Roberto Casati, "Digital Colonialism."

Professor Casati is a tenured senior researcher at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

January 7, 2014
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Location
Haldeman 41 (Kreindler Conference Hall)
Sponsored by
Leslie Center for the Humanities
Audience
Public
More information
Humanites.Center

Professor Casati is a tenured senior researcher at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). His interdisciplinary work as a philosopher of the cognitive sciences focuses on the psychological status of commonsense notions (such as that of object, event, colors, sounds, and holes and shadows) and the proper methodology for studying these notions. Digital colonialism is the simple thesis that if a human activity can go digital, then it ought to go digital. It's nicer and cheaper to move electrons than it is to move atoms. Sure enough, some human practices, such as eating, cannot migrate into the digital sphere. On the other hand, practices that require information processing started to massively migrate. But are all information processing practices better off in the digital sphere? Digital colonialists trade on ambiguous notions, such as access to knowledge, multitasking, digital natives, that have insufficient or nonexistent empirical support, and must be thoroughly deconstructed. He will  discuss the cognitive and social advantages of some old-fashioned practices, such as paper book reading, the use of a fully erasable blackboard, situated teaching, meetings behind closed doors, and paper voting.

Location
Haldeman 41 (Kreindler Conference Hall)
Sponsored by
Leslie Center for the Humanities
Audience
Public
More information
Humanites.Center