. - Developing fundraising proposals for the Council’s technology work in collaboration with senior staff. *Qualifications* - PhD in a relevant field, or equivalent experience in business, government, journalism, law, or technology. - Demonstrated expertise on issues at the intersection of technology and foreign and national security policy. - An established record of thought leadership on technology issues. - Strong research, writing, and speaking skills. - Experience collaborating with others, working in teams, and mentoring junior staff preferred. *Pay Range* $125,000 to $225,000 per year Pay commensurate with experience and education *About CFR* Founded in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is a leading nonprofit membership organization, research center, and publisher, with headquarters in New York, an office in Washington, DC, and programs nationwide. It is dedicated to increasing America's understanding of the world and contributing ideas to U.S. foreign policy. CFR's 5,000+ members are leaders in international affairs and foreign policy. CFR also publishes *Foreign Affairs*, the preeminent magazine on global issues, and provides up-to-date information about the world and U.S. foreign policy on its award-winning website, CFR.org. The Council on Foreign Relations offers a benefits package that is among the best offered by nonprofit institutions today, including an award-winning health and wellness program, an on-site fitness center, and generous leave policies and health insurance programs. The Council on Foreign Relations is an equal opportunity employer and actively seeks candidates from a diverse background. Stay sane, Jonathan Jonathan Coopersmith Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Professor Emeritus Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.739.4708 (cell) John Mather "Instrument Maker to the Stars," <https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/departments/instrument-maker-to-the-stars/> *Aerospace America* November 2023 "Technological obsolescence, <https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/05/technological-obsolescence>" National Academy of Engineering *Perspectives* May 23, 2023 Preserving space archives: https://www.toboldlypreserve.space/

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2024 CBI Human-Computer Interaction History Award Call
by Jeffrey Yost 12 Dec '23

12 Dec '23

*2024 CBI Human-Computer Interaction History Award Call *(for nominations/self-nominations) The way people and computers work together has been the subject of intense study since the beginnings of the computer age in the early 1950s. A discipline, known as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), eventually emerged to formalize this research, composed of computer scientists, psychologists, cognitive scientists, artists, and many others. Since these early days of focus on the user experience, Human-Computer Interaction has helped create and shape our ever evolving digital world—from early graphics, networking, and graphical user interfaces to the Web, mobile, the Internet of Things, AI, and the Cloud. The *Annual CBI Ben Shneiderman Award in Human-Computer Interaction History* recognizes excellence in advancing the history/social study (focus must be on change over time) of HCI. The award is for a published book, article, documentary, podcast, website, or other media on HCI’s past. *CBI Human-Computer Interaction History Award. *Eligibility for the 2024 Award is for work (book, article, documentary, podcast, website, or other media) published in 2021, 2022 or 2023. It includes a $500 Prize. ------------------------------ How to Apply To apply (self-nominations are welcome!) or nominate the work of a colleague, please submit either a PDF (or video or audio file if a documentary or podcast) of the book, or six physical copies to CBI at cbi(a)umn.edu <%20cbi(a)umn.edu> (preferred) Or, if mailing, send to: CBI Human-Computer Interaction History Award (c/o Jeffrey Yost) Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota 222 - 21st Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455 ------------------------------ Committee: Jeffrey R. Yost (Chair), Charles Babbage Institute Director and Research Prof., University of Minnesota <https://cse.umn.edu/node/69021> Gerardo Con Diaz, Assoc. Prof. of STS, University of California, Davis <https://sts.ucdavis.edu/people/gerardo-con-diaz> Teasel Muir-Harmony, Curator of Apollo Spacecraft Collections, National Air and Space, Smithsonian Institution <https://airandspace.si.edu/people/staff/teasel-muir-harmony> Fabio Paternò. Research Director of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) <http://hiis.isti.cnr.it/Users/Fabio/index.html> Elizabeth Petrick, Assoc. Prof. of History, Rice University <https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/elizabeth-petrick> Dag Spicer, Senior Curator, Computer History Museum <https://computerhistory.org/profile/dag-spicer/> *The CBI’s and Committee’s decision about what is eligible and who is to receive the award is final.* If you have questions, please send them to me at yostx003(a)umn.edu ** * * * * ** *Please connect on: **Bluesky* <https://bsky.app/profile/justcodeculture.bsky.social> *Mastodon <https://mastodon.social/@justcodeculture>* *Linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-yost-b714566>* *Threads* <https://www.threads.net/> *Jeffrey Yost, Ph.D. * Director, Charles Babbage Institute <http://www.cse.umn.edu/cbi>; Research Professor, History Sci/Tech/Med 222 21st Avenue South, University of Minnesota; Minneapolis, MN 55455 *Studies in Computing and Culture book series, Johns Hopkins U. Press * Co-Editor *PI, NSF-funded CBI project "Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy."* *Blockchain & Society* <https://www.blockchainandsociety.com>* (crit. inq. essays & resources)* (Founder/Leader) *Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces> *Co-Editor (w/ Amanda Wick) *Committee Member, National Academy of Engineering Extraordinary Engineering Impacts on Society* *Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry (MIT Press) <https://amzn.to/3gqe4R6>*

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CHM Fellow Award nominations still open till December 31
by Hansen Hsu 12 Dec '23

12 Dec '23

Know of someone who’s changed the world using computing technology? Why not nominate them for a CHM Fellow award? The Computer History Museum Fellow Awards Program honors technology pioneers—both unsung heroes and well-known legends—for their contributions to computing and the evolution of our digital age, one that started decades ago and which now shapes every aspect of our daily lives. As Steve Jobs once noted, “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it… Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.” Who do you know who has built our modern world? Fellows are selected annually through a public nomination process and honored at an exciting online gala ceremony. The selection committee is made up of historians, computer scientists, engineers, journalists, past Fellows, and even a SIGCIS member or two! Past Fellows have included: Grace Murray Hopper, Steve Wozniak, Katherine Johnston, Lee Felsenstein, Margaret Hamilton, Harry Huskey, Lynn Conway, Ed Catmull, Bill Joy, and over 60 others. (See them all in our Hall of Fellows: https://computerhistory.org/hall-of-fellows/) Send in your nominations here: https://computerhistory.org/fellow-awards/#fellow%20nominations Deadline: December 31, 2023. Thank you! CHM Computer History Museum<http://www.computerhistory.org/> 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 (650) 810-1010 main (650) 810-1055 fax Follow Us: CHM Blog<http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/> I Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/computerhistory> I Twitter<http://www.twitter.com/computerhistory> I YouTube<http://www.youtube.com/computerhistory>

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CfP: New Media & Society, Special Issue "Digital Twinning"
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 08 Dec '23

08 Dec '23

Hello SIGCIS, Please find below a CFP for a special issue co-organized by some of the colleagues I've been working with at Siegen University with the ubiquitous Wendy Chun. Abstracts due by the end of the month. For those of you who don't keep up with the present, I think "digital twin" is the new name for computer simulation (with the implication of extreme faithfulness that permits confident decision making, though that claim was often made for earlier models too). So although the term itself seems to have come from NASA jargon to the mainstream with dizzying speed there's potentially a case to be made for a longer history going back at least to the ENIAC Monte Carlo simulations of 1948. Any questions to <mailto:christoph.borbach@uni-siegen.de> christoph.borbach(a)uni-siegen.de, not to me. Best wishes, Tom CfP: New Media & Society, Special Issue "Digital Twinning" ed. Christoph Borbach, Wendy Chun, and Tristan Thielmann Datafication in the analogue era followed a different logic than do today's media processes, with all their entanglements and interdependencies with and within the 'real' world. Human bodies, system processes, and their data traces and virtual models are deeply intertwined in current postdigital-or rather, more-than-human (Lupton 2019)-media cultures. It is surely not a new idea that data and the technologies of its collection, storage, circulation, and evaluation are shaping how societies and individuals see themselves. But it is a novelty that processes of datafication within the context of 'digital twinning' and their future predictions and simulations of behavior-mostly systems behavior but also human purchasing and movement behaviors, with their political implications-are fundamentally changing the methods of production planning, processes, and products. Technologies of digital twinning ask once more how data practices affect and mold decision-making within institutions (Vertesi 2020). 'Digital twins' are currently the most important drivers of the fourth industrial revolution. These ever-more-complex technical products and processes are now developed and tested in the virtual sphere as software models before they emerge in the 'real' world. The paradigm of digital media technologies is therefore subject to fundamental change through the prevalence of digital twins in industry and research. The digital is no longer a real-time virtual representation of a real-world physical object: it is exactly the opposite and concurrently much more than that, allowing new forms of "premediation" (Grusin 2010), in the analysis of future performances of objects without the physical presence of the objects. Digital twinning therefore promises not only the potential of making futures predictable through recognition and correlation of digital and analog, virtual and physical (Chun 2021), but the ability to do so without physical counterparts. Digital twinning is no longer restricted to single entities-like objects being studied-but allows for modeling complex chains of co-operations. What is most striking from a media theory perspective is that technical objects, models, services, operations, or even entire cities, metro systems, or logistical architectures can be objects of digital twinning. Digital twins make clear that the real world is just one possible realization of the primarily virtual world. At the same time, digital twins and other haunting 'data doppelgangers' allow overarching data exchange and cooperation. They are more than pure data, proving once more that so-called "raw data" does not exist (Bowker 2005; Gitelman 2013). Digital twins consist of technical and social models of acting objects, and integrate various embedded sensors related to vital areas of functionality that make things and processes 'sense-able' (Gabrys 2019). Digital twins can therefore also include simulations and services, asking anew if there is anything worldly which may must remain "uncomputable" (Galloway 2021). Taking digital twinning as an analytic lens, the special issue will also try to understand aesthetics, politics, genders, and economies of 'data doubles.' These new symptoms of postdigital media and data cultures differ from previous motifs of doubles, e.g. literary doppelgangers as in the work of E. T. A. Hoffmann, among others. Selfies are emblematic of digital data cultures and their visual regime (Eckel et al. 2018), as are avatar images in avatar-based gaming (Klevjer 2022), since they are not mere pictorial representations but digital images of self-perception and self-modeling. They stand as digital doubles exemplary for the self in extended realities (XR), self-embodiment in digital spheres, and the continuum between offline and online (Coleman 2011). Similar to digital twins, digital 'doubles' even without a physical 'original' can unfold influence, literally, as virtual influencers or actors such as Hatsune Miku demonstrates. Media practices of doubling and storing the self might have predigital histories (Humphreys 2018). But only digital tracking applications can be regarded as real-time feedback loops that influence human behavior. This can be seen positively since it transforms the way humans self-optimize, e.g. their athletic behavior, as quantified self-movement shows. But it can also be critically reflected from a political standpoint, since it evokes a shift from individuals to 'dividuals' and an interpretation of human beings as conglomerates of sensor technology, flesh, and data doubles within surveillant assemblages (Haggerty and Richard 2000). To account for this complex technological situation and its social impacts, the special issue "Digital Twinning" will bring together researchers from different fields: engineering and social science, informatics and media studies. The aim is to understand concepts and practices but also politics and aesthetics of data doubling and digital twinning that are not restricted to purposes of system and production monitoring, maintenance, and simulation-that is, processes of digital engineering. We will also expand the scope, to include real-time interrelations of digital data acquisition and simulation, on the one hand, and the physical performance of humans, things, and systems, on the other. We are seeking abstracts (500 words) for submissions until December 31, 2023 (to be sent to <mailto:christoph.borbach@uni-siegen.de> christoph.borbach(a)uni-siegen.de, subject: "NM&S Special Issue: Digital Twinning"), that might address-but are not limited to-one or more of the following topics: * how is data agential (in digital twinning)? * interrelations and interdependencies between physical and digital twins and doubles * politics, (data) economies, and technologies of digital twinning and doubling * boundaries in the modeling of twins * (de)central places of twinning: where is it to be done, and by whom? * twinning as labor: precarious work, and/or precarious for workers? * histories of twinning: from science fiction, to NASA, to the public? * future digital practices of twinning * imaginaries and aesthetics of twinning * gendering and aesthetics of avatars * challenges and difficulties of data governance, data rights, and data sustainability * sensor ecologies and their impact on digital twinning * media and social theories of digital twinning * digital methods, ethnographic, and ethnomethodological approaches for further research on digital twinning * applications for digital twins in the industrial and consumer metaverse

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Call for Papers "Entangling Mind and Machine: Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience and Neurotechnology" at EASST-4S 2024 Amsterdam
by Christine Aicardi 08 Dec '23

08 Dec '23

Dear SIGCIS members, Hoping that this may be of interest to some of you, we invite you to submit an abstract to our panel at the EASST-4S [The 2024 quadrennial joint meeting of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)] held in Amsterdam July 16-19, 2024: Entangling Mind and Machine: Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience and Neurotechnology Short Abstract: In this panel, we seek to address two questions: 1) What can previous iterations of entangling mind and machine tell us about contemporary AI, neuroscience and neurotechnology? 2) How are current entanglements different, and what do they mean for future AI, neuroscience and neurotechnology? Long Abstract: The history of neuroscience is one intertwined with the history of building computational systems and machinic brains/minds – from Alan Turing’s thinking machines, to cybernetic brains, and more recently, the use of experimental and theoretical neuroscience in the development of Google DeepMind’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. Brains and minds have been, and continue to be, a source of inspiration for AI. Artificial neural networks at the core of recent AI developments are inspired by biological neural networks in animal brains, and new brain-inspired neuromorphic hardware architectures are designed to support them. Biological realism, however, is not the primary concern of AI. It takes inspiration from biology only in order to build more efficient AI tools - improving information processing performance for a vast range of activities, and lowering energy consumption. In this panel, we seek to address two overarching questions: 1) What can previous iterations of entangling mind and machine tell us about contemporary AI, neuroscience and neurotechnology? 2) How are current entanglements between mind and machines different, and what do they mean for future AI, neuroscience and neurotechnology? We invite contributions that will help tackle these topics from various perspectives and various locations, taking diachronic as well as synchronic approaches. Possible questions are: What are the epistemic, political, social and ethical consequences of these entanglements? What epistemic communities and institutions (military, corporate, etc.) are established around these different practices and around different conceptions of intelligence – human, animal, more-than-human? What kinds and what aspects of living organisms are brought up in simulation, mimicry or machinic reproduction of ‘intelligence’? How are they pared down, distorted – or rendered invisible? If you are interested, please submit your abstract by 12 February 2024 here<https://www.easst4s2024.net/callforabstracts/> Christine Aicardi & Tara Mahfoud _______________________________________________________ Christine Aicardi<https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/christine.aicardi.html> Senior Research Fellow in Science & Technology Studies Responsible Research and Innovation Lead | UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Safe & Trusted AI Department of Informatics | King’s College London https://safeandtrustedai.org/ Responsible Research and Innovation Lead | EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Smart Medical Imaging School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences| King’s College London https://www.imagingcdt.com/

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