Lorenz Hilty & James Maguire: Digitising the environmental paradigm
The event will be held in English and simultaneously interpreted into German. In addition, the lecture will be broadcast live from 7 pm. The recorded video will be uploaded to this website a few days after the event.
In the context of sustainability, climate and environmental protection, great expectations are placed on digital technologies. For example, they are supposed to contribute to solving human-made ecological problems such as climate change if resources are better distributed and saved with their help. But will digital technologies really help to ensure sustainability? Or will they even have the opposite effect and harm efforts to protect the climate and the environment when, for example, gigantic server farms consume large amounts of energy or raw materials for chip production are mined in environmentally harmful ways? These questions are discussed by Lorenz Hilty and James Maguire.
Lorenz Hilty illuminates the dialectic between opportunities and risks that the use of digital information and communication technologies entails in the context of sustainability. To this end, he addresses the contribution of digital technologies to greater sustainability on the one hand and draws attention to ecological, social and ethical aspects associated with the use of these technologies on the other.
James Maguire looks at sustainability, renewable energies, digital technologies and data infrastructures from an anthropological perspective. In his lecture he explains his concepts of the “digital Anthropocene” highlighting the connections between computerisation processes and the environment.
Digital media technologies present us with additional challenges, offer solutions and at the same time change our awareness of our natural living conditions.
Lorenz Hilty & James Maguire: Digitising the environmental paradigm
Tuesday, 19 September 2023 | 7 pm | Doors open 6:30 pm
Kleist Saal, Urania Berlin | An der Urania 17, 10787 Berlin
Speakers
Lorenz Hilty is Professor of Informatics and Sustainability at the University of Zurich (UZH), Sustainability Delegate of UZH, and Director of the Zurich Knowledge Center for Sustainable Development. His work explores the opportunities and risks of digitalisation for sustainable development. He is the founder of the ICT for Sustainability conference series and, among others, author of the report Digital Reset. Redirecting Technologies for the Deep Sustainability Transformation.
James Maguire is an anthropologist and Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen. His research is oriented towards questions arising at the intersection of climate and computation, particularly around themes such as energy, data, and digital infrastructures. James is co-editor of Reclaiming Technology: a poetic-scientific vocabulary (Ctrl+alt+delete) as well as Energy Worlds in Experiment (Mattering Press). He is currently working on Digital Mistrust, a special issue that explores emergent forms of mistrust in the context of digitalization and datafication, as well as Ungovernable Landscapes, a book on data and anthropogenic earthquake production in Iceland.
For press accreditation, please contact Frederik Efferenn.
Making Sense of the Digital Society
The current rapid pace of technological change creates enormous uncertainties – and thus the need for explanations that help us better understand our situation and shape the future. The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) are therefore continuing the Lecture Series Making Sense of the Digital Society that was launched in 2017. The aim of the format is to develop a European perspective on the current processes of transformation and its societal impact.
Media partner:
Speakers
Lorenz Hilty is Professor of Informatics and Sustainability at the University of Zurich (UZH), Sustainability Delegate of UZH, and Director of the Zurich Knowledge Center for Sustainable Development. His work explores the opportunities and risks of digitalisation for sustainable development. He is the founder of the ICT for Sustainability conference series and, among others, author of the report Digital Reset. Redirecting Technologies for the Deep Sustainability Transformation.
James Maguire is an anthropologist and Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen. His research is oriented towards questions arising at the intersection of climate and computation, particularly around themes such as energy, data, and digital infrastructures. James is co-editor of Reclaiming Technology: a poetic-scientific vocabulary (Ctrl+alt+delete) as well as Energy Worlds in Experiment (Mattering Press). He is currently working on Digital Mistrust, a special issue that explores emergent forms of mistrust in the context of digitalization and datafication, as well as Ungovernable Landscapes, a book on data and anthropogenic earthquake production in Iceland.
For press accreditation, please contact Frederik Efferenn.
Making Sense of the Digital Society
The current rapid pace of technological change creates enormous uncertainties – and thus the need for explanations that help us better understand our situation and shape the future. The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) are therefore continuing the Lecture Series Making Sense of the Digital Society that was launched in 2017. The aim of the format is to develop a European perspective on the current processes of transformation and its societal impact.
Media partner:
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