Dear All,
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We are organizing a panel for the EASST2022 conference in July and =
warmly
invite you to join our discussion! Our panel is titled: "Envisioning =
coded
futures: Algorithmically shaped presents and futures of
human-machine-relationships". Please find the description of the panel
below.
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If you are interested, please submit directly to our panel on the =
conference
website: https://easst2022.org/openpanel.asp, allocating with panel nr. =
54.
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Paper abstracts are due by February 1st. If you have any questions, =
please
don't hesitate to contact us!
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Best wishes,
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Libu=B9e Vep=F8ek, Maximilian Jablonowski, and Lina Franken
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EASST2022
"Politics of technoscientific futures"
Madrid July 6-9, 2022
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Open Panel Nr. 54:
Envisioning coded futures: Algorithmically shaped presents and futures =
of
human-machine-relationships
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Interacting with the world today increasingly means dealing with
sociotechnical systems that fundamentally rely on binary code. Computer =
code
shapes ways of communication and travel, the very bedrock of the global
economy and related infrastructures. While code (at least today) is =
written
by humans or human collective practices, there already exist attempts to
build AI systems that take over coding themselves, moving today's
discussions on coded sociotechnical assemblages and human-machine
relationships to the next level. At the same time these practices of
envisioning influence and shape today's politics of the future.
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With sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff/Kim 2009) not only questions =
of
what is possible, but also visions of "how life ought, or ought not, to =
be
lived" (Jasanoff 2015: 4) are being discussed. In the center of this we =
find
questions on what human-machine relationships should look like and how
decision-making power should be distributed across these sociotechnical
systems. Expert think-tanks, venture capital, industry, lobby groups or
consulting agencies play important roles in steering today's debates of =
the
future coalescing with buzzwords such as digital capitalism, industry =
4.0,
algorithmic power and surveillance capitalism.
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The prevalence of coded sociotechnical assemblages raises important
questions on human-machine-relationships and responsibilities of the =
future
for STS research, such as: How does computer code shape the
inter- and intra-actions of a world in constantly becoming and how will
algorithms vice versa be shaped by our own viewpoints and actions? What =
does
this mean for negotiations of human-machine-relationships of the and for =
the
future? How do we and will we interact with code-based and algorithmic
nonhuman actors? These collaborations and entanglements give rise to
changing responsibilities and obligations. How are human biases =
reproduced
(or even reinforced) within human-machine relationships and =
more-than-human
coding practices? Which power relations as well as formal and informal
ethics are in play here and how is decision-making and control =
distributed
across sociotechnical systems? On the material level questions of what
relevance do (digital) infrastructures of heterogeneous materiality have =
in
these settings arise. Which socio-spatial configurations will be =
engendered
and how will human and more-than-human actors move through them? And
finally, regarding methodology as well as ethics, how can STS scholars
research these infrastructures, spaces and entanglements?
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The panel will focus on the envisioned, sometimes speculative
human-machine-relationships of coded futures. It aims at carving out the
possibilities and pitfalls that more-than-human collaborations engender
within these relationships. We invite contributions ranging from case
studies to theoretical considerations of the future politics and =
imaginaries
of coded human-machine relationships.
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Link to panel: =
https://easst2022.org/IMAGENES/panelsResultados/054.pdf
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Vertr.-Prof. Dr. Lina Franken
Computational Social Sciences
Institut f=FCr Soziologie
LMU M=FCnchen
Konradstr. 6
Raum 301
80801 M=FCnchen
E-Mail:
lina.franken@soziologie.uni-muenchen.de
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