Technology as Consolation. The Promise of Artificial Intelligence from a sociological perspective
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola
FBK Aula Piccola
Fondazione Bruno Kessler - Polo delle Scienze Umane e sociali
Aula Piccola
Artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a “key technology”, but a world-changing and world-creating collective cultural phenomenon. Against this background, the question is posed as to why and how techno-promises (or techno-utopias) are increasingly replacing religious experiences and what consequences for humans are associated with this. Form a sociological perspective the increasing exhaustion (individual, societal and planetary) is seen as the main reason for the longing for salvation and the desire for technology-based consolation rituals.
Promising narratives about the future of AI (progress stories, policy papers, visions of AI creators, media reports or fictional representations) are now being received by audiences that are open to highly speculative predictions and attributions of meaning. Based on promises of technology and faith in technology, the associated visions of the future represent far-reaching horizons of expectation. These include hopes for relief, secular fantasies of redemption, equivalents of holiness and new forms of sacralization in the form of data religions, digital solutionism or post-humanist eschatologies. In short, AI symbolizes the renaissance of religious promises in the guise of this-worldly promises of potential.
Speaker: Prof. Dr. STEFAN SELKE | Furtwangen University
Scientific coordination: Massimo Leone, Director FBK-ISR
Cycle of seminars: “(Dis-)Enchantment in Religion and Ethics“
The talk will be held in English.
The presentation will be in-person in the FBK Aula Piccola while seats last and online.
Registration by November 8, 2024 at 12:00 a.m. is required in order to arrange the connection.
The speaker will join remotely.
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L’iniziativa è stata realizzata anche grazie al contributo della Direzione generale Educazione, ricerca e istituti culturali del Ministero della Cultura. |
Speakers
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Furtwangen UniversityStefan Selke, Prof. Dr., studied Aviation and Aerospace Technology, then later sociology, philosophy, anthropology and Portuguese literature. Since 2008 he has been professor for “Societal change” at Furtwangen University (Germany). Currently he also is a research professor for “Transformative and Public Science” and founder of the “Public Science Lab”. In 2021, he was awarded the Wolfgang Heilmann Prize of the Integrata Foundation for his concept of the “NeoUniversity” on the topic of “Human Utopia as a Framework for the Post-Corona Society”. His current areas of research revolve around the topic of “utopia”: future narratives and future euphoria, techno-utopias, artificial intelligence, real-utopian civilisation experiments and space utopias. As an active public scientist and disciplinary border crosser, Selke is regularly present as a keynote speaker and media dialogue partner outside of academia.
Registration
Registration to this event is mandatory.
Registration closed on 08/11/2024.
Deadline: November 8, h 12:00