We’re pleased to announce that Research Network for Philosophy and Technology will present a series of lectures on “Cybernetics for the 21st Century, Part II: Cybernetics to Come” starting from 23rd April 2024 together with Hanart Forum and the Erasmus School of Philosophy, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, as one of the launch events of the Hanart Forum.
The first phase of the project “Cybernetics for the 21st Century” was dedicated to historical and regional studies on the development of cybernetics in the USA, Soviet Union, Poland, Chile, Japan, China, etc. in the 20th century. Phase 1 engaged with historians, philosophers and media scholars who provided us with a retrospective on the emergence of cybernetics and its implication in politics, science and art. The 21st century is undeniably a century of cybernetics, where we are witnessing the “becoming organism” of machines, the technological planetarization and acceleration towards full automation. We are experiencing a post-metaphysical world filled with new possibilities of liberation and freedom enabled by automation, at the same time haunted by a nihilism marked by robot revolts, imminent wars and climate catastrophes. The second phase of the project is dedicated to “cybernetics to come,” that is to say, a future inspired by cybernetics, while at the same time, moving beyond the closed systems imposed by its models, as well as the apocalyptic imaginations such as the technological singularity, to reflect on the future of freedom, democracy, right, co-existence, aesthetics, etc. A thorough critique of cybernetics and a speculative philosophy of technology are necessary in order to explore the possible worlds to come.
We are proud to announce the participation of world-renowned historians, philosophers, cyberneticians, architects and science fiction writers including:
Bruce Clarke: Gaian Futurities: Beyond the Phoenix Complex to the Domains of the Infra-Human
K Allado McDowell: Designing Neural Media
David Bates: An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence
Kostas Terzidis: Feed Feeds Feed
Toru Nishigaki: On the Informatic Turn Caused by the Generative Artificial Intelligence
Anna Greenspan: China and the Wireless Undertow Media as Wave Philosophy
Orit Halpern: Resilient Futures
Tony Fry: Fiction Forced Futures
Bruce Sterling: Futures of Cybernetics
Chen Qiufan: Re-Imagine Cyberpunk
Luciana Parisi: The Cybernetics of No
The lectures will be available on our video channels, or please refer to the website of hanart press or the research network for philosophy and technology:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HanartForum
Bilibili: https://space.bilibili.com/3546644654066264
The publication of first phase Cybernetics for the 21st Century, Vol. 1: Epistemological Reconstruction was released globally in February this year and is available for free download in PDF at hanart.press, its paperback is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Organizers:
Hanart Forum
Research Network for Philosophy and Technology
Erasmus School of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Co-organizers:
East Asian Academy for New Liberal Arts, University of Tokyo
Department of the History of Science, Tsinghua University
School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong
Serakai
About
Hanart Forum was established in 2022 as a discursive platform for contemporary thought, and a site for exploring diverse artistic practices. Hanart Forum is situated in a restored heritage building in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, an Edwardian-colonial style row house that dates from 1920. The site will be ready for projects by spring 2024.
The Research Network for Philosophy and Technology, established in 2014, is a project to rethink the relation between philosophy and technology, and the future of this relation from global and historical perspective. It hosts the academic journal, Technophany—A Journal for Philosophy and Technology, co-published with the Radboud University Press.
