Being Human in a Post-human World

PANEL DISCUSSION EXPLORING HUMANNESS IN A TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED AND INFORMATION SATURATED WORLD
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 - 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Social Sciences Building, Room 109

What does it mean to be human in a world that works at a scale and speed beyond human comprehension? Scientific and technological advancements develop at speeds to which we cannot attend. Information develops at an exponential rate. Medicine targets our brain chemistry and our longevity and, from intelligent mechanical prosthetics to xenotransplants, affects who we are. In such a world, do we change what it means to be human? How do we fit in such a world? 

Moderator:

• Daniel Gilfillan Acting Director of the IHR, and Associate Professor of German Studies and Information Literacy
Professor Gilfillan’s research focuses on 20th-century literature, film and media studies in the German-speaking sphere, with particular interests in avant-garde/experimental approaches to new forms of media in the past (radio, film) and the influence of these earlier instances of new media on contemporary artistic and cultural practices with digital and telecommunications media.

Panel Members:

• Hava Tirosh-Samuelson Director of Jewish Studies, Professor of History
Dr. Hava Tirosh-Samuelson writes on Jewish intellectual history with a focus on philosophy and mysticism in pre-modern Judaism, feminism and Jewish philosophy, Judaism and ecology, Jewish bioethics, and Judaism and science.  Dr. Tirosh-Samuleson is the organizer of the Templeton Research Lectures for Constructive Relations of Religion and Science (500,000) 2006-09 for the project: "Facing the Challenges of Transhumanism: Religion, Science and Technology."

• Ben Hurlbut Assistant Professor, School of Life Sciences - IHR Fellow
Dr. Hurlbut is trained as an historian of the modern biomedical and life sciences. His research lies at the intersection of bioethics, political theory, and science and technology studies. He studies the historical development of approaches to governance of emerging technologies in the United States, focusing in particular on discourse, politics, and institutions of deliberation for contending with morally and technically complex problems.

• Ron Broglio Assistant Professor, Department of English
Dr. Broglio’s research focuses on how philosophy and aesthetics can help us rethink the relationship between humans and the environment. His work on landscape aesthetics has been driven by an inquiry into the phenomenological approach to the picturesque. This is evident in his book “Technologies of the Picturesque,” which examines how art (both visual and verbal) and technology mutually align their representations of nature in order to transform land into intelligible landscapes. The book is a study of three technological fields burgeoning in 18th century Britain whose influence on the picturesque aesthetic has been overlooked: cartography, meteorology, and animal breeding.

Event sponsored by Project Humanities and Institute for Humanities Research.