Loading...
“Luddism and Technological Resistance: Why Then, Why Now?”
Registration
Note: There is a limit at 1 ticket per person for this event.
This event is open to specific members only. You need to Sign In
Details
Luddite. That’s the usual term used to describe someone who expresses resistance to technology. Its origins can be traced back to bands of textile weavers in north England who, under the banner of a fictional King Ludd, destroyed some of the new machinery introduced by early industrialists. Ever since then, the term has tended to carry a negative charge. In a world where innovation-talk dominates discussions about technology and society, to be called a luddite is to be accused of being a reactionary who irrationally clings to the past and hopelessly tries to stop progress. But what can we learn by looking closer at resistance to technological change? What if opposition to new inventions and to innovation is in fact essential to progress? During this talk we will look at the historical origins of luddism and at its current manifestations, and posit that we should embrace the myth of King Ludd as a corrective to the other myths we’ve built around industrial progress.
Speakers
Patrick De Oliveira
Assistant Professor of History
IE University
Patrick De Oliveira was trained as a historian at Princeton University and has previously taught at Princeton and Singapore Management University. His main field of research is the history of technology in nineteenth-century France and Western Europe, although he also works with comparative/connective approaches that incorporate both France and Latin America into a broader Atlantic world. He is currently working on a book on French ballooning at the turn of the twentieth century for The MIT Press, and he has published articles in Past & Present, Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, the Journal of Urban History, and other prestigious journals. His research has been supported by numerous institutions, including the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (where he has been both a predoctoral and postdoctoral Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Fellow), the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, and the Linda Hall Library. De Oliveira was born and raised in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He graduated with distinction from the University of Kansas with a B.A. in History and a B.S.J. in Journalism. Before turning to academia, De Oliveira dabbled in journalism and book publishing. He remains committed to fostering bridges between academic research and broader audiences, and has published in various popular outlets, like The Washington Post, Slate, The Age of Revolutions, and CartaCapital. More information available at www.patrickdeoliveira.com.
Theodore “Ted” Lechterman
UNESCO Chair in AI Ethics & Governance
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlechterman/
Dr. Theodore “Ted” Lechterman is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at IE University School of Humanities, where he holds the UNESCO Chair in AI Ethics & Governance.”
His recent work has explored the concept of accountability in AI, the philosophical challenges of democracy-enhancing robots, and the ethics of industry self-regulation. He is the author of The Tyranny of Generosity: Why Philanthropy Corrupts Our Politics and How We Can Fix It (Oxford University Press, 2022) and numerous chapters and articles appearing in (e.g.) Journal of Business Ethics, Polity, Journal of Practical Ethics, and History of Political Thought. A connecting theme across his research is what makes democracy valuable and how this value applies when power is exercised by private and artificial agents. Lechterman is an Associate Researcher at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, an organizer of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, and an officer of the Standing Group on Political Theory for the European Consortium for Political Research. He frequently contributes to public debates and advises organizations on strategies for navigating dilemmas in business, governance, and technology. He holds degrees from Harvard (A.B.) and Princeton (M.A., Ph.D.) and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford, Goethe, Hertie, and Oxford, where he was an inaugural fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI.
Iliana Grosse-Buening
Founder and CEO
Quiet Social Club
https://www.linkedin.com/in/iliana-grosse-buening/
Iliana is a social entrepreneur and passionate responsible tech advocate with over 8 years experience in multinationals, NGOs and startups in Kenya, China, the UK, Australia and Germany. She founded Quiet Social Club in 2021 with the mission to promote individual, organisational and societal wellbeing in the digital age. In line with SDG #3 and #4, QSC translates insights from psychology, neuroscience and behavioural sciences into everyday life in the form of educational resources, workshops, products and events. Iliana advises a series of non-profit organisations, among others the youth-led Responsible Technology Hub at the Technical University of Munich, and Training for Good's AI and Cybersecurity Fellowship. She is also a regular speaker at conferences, among others the German Digital Ethics Summit.