Human Responses to Technology

Jeff Bilbro, FPR’s super-beaver EIC and Grove City College professor, looks to ancient mythology to assess modern technology and fiction of the future.  Cassandra Nelson of the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture is stuck in the middle, a bit like AI itself.  Author, teacher, and mother Tessa Carman looks for life in abundance in Minnesota and Maryland.  Writer and Berry Center board member Kate Dalton Boyer introduces the speakers.

 

Highlights

1:00       Kate kicks things off

Jeff Bilbro:  “Where Now Are Wayland’s Bones?”

3:30       Kingsnorth and Norse smith explained

12:30    Tempted by ease and justice

15:00    AI amigos for the autonomous

19:00    Computerized convocations

22:00    Wise touch

Cassandra Nelson: “Median Humans and the Life That Really is Life”

26:00    Harboring a secret subtitle

29:15    A hallucinating average machine

34:30    M.A.D. results

41:00    Fancy tooters over computers

45:00    Against photocopies

Tessa Carman: “The Joy of Tech Resistance”

46:30    FPR Match Game

48:00    Manifestos and better tools

51:00    You don’t have to!

55:00    Postman knocks, people dance

63:00    Better names and best practices

 

Resources

Speaker bios and conference videos

Interview with Jeanne Schindler on Postman Pledge

FPR Books and bookshop

Conference co-sponsor Plough

Thanks to Wendell Kimbrough for our theme music