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From Abacus to Artificial Intelligence - The Past, Present and Future of Computing and its impact on Humanity - Wednesday March 24th at 14:00 GMT
by david＠davidwortley.com 23 Mar '21

23 Mar '21

SIGCIS members will be very welcome to join this online talk on March 24th. The talk is part 4 of a series of one hour lectures on Technology and Humanity and focuses on the exponential changes in computing technology in the last 70 years. David Wortley is CEO and Founder of 360in360 Immersive Experiences and the former Founding Director of the Serious Games Institute. His pioneering career in computing and telecommunications technology began in 1979 when he joined IBM where he won a national competition for demonstrating the IBM System/38 (now AS/400). To join this talk free, go to https://www.linkedin.com/events/abacustoartificialintelligence-6779679132931 379201/ Best Regards David Wortley FRSA Vice President of the International Society of Digital Medicine (ISDM) Founder and CEO of 360in360 Immersive Experiences - <http://www.360in360ix.co.uk/> www.360in360ix.co.uk Virtual Conferences Director IORMA Global Consumer Commerce Centre - <http://www.iorma.com/> www.iorma.com 360in360 Teleporter Tours - <http://www.360in360teleportertours.com/> www.360in360teleportertours.com Personal Web Site - <http://www.davidwortley.com/> www.davidwortley.com EMail: <mailto:david@davidwortley.com> david(a)davidwortley.com Mobile: +447896659695 Work: +441327811827

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Thinking Machines. History, Present and Future of AI Online lecture series on artificial intelligence, summer 2021 Martin Schmitt
by Schmitt, Martin 23 Mar '21

23 Mar '21

Dear SIGICS, I just shortly wanted to draw your attention on a series off online lectures on the history of artificial intelligence organized by the Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology, Deutsches Museum, as part of their traditional »Montagskolloquium«, the European New School of Digital Studies, EUV, Munich Center for Technology in Society (MCTS), TUM, and the Philosophy of Computing group, ICFO, Warsaw University of Technology. "Thinking Machines. History, Present and Future of AI Online lecture series on artificial intelligence, summer 2021“ „Artificial Intelligence and its implications for society and human self-understanding are one of the key topics of contemporary academic and public discourse. While there are various research institutions dedicated to AI ethics and policy in particular, what still seems to be missing from the picture is an integrated humanities perspective that combines expertise from the history, philosophy and social studies of AI. The international and interdisciplinary lecture series »Thinking Machines: History, Present and Future of Artificial Intelligence« provides one step towards such an integrated perspective. The lectures in this series are intended for a general educated audience but are disigned to be relevant for academic audiences, too. The title of each event indicates its working language.“ Most of the talks will be held in English, only one or two talks are in German. I thought this series could be of interest for some of the members here on the list. Stay healthy! Martin Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter | Post-Doc | digital enthusiast Technische Universität Darmstadt Institut für Geschichte Fachgebiet Technikgeschichte Mail: martin.schmitt(a)tu-darmstadt.de<mailto:martin.schmitt@tu-darmstadt.de> Tel: +49 6151-16-57327 http://www.computerisierung.com & Assoziierter Wissenschaftler LEIBNIZ-ZENTRUM FÜR ZEITHISTORISCHE FORSCHUNG | POTSDAM Vice Chair IFIP WG 9.7 „History of computing" Zuletzt erschienen: Leslie, Christopher und Martin Schmitt (eds.): Histories of Computing in Eastern Europe, Cham: Springer International Publishing 2019 (IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology 549), https://www.springer.com/978-3-030-29159-4

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CfP: "Crowd Control," SHOT 2021 (Abstracts 4/7)
by Scott Kushner 21 Mar '21

21 Mar '21

Dear SIGCISsians, I'm proposing an open session called "Crowd Control" for SHOT 2021 (New Orleans, November 18-21). There is no shortage of software, hardware, information, and computing questions that intersect with the panel topic. Perhaps you're working on one? If so, I hope you'll consider submitting an abstract. Queries and abstracts (by 7 April) to scottkushner(a)uri.edu. See below or visit https://tinyurl.com/shot-crowd-control. *** CROWD CONTROL Organizer: Scott Kushner, University of Rhode Island Queues, gates, doorways, turnstiles, stanchions, guards, cages, pens, cells, anterooms, hallways, cameras, bottlenecks, streets, signage, velvet ropes, bouncers, bleachers, fences, barriers, ushers: the methods of crowd control are technological interventions. The ways that crowds have been constituted, apprehended, understood are historically, geographically, and culturally contingent. The discourses that differentiate crowds from (and conflate them with) adjacent categories of analysis, such as audiences, mobs, masses, multitudes, are similarly variable across different contexts. The purposes to which crowd control has been put have also changed over time and space, organizing the flows and stases of bodies in order to impose political, social, cultural, and economic logics specific to and co-constitutive of the contexts in which its various technologies are situated. This SHOT session seeks to develop an understanding of technologies used to control crowds of people over time. Participants will present research on historically-situated technological devices, protocols, systems, and infrastructures that modify built and natural environments in order to contain, channel, direct, arrange, expel, disperse, and otherwise direct the movements and stillnesses of human bodies. The significance of this work to the history of technology lies in concentrating discussion about the ways that technological interventions have shaped the spatial dispositions of groups of human bodies in order to sculpt the experiences of those spaces and of the crowds of people those spaces attract. Proposals engaging with any era and geographic context are welcome. The organizer is interested in placing in conversation scholars and audience members working with and curious about a range of materials and methodologies. Potential participants are therefore invited to imagine the notion of crowd control in adventurous manners. Note: A pair of panels had been constituted for SHOT 2020, which was cancelled due to public health concerns. Not all panelists are able to participate in SHOT 2021, so a small number of additional papers will be selected to round out the group. Procedure: Those interested in proposing presentations for potential inclusion in this session should kindly prepare a one-page abstract (500 words maximum) and a one-page short CV (300 words maximum) with current contact information. Please send these materials to Scott Kushner ( scottkushner(a)uri.edu) no later than April 7, 2021. If you will be a first-time SHOT presenter, do not hold a tenure-stream position, are no more than two years from receipt of a terminal academic degree, and wish to be considered for the Robinson Prize, please indicate as much in your abstract. (Find information about the Robinson Prize at the SHOT website.) -- Scott Kushner Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Harrington School of Communication and Media University of Rhode Island 312 Davis Hall 10 Lippitt Rd. Kingston, R.I. 02881 +1 (401) 874-5223 scottkushner(a)uri.edu

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CFP for Amazon Anthology
by Alexander Monea 20 Mar '21

20 Mar '21

CFC: An Anthology about Amazon Since its founding in 1994, Amazon has steadily and inexorably become probably the most visible and easily recognized e-commerce platform in the world. Amazon websites receive nearly 2.5 trillion visits per annum, and in 2018 Amazon’s share of e-commerce activity in the US hit almost 50%. Even while Amazon has struggled to cope with the unexpected demands of the Covid-19 moment, its dominance in the US and European markets has remained unquestioned and mostly unchallenged as projections and expectations continue to be revised upwards by market analysts. During the two decades or so of its rise, Amazon.com has been at the forefront of the majority of Silicon Valley’s technological innovations: efforts to index the world; simplify and automate e-payments (e.g. 1-Click); facilitate e-reading (e.g. Topaz, Kindle, etc.); stream digital multimedia content (e.g. Audible, Video on Demand, Prime Video, MP3 Store); personalize the internet and implement recommendation engines; incorporate machine learning (e.g. Mechanical Sensei, Amabot); develop voice command through natural language processing (e.g. Alexa); domesticate AI devices (like Echo and the suite of similar devices hosting Alexa technology); scan the world’s books (e.g. Search Inside the Book), implement web analytics and ad sales (e.g. Clickriver); map the world’s roadways and offer street views (e.g. Block View); facilitate the gig economy (e.g. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, Amazon Fresh); automate hiring, firing, and labor management; develop facial recognition and security software (e.g. Rekognition) for domestic, commercial and governmental use; and, perhaps most importantly, offer server services like web hosting and virtual machines for advanced computation through Amazon Web Services (AWS). For 26 years, Amazon has either been the first to imagine and implement these and other technological innovations, or has been quick to perfect its own versions of new features developed in Silicon Valley by poaching key employees from rivals, acquiring smaller companies, developing in-house versions, and throwing its weight around as the premier e-commerce platform in the United States. We are currently compiling an anthology that will try to give an account of the multifaceted—indeed, omnipresent and ubiquitous—activities and presence of Amazon. The anthology will publish original contributions by major scholars in the field, and also republish crucial or seminal articles about Amazon. And we are about to sign a contract for the anthology with a major publisher. At this moment we would like to solicit new contributions in several areas related to Amazon which we think have been undertreated in scholarship. If you have work, or would like to develop work, or can suggest work, that fits broadly into any of the following themes, please contact us to talk about it. We would want to have finished contributions by the end of 2021 and would like to receive initial communication and inquiries by April 15th. * Direct media production by Amazon and its subsidiaries * The relation of Amazon’s enterprises to on the environment and ecological issues * Amazon and race, especially in regard to Amazon’s labor practices * The story of Amazon post-Covid 19 Paul Smith, Professor of Cultural Studies & Global Affairs, George Mason U Alex Monea, Assistant Professor of English & Cultural Studies, George Mason U Maillim Santiago, Cultural Studies, George Mason U. Please email us: psmith5(a)gmu.edu<mailto:psmith5@gmu.edu>, amonea(a)gmu.edu, msantia7(a)gmu.edu<mailto:msantia7@gmu.edu> Alexander Monea Assistant Professor English | Cultural Studies George Mason University [1473787391094_GMU]

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Fwd: SHOT anti-racist syllabus project & international program update
by Andrew Russell 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

Hi everyone - Please see the message below from SHOT VP, Gabrielle Hecht. > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Gabrielle Hecht <ghecht(a)stanford.edu> > Subject: SHOT anti-racist syllabus project & international program update > Date: March 19, 2021 at 12:23:04 PM EDT > Cc: Kevin Chen <kxchen(a)stanford.edu> > Reply-To: Kevin Chen <kxchen(a)stanford.edu> > > Dear SHOT SIG (and other) leaders, > > As part of SHOT’s efforts in anti-racism and internationalization, we are launching an endeavor to update the “Doing HoT” portion of our website to reflect 21st century concerns, programs, and scholarship. > > We begin with two arms of this endeavor: > > 1. An anti-racist syllabus project. We are looking to collect and consolidate syllabi in the history of technology that (a) address race, racism and/or racial & ethnic diversity in a substantive way, and/or (b) give a prominent place to the work of BIPOC scholars. > > 2. Update SHOT’s list of “Departments and Programs of Study” <https://www.historyoftechnology.org/doing-history-of-technology/departments…> to better capture the non-US scene (and of course revise any errors members may spot in the current listings). > > We solicit your input, and that of your members, on both these fronts. I gather that some SIGs have syllabus projects underway, so for those responding to the syllabus solicitation may be straightforward. For others it may be more involved. We appreciate whatever time you and your members can devote to this request! > > Hopefully #2 is easier - just involves looking at the current list, and letting us know what we should add. Obviously people will notice different omissions, so don’t try to be exhaustive! Just let us know the ones that immediately spring out to you & your members. > > Since SIGs function in a variety of different ways, we leave it to you to sort out the details. Feel free to simply forward this email to your members, if that’s easiest. Obviously this project will always be a work in progress. Nevertheless, an initial response by Monday 19 April, with at least some contributions, would be hugely appreciated. > > We have the great good fortune of being assisted in this task by Kevin Chen (see below for a brief bio). If you simply reply to this email, the response will go to him. In addition to the syllabi and program suggestions, he’ll collect any questions you may have. Once there’s a critical mass of these, we’ll respond with another overview email. > > Thank you so very much for your help with this! > > Cheers, > Gabrielle Hecht > (SHOT VP) > > Kevin Chen is currently a first-year law student at Yale. He worked with me full time for two years (2018-20) on a community-engaged teaching and research project on “Racial Justice in the Nuclear Age,” and he’s still serving as the part-time project manager for that endeavor. His undergraduate degree is in anthropology, from Columbia. During his time at Stanford, he plunged into the worlds of environmental justice scholarship and STS. So beyond his overall fabulousness, efficiency, and perspicacity, he is well-prepared for this work! > > Gabrielle Hecht <https://gabriellehecht.org/> > Professor of History > Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute | CISAC > Professor of Anthropology, by courtesy > Stanford University > she | elle | ella > > > >

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Book Reviews! @IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
by Theodora Dryer 19 Mar '21

19 Mar '21

Dear SIGCIS Community, I hope everyone is doing okay. My name is Dr. Theodora Dryer, I am the reviews editor at IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. I’m looking forward this year to growing more vibrant conversations on recent literature in the history of computing. Book reviews allow us to generate discussion across fields and specialties, and to reflect on the broader political impact of our work and our pedagogical approaches. Book reviews are also opportunities to acknowledge the vast amount of time and labor, and creativity authors put in to bring these histories to fruition. Beyond books, there is space and opportunity in the Journal to review art and technology, archives, and other media related to the history of computing. The review’s department is open for proposals on new content and approaches for review. I’m currently soliciting reviews for the books below and many more. Please email me at theodora.dryer(a)nyu.edu with your interest and thoughts 💭. Alvy Ray Smith, *A Biography of the Pixel *@MIT Press Precarity Lab, *Technoprecarious *@MIT Press Jacob Gaboury, *Image Objects: An Archaeology of Computer Graphics *@MIT Press Charlton McIlwain, *Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter *@Oxford University Press Andrew L. Russell and Lee Vinsel, *The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most *@Currency Ruha Benjamin, *Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code *@Polity James Cortada, *Building Blocks of Society: History, Information, Ecosystems, and Infrastructures *@Rowman & Littlefield Yarden Katz, *Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence *@Columbia University Press -- Dr. Theodora Dryer (she / her / hers) Research Assistant Professor | New York University Lead Research Scholar, Climate + Water | AI Now Institute Editor, Climate + Tech Quarterly | Winter Edition: FIRE Reviews Editor, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing https://www.theodoradryer.com/

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Thinking Machines - Lecture Series - History, Present and Future of AI
by Dag Spicer 18 Mar '21

18 Mar '21

Quite the amazing panel… and attendance is free. Dag Begin forwarded message: FYI The Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Deutsches Museum, the European New School of Digital Studies, European University Viadrina, and the Philosophy of Computing group, ICFO, Warsaw University of Technology are organising a free interdisciplinary lecture series on "Thinking Machines. History, Present and Future of AI". All events will will take place online between April and July 2021 and start at 16:30 CEST (UTC +2). For more information and to register, please see https://thinking-machines.online/<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthinking-…> Programme overview Mon 19 April: Pamela McCorduck, Journalist, California, USA: »Early AI in the United States«. Mon 3 May: Stephanie A. Dick, University of Pennsylvania, USA: »Making Up Minds«. Mon 17 May: Shannon Vallor, University of Edinburgh, UK: »The Digital Basanos: AI and the Virtue and Violence of Truth-Telling«. Mon 31 May: Wolfgang Bibel, TU Darmstadt: »Über die Entwicklung der KI in Deutschland«. In German. Mon 14 June: Harry Collins, Cardiff University, UK: »Must Intelligent Machines Be Social Machines?«. Mon 28 June: Vincent Müller, Technical University of Eindhoven, NL: »Where are we going? Future progress in AI«. Mon 12 July: Panel discussion »Algorithms, Trust and Regulation«, with Virginia Dignum, Umeå universitet, SE, Kristian Kersting, TU Darmstadt, and N.N., AlgorithmWatch. Location: Deutsches Museum »Ehrensaal« (in hybrid format if Covid-19 situation allows by then, otherwise online). —— Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 dspicer(a)computerhistory.org<mailto:dspicer@computerhistory.org>

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Trust in AI
by Ensmenger, Nathan 17 Mar '21

17 Mar '21

I am one of the organizers of a Lilly Endowment-funded project called “Ethics, Values, and Technology: Developing Character for a Digital World” (https://digitalethics.iu.edu) As part of that project, we have been hosting a series of talks on ethics and AI. Although the series is not explicitly historical, it touches on many issues relevant to the SIGCIS community. And upcoming speakers include folks familiar to SIGCIS like Mar Hicks and Sarah Roberts. Tomorrow (3/18/21) we will be hosting a talk by Bran Knowles of Lancaster University. She will be talking on “public trust in AI.” The talk is open to anyone, and so please join us if you are able. The URL is https://iu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8ldW5BxiQP6CVxm2CIeuRw The talk is a little later than usual, so we will be starting on 4pm EST on Thursday, March 18. We will be done by 5pm. -Nathan --- Nathan Ensmenger Associate Professor, Informatics School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering Indiana University, Bloomington homes.soic.indiana.edu/nensmeng/<http://homes.soic.indiana.edu/nensmeng/>

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SHOT 2021 Open Session CfP: Health and Computation Before the Internet
by Theodora Vardouli, Prof. 17 Mar '21

17 Mar '21

Dear SIGCIS, I hope this message finds everyone well. David Theodore and I are proposing an open session<https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2021-shot-annual-meeting…> on health and computation for SHOT 2021 and would be delighted to receive abstracts from members of the SIGCIS community. We include the call below for your consideration. Please feel free to write to us with any questions and of course to forward the call to any other potentially interested colleagues. HEALTH AND COMPUTATION BEFORE THE INTERNET Organizers: David Theodore, Associate Professor, McGill University; Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Health, and Computation Theodora Vardouli, Assistant Professor, McGill University It’s not just “Dr. Google.” Networked information technologies have transformed healthcare in ways so profound that an internet outage in a hospital suffices to wreak havoc and make newspaper headlines. And yet the conception of hospitals as information processing infrastructures precedes the advent of the world wide web or the digitization of various medical processes. This session invites contributions that consider the ways in which hospitals, both as buildings and as institutions, accommodated computation and information processing before computer terminals became a standard feature of every room. We are interested in a wide range of historical work, from micro-histories to wide-lens accounts, shedding light on the transition of hospitals from buildings for practicing care to informationally mediated environments. We are also interested in papers that consider the ways in which hospitals’ physical infrastructure served as a testing ground for the conception and implementation of new information systems and computational ideas that eventually transcended healthcare. Papers that engage issues of class, race, gender, and body ability are particularly welcome. Topics include but are not limited to histories of scientific management and other informational abstractions of hospital labor; automation of healthcare and medical procedures; computational models in hospital design and management; hospitals as networks and data architectures; introduction of computers and digital equipment in hospital spaces; inclusion and exclusion of bodies in the conception and development of information infrastructures; hospitals, computer rhetoric, and digital culture. Submission: Those interested to be considered for inclusion in the session should contact the organizers at david.theodore(a)mcgill.ca<mailto:david.theodore@mcgill.ca> and theodora.vardouli(a)mcgill.ca<mailto:theodora.vardouli@mcgill.ca> by April 7 with a presentation title, a one-page abstract (maximum 500 words) and a one-page short CV with current contact information (maximum 300 words each). All best, Theodora -- Theodora Vardouli Assistant Professor | Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture | McGill University 815 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal Québec, Canada H3A 0C2 | 514.398.6709 @McGill<https://www.mcgill.ca/architecture/people-0/faculty/vardouli> | openarchitectures.com<http://openarchitectures.com/> Computer Architectures: Constructing the Common Ground<https://www.crcpress.com/Computer-Architectures-Constructing-the-Common-Gro…>

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Postdoc opportunity: ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship (one year, remote, starting Sept 2021)
by Staiti, Alana 16 Mar '21

16 Mar '21

Hello all, The ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship places recent PhDs who are authorized to work in the U.S. in non-profit organizations for one-year appointments for specific humanities-oriented projects. The third round of applications is now open and includes 40 organizations seeking postdocs for projects that further social justice. This is a diverse and exciting list of participants -- please note that most of them do not specifically relate to the intersection of history/philosophy of computing and social justice (but some do! Including the National Museum of American History). Please see the announcement below, and please note that all inquiries should be directed to ACLS Leading Edge: leadingedge(a)acls.org. The National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution is pleased to announce that it has been selected by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) as a host organization for a Leading Edge Fellowship, which demonstrates the potential of humanistic knowledge and methods to solve problems, build capacity, and advance justice and equity in society. Leading Edge Fellowships place recent humanities PhDs with nonprofit organizations committed to promoting social justice in their communities. In Fall 2021, the program will place up to 41 recent PhDs to work on projects at partnering organizations. Fellows receive an annual stipend of $60,000, as well as health insurance and professional development funding. Fellows lead substantive projects that draw on the skills and capacities honed in the course of earning the humanities PhD, including advanced communication, research, project management, and creative problem solving. This initiative is made possible through the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The application deadline is May 6, 2021 (9pm EDT). For more information, please visit https://www.acls.org/Competitions-and-Deadlines/Leading-Edge-Fellowships Alana Staiti (she/her/hers) Curator of the History of Computers and Information Sciences National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution staitia(a)si.edu<mailto:staitia@si.edu>

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