[Air-L] Webseminar of Nicole Dewandre

[Geert Lovink]

From: Nicole.Dewandre at ec.europa.eu

Dear all, 

The OnLife Manifesto webinar series continues this week tomorrow (Friday 21 June) 13:00 CET with a webinar with …me;-).

https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/onlife-manifesto
 
During this 1 hour long webinar I will present, in a 20-30 min keynote speech, the rationale underlying the Onlife Initiative, the Manifesto and my personal proposal for a new approach to distinguish agents, artefacts and nature. 

https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/futurium/en/content/onlife-webinar-nicole-dewandre

In this webinar, I will present the rationale underlying the Onlife Initiative and the Manifesto. I shall also present my own proposal for reclaiming the distinction between humans, artefacts and nature, or, more precisely between agents, artefacts and nature. This proposal is inspired by Hannah Arendt' work. I shall argue that the best criterion to distinguish agents, artefacts and nature lies in the "nature" of the interactions at stake much more than in the "nature" of the entities concerned. Thinking about humans as if they were machines undermines de facto any robust way to distinguish meaningfully humans from artefacts. So, paying more attention to what it means to consider an entity as an agent, or as an artefcat, or as part of nature is critical. This offers also a grounding for recognizing another distinction: that between control and orientation, and thereby take distance with the omniscient/omnipotent utopia and articulate freedom with responsibility, in an enlightened and confident perspective.
 
There will also be an opportunity for webinar participants to chat and ask questions during the talk, all this from the comfort of your own computer: webinars take place entirely in an "online virtual room", that will be made accessible on the event page.
 
The virtual room will be accessible on Friday June 21st, from 12:45 onwards, by clicking at 

https://asib-emea.adobeconnect.com/_a836107716/cnect-futurium

(you are invited to register as guest).
 
Looking forward to meeting you tomorrow in the virtual room.
 
NICOLE DEWANDRE

Advisor to the Director-General
Societal Issues of the DAE
European Commission
Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology
Postal address: BU25 4/121
B-1049 Brussels/Belgium
Tel +32(0) 2 29 94925
Fax +32(0) 2 29 51464
nicole.dewandre at ec.europa.eu
 
You can find here the videos of the previous webinars:
Luciano Floridi
Sarah Oates
Jean-Gabriel Ganascia