Technopolitics Meeting

Mark Coeckelbergh

“Romantic Technologies, Exploited People, and the Revolution:
From Hippie Computing to Data Sweatshops and Contemporary Technopolitical Movements and Practices.”

In this talk I argue that our contemporary dealings with technology can be better understood by putting them in the context of the history of romanticism, which exerts its influence as today we seek liberation, escape, and unity by technological means. I show how romanticism has influenced the birth and use of computing and the internet, and how today we are still seduced by its magic and romantic promises. But there is a dangerous dialectic: like the enlightenment, romanticism has turned into its opposite: the magic of technologies is used by corporations to get our data and the promises of liberation and democracy have turned into new forms of slavery and exploitation. Can new technopolitical movements and practices do something about this? Or are they also trapped in romanticism?
Mark Coeckelbergh is Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology at the Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Austria and part-time Professor of Technology and Social Responsibility at the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, De Montfort University, UK. He is also the current President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. His publications include Using Words and Things (Routledge 2017), New Romantic Cyborgs (MIT 2017), Money Machines (Ashgate 2015), Environmental Skill (Routledge 2015), Human Being @ Risk (Springer 2013), Growing Moral Relations (Palgrave Macmillan 2012), and numerous articles in the area of philosophy of technology, including philosophy of robotics and ICT and topics such as language and technology, financial technologies, and machine creativity. He also actively explores questions concerning technology through collaborations with artists and curators.

TECHNOPOLITICS ist eine transdisziplinäre Plattform bestehend aus KünstlerInnen, JournalistInnen, ForscherInnen, DesignerInnen und EntwicklerInnen. Im Jahr 2009 gemeinsam von Armin Medosch und Brian Holmes als Online-Diskussionsgruppe ins Leben gerufen, hat sich seit 2011 daraus ein Kreis in Wien gebildet, der sich regelmäßig zu Vortrags- und Diskussionsabenden trifft, sowie Konferenzen und Kunstprojekte produziert. Eine wichtige gemeinsame Zielsetzung ist, die Bedeutung technologischer Entwicklungen, Perspektiven und Paradigmenwechsel aus einer kritischen, künstlerischen und offenen Perspektive sichtbar zu machen.