Posthuman Forum: "THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF COVID19 A

Speakers:

1. “Why it is Helpful and Dangerous to Use AI to Fight Covid”

Kevin LaGrandeur (New York Institute of Technology, US / NY Posthuman Research Group)

2. “A Democratic Usage of Digital Data”

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner (John Cabot University, Italy / Beyond Humanism Network)

3. Posthuman Technology during COVID-19”

Maggie Jiang (NYU, US / China)

4. “Posthuman Vulnerability”

Chrsitine Daigle (Brock University, Canada / Posthumanism Research Institute)

5. "The Virus, our Ally for Metahumanist Mutations"

Jaime del Val (Metaverso Institute)

6. "Stimulus Serenades for Social Change"

Emily Bauman (NYU)

​6. “A History of Treating Disease through Objects” (Visual Exhibition)

Denny Daniel (Museum of Interesting Things, NYC, US)

Facilitators:

Francesca Ferrando (NYU / Posthuman Global Network)

Jim McBride (NYU / NY Posthuman Research Group)

LOGISTICS

Day and Time

The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 30th 2020, 12pm-1.30 pm (Eastern time).

We will host the event live on Zoom.

Registration

The event is free; registration is required

- Each presenter will have 5 minutes each. After each presentation, we will proceed with the live audience and the Q/A.

Social Media

Each Summit will turn into an episode of our Vlog "Posthumans": http://www.posthumans.org/vlog.html

and Podcast "Posthumans": http://www.posthumans.org/podcast.html).

Possibly, the Summit will stream live on our Facebook page "NY Posthuman Research Group".

ABSTRACTS AND BIOS

1.

TITLE

Why it is Helpful and Dangerous to Use AI to Fight Covid

ABSTRACT

As of April, 2020, there are a surprising number of AI-based innovations for helping resolve COVID. Some very useful ones help diagnose and research solutions for the virus; others, especially those that record and track people who have the virus to aid in quarantines, are perilous to our privacy and could aid authoritarian governing. I will discuss some of these innovations and give recommendations for their safe use.

BIO

Dr. Kevin LaGrandeur is Professor at the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), and a Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology. He also is a co-founder of the NY Posthuman Research Group. Dr. LaGrandeur has published over 50 articles and several media productions, which have appeared in both professional venues and the popular press. His recent books are Artificial Slaves and Surviving the Machine Age.

2.

TITLE

A Democratic Usage of Digital Data

ABSTRACT

In my short talk, I reflect upon the complex web of relationships between health, privacy, and digital data, whereby I criticize the value of privacy which is widely taken for granted, but which is not well justified.

BIO

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner is a philosophy professor at John Cabot University in Rome and is director and co-founder of the Beyond Humanism Network, Fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), Research Fellow at the Ewha Institute for the Humanities at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and Visiting Fellow at the Ethics Centre of the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. More info: www.sorgner.de

3.

TITLE

Posthuman Vulnerability

ABSTRACT

I discuss the concept of transjectivity which captures the notions of transsubjective and transobjective (or material) entanglements in relation to the impact COVID-19 has had on our individual and collective ways of being. The sudden disruptive shifts to the ways in which we experience our multiple entanglements has caused disorientation. It only uncovers a fundamental fact: as transjective beings, we are fundamentally vulnerable.

BIO

Christine Daigle is professor of philosophy and Director of the Posthumanism Research Institute at Brock University. Her current research explores the concept of posthuman vulnerability and its ethical potential from a posthumanist material feminist point of view. She also works on environmental posthumanities and issues related to the Anthropocene.

4.

TITLE

The Virus, our Ally for Metahumanist Mutations

ABTRACT

​As the planet accelerates, via the pandemic, the preexisting tendency towards an algorithmic governmentality is urgent to overcome humanistic nostalgias of "saving humanity"; and transhumanistic dystopias of control. Through critical posthumanism and metahumanism I propose a triple move: red lines against surveillance, the planet's health as problem number one in global agendas, and a deep mutation toward less reductive ways of perceiving and moving.

BIO

Jaime del Val is a metahumanist polymath who develops transdisciplinary projects across all arts, philosophy, technology, and activism and has curated Metabody Forum events in over 30 countries. Jaime is polyglot, neurodiverse and mestiza, microsexual and trans-species; is neither man, nor woman, nor human, and is not in Facebook.​

5.

​TITLE

Posthuman technology during COVID-19

BIO

Maggie Jiang is a Chinese international student currently studying at NYU. She is both Hong Kong and Shenzhen (mainland China) based.

ABSTRACT

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, high-end technology had been widely applied. Pandemic drones, tracking tools, QR codes… all served to help people survive this crisis. However, while enjoying the benefits brought by these technologies, human beings are unwillingly put under surveillance and basic human rights are compromised.

6.

​TITLE

A History of Treating Disease through Objects (Visual Exhibition)

ABSTRACT

​The History of treating disease or the lack of treating disease has evolved over the ages. Denny Daniel will discuss some of the methods that worked and many that did not work so well while showing the actual historic items from the Museum collection.

BIO

Denny Daniel, an NYU grad, is founder of The Museum of Interesting Things and brings his traveling interactive demonstration of inventions to schools, libraries, and events. Heralded in the NY Times, appeared on the History & Science Channel, NY1 News & PBS & over 20 publications and spoke at 4 TEDx talks.