Eclipse Phase co-creator Brian Cross will be speaking at the
Biopolitics of Popular Culture seminar in Irvine, CA on December 4th, organized by the
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. If you happen to be in the area, this event is looking to be very engaging, and the lineup of presenters is fantastic. Here's the event info:
http://ieet.org/bpcs09
Popular culture is full of tropes and cliches that shape our debates
about emerging technologies. Our most transcendent expectations for
technology come from pop culture, and the most common objections to
emerging technologies come from science fiction and horror, from
Frankenstein and
Brave New World to
Gattaca and the
Terminator.
Why is it that almost every person in fiction who wants to live a
longer than normal life is evil or pays some terrible price? What does
it say about attitudes towards posthuman possibilities when mutants in Heroes or the X-Men, or cyborgs in Battlestar Galactica or Iron Man, or vampires in True Blood or Twilight are depicted as capable of responsible citizenship?
Is Hollywood reflecting a transhuman turn in popular culture,
helping us imagine a day when magical and muggle can live together in a
peaceful Star Trek federation? Will the merging of pop culture, social
networking and virtual reality into a heightened augmented reality
encourage us all to make our lives a form of participative fiction?
During this day long seminar we will engage with culture critics,
artists, writers, and filmmakers to explore the biopolitics that are
implicit in depictions of emerging technology in literature, film and
television.
This seminar will precede the Humanity+ Summit, December 5-6 at the same venue.
