Category Archives: social implications

Urban organisms: 3 ArtSci Salon events with Kaethe Wenzel in Toronto, Canada during March and April 2025

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From a March 10, 2025 ArtSci Salon notice (received via email and visible here as of March 13, 2025), Note: I have reorganized this notice to put the events in date order and clarified for which event you are registering,

The ArtSci Salon (The Fields Institute) in collaboration with the NewONE program (U of T [University of Toronto]) are pleased to invite you to 3 engagements with Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist Kaethe Wenzel

Urban Pictograms Workshop
March 20, 2025, 2:30-4:00 pm [ET[
William Doo Auditorium,
45 Willcocks street [sic]

A workshop to challenge the urban rules and cultural stereotypes of street signs

This workshop is part of the programming of the NewONE: learning without borders, New College, University of Toronto. Throughout the academic year, our classes have been exploring important issues pertaining to social justice. During this workshop, we invite students and members of the community to work together to create urban pictograms (or urban stickers) that challenge inequalities and reaffirm principles of social justice. A selected number of pictograms will be displayed on the windows of the D.G Ivey New College Library and will be launched on April 3 [2025] at 4:30 pm [ET].

Register here to participate in the March 20, 2025 workshop

Public talk: Urban organisms. Re-imagining urban ecologies and collective futures
March 27 [2025], 5 pm [ET], Room 230
The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences
222 College Street

After all, the world is being produced collectively, across the borders of time and geography as well as across the boundaries of the individual. 
–Kaethe Wenzel

Join us in welcoming Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist Kaethe Wenzel. Wenzel has used a diverse variety of media and material such as textiles, found items, animal bones, plants, soil and other organic material, as well as small electronics to produce urban interventions and objects of speculative fiction at the intersection of art, science and technology. Wenzel challenges the notion of the artwork as an object to be observed in a gallery or museum, and the gallery as a constrained space with relatively limited interactions. Her extensive body of work extends to building facades, billboards, entire neighborhoods and the city, translating into urban interventions to explore the collective production of culture and the creation and negotiation of public space.

Public launch of Urban Pictograms 
Thursday, April 3, 2025, 4 pm [ET] onwards
Windows of D.G Ivey Library,
20 Willcocks Street,
New College, University of Toronto

Register here to participate in the March 20, 2025 workshop

Enjoy!

For anyone curious about the NewONE program, you can find more here at the University of Toronto.

Digital Culture Talks presented by The Space online February 12 – 13, 2025

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A February 5, 2025 notice (received via email) from The Space, a UK Arts organization, announced a two-day series of talks on digital culture,

Digital Culture Talks 2025!

There’s just a week to go till The Space’s conference and we’re pleased to confirm our speakers for each of the roundtable talks on Day 1 and 2. There’s lots that will be of interest, including:

* A timely debate about how to make online communities safer
* In introduction to CreaTech – a £6.75 million investment to develop small, micro- and medium-sized businesses specialising in creative tech like video games and immersive reality – find out how to get involved
* Discussions on the role of artists in a digital world
* Explorations of digital accessibiliy, community ownership, engagement and empowerment. 

Find out more here and below

Day 1
Digital communities and online harms
Wednesday 12 February

Digital accessibility, inclusion and community

Roundtable 1
How can we think differently about how we create digital content and challenge assumptions about what culture looks like? Exploring community ownership, engagement and empowerment through digital.

  • Zoe Partington – Acting CEO DaDa, Artist and Disability Consultant
  • Rachel Farrer – Associate Director, Cultural and Community Engagement Innovation Ecosystem, Coventry University
  • Parminder Dosanjh – Creative Director, Creative Black County
  • Jo Capper – Collaborative Programme Curator, Grand Union

Reducing online harms, how to make social media and online communities safer

Roundtable 2
In a world of increasingly polarised online spaces, what are the emerging trends and challenges when engaging audiences and building communities online?

Day 2
The role of artists in a digital world
Thursday 13 February

Calling all in the West Midlands!

Day 2 is taking place in person as well as streaming online. If you’d like to join us in person at the STEAMhouse in Birmingham, please register for free below.

As well as joining us for the great roundtables we have lined up, there’ll be a great chance to network in between sessions over lunch. Look forward to seeing you there!

Join us in person!

CreaTech, the Digital West Midlands and beyond – Local and Global [CreaTech is an initiative of the UK’s Creative Industries Council]

Roundtable 1
An introduction to CreaTech – a £6.75 million investment to develop small, micro- and medium-sized businesses specialising in creative tech like video games and immersive reality. Creatives and academics from across the Midlands and further afield discuss arising opportunities and what this means for the region and beyond.

  • Richard Willacy – General Director, Birmingham Opera Company 
  • Tom Rogers – Creative Content Producer, Birmingham Royal Ballet
  • Louise Latter – Head of Programme, BOM
  • Lamberto Coccioli – Project lead, CreaTech Frontiers, Professor of Music and Technology at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (BCU) 
  • Rachel Davis – Director of Warwick Enterprise, University of Warwick 

Platforming artists and storytellers – are artists and storyteller missing from modern discourse?

Roundtable 2
Artists and storytellers have historically played pivotal roles in shaping societal narratives and fostering cultural discourse. However, is their presence in mainstream discussions diminishing?

Come and join in the conversation!

Register to join us online

If you got to The Space’s Digital Culture Talks 2025 webpage, you’ll find a few more details. Clicking on the link to register will give you the event time appropriate to your timezone.

For anyone curious about The Space, from their homepage (scroll down about 60% of the way),

About us

Welcome to The Space. We help the arts, culture and heritage sector to engage audiences using digital and broadcast content and platforms.

As an independent not-for-profit organisation, our role is to fund the creation of new digital cultural content and provide free training, mentoring and online resources for organisations, artists and creative practitioners.

We are funded by a range of national and regional agencies, to enable you to build your digital skills, confidence and experience via practical advice and hands-on experience. We can also help you to find ways to make your digital content accessible to new and more diverse audiences.

We also offer a low-cost consultancy service for organisations who want to develop their digital cultural content strategy.

There you have it.

Indigenous science as part of the science story

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Bravo to whomever wrote this headline “Weaving Indigenous Science into Reported Stories” for Emma Gometz’s October 29, 2024 article for The Open Notebook.com, Note: Links have been removed,

After Tokitae, a beloved orca at the Miami Seaquarium, died in 2023—just as caregivers were preparing to return her to her natal waters near Puget Sound—a wave of outlets published stories about orca conservation, including efforts by the Lummi Nation, an Indigenous group in the Pacific Northwest.

B. “Toastie” Oaster, an Indigenous-affairs reporter at High Country News and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, read in one feature that members of the Lummi Nation consider orcas to be “sacred relatives of their tribe.” The phrasing stuck out to Oaster like a sore thumb: “Orcas are scientifically verified as being our relatives,” they say. “Why word that in a way that’s making it this mystical Indian thing?”[emphases mine]

For Oaster, the phrase exemplified how non-Indigenous writers can—through poor framing or word choices—discount Indigenous knowledge and cast Indigenous voices in their articles as “mystical” or “beautiful” others, there to provide color but not to impart any serious knowledge or authority to a story.

…

That said, recognition of Indigenous expertise within Western science is growing. In 2023, the National Science Foundation gave a $30 million grant to fund the Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science. Collaborations between Indigenous experts and scientists have become more common, and historical wrongs to the Indigenous community have entered the conversation at scientific institutions. (Though progress to right these wrongs remains slow.)

…

Gometz’s October 29, 2024 article goes on to share advice on featuring Indigenous science, sourcing Indigenous experts and more when writing up a science story.

An overdocumented life?

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The researchers don’t go so far as to suggest there’s too much documentation but they do suggest there can be an impact on our memories, from an October 7, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily,

Never before have people recorded more information about their lives than today. But what does this mean for the way we remember our lives and how we talk about them? Researchers are trying to find answers to these questions.

…

An October 7, 2024 University of Würzburg press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, probes further into the topic,

Just a hundred years ago, most people had – at most – a few photos of themselves and their family. What a difference to today, when we can easily capture every important and unimportant moment – from our child’s first step to a visit to a restaurant with friends to a holiday photo on the beach. And of course, the documentation of our lives doesn’t end there. Just think of the countless emails and WhatsApp messages we write every day, the experiences we share with others via social media or the data we record on our smartwatches.

“One can have very different intuitions about how this increased density of recorded life episodes should be evaluated,” explains Dr Fabian Hutmacher, a researcher at the Chair of Psychology of Communication and New Media at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany. “Some people hope, for example, that we will be able to compensate the weaknesses and to reduce the distortions of human memory in this way. Others are concerned that it will rather create new potential for surveillance and undermining our privacy.”

As it is so often the case, things are not simply black and white, but require a closer look, says Hutmacher. Together with JMU Professor Markus Appel and Professor Stephan Schwan from the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien Tübingen, he has published an article on autobiographical remembering in the digital age in the renowned journal Psychological Inquiry. The article is intended to provide orientation in this still largely unexplored field of inquiry.

Autobiographical Remembering – a Constant Interplay with the Environment

The fact that we draw on resources outside our own minds when remembering past events is not an invention of the digital age, but a constant in human history. Already thousands of years ago, people left behind cave paintings and established traditions for the oral transmission of knowledge. And if you’re trying to remember your last birthday, for example, you can of course not only use your smartphone, but also look in your paper diary – if you keep one – or ask guests who were at the party.

“What sets digital resources apart from these other options, however, is not only the aforementioned increased density of recorded life episodes, but also the fact that these digital resources create a searchable database consisting of a combination of different media sources that can often be accessed anywhere at any time,” explains Fabian Hutmacher. “Digital resources do not just provide a passive storage, but also make it possible – using artificial intelligence, for example – to adjust and rearrange recordings in order to create, among others, digital vacation or wedding albums. This can have a profound impact on how we view past experiences,” adds Professor Stephan Schwan, who leads the Realistic Depictions Lab at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien in Tübingen.

But that’s not all: Different digital resources are suited for different purposes. For example, quantitative data, such as tracking running distances, heart rate, and sleep cycles, seems particularly suitable for discovering long-term behavioural trends. Other data such as photos and videos, on the other hand, are more likely to be used when it comes to reminiscing or reflecting on past events.

A Look into the Crystal Ball: What Does the Future Hold?

The increased use of digital data for autobiographical remembering could have both desirable and undesirable consequences in numerous fields of application. For example, there are hopes that digital resources could be used to support people with memory difficulties and dementia in their everyday lives. Similarly, digital recordings could also help to preserve memories that are important to our collective memory, as in the case of witnesses to the Shoah. “The range of digital ways of remembering is becoming broader, just think of virtual and augmented realities,” adds Stephan Schwan.

At the same time, digital data also offer the possibility of manipulation: Arguably, deepfakes could not only play a role with respect to political actors and events, but also with respect to memories about our own lives. “In most cases, we don’t have enough reliable data to draw definite conclusions regarding opportunities and risks yet,” summarises Fabian Hutmacher. “Autobiographical memories are an important part of what makes us human. This makes further research in the coming years all the more important.”

In future studies, Fabian Hutmacher would like to investigate the subtleties of the interplay between recorded data and the memories stored in our minds in even greater detail. The question of how the recorded data can be used and organised in such a way that it helps people to remember their past is also particularly important to him. The Young Academy of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, to which Fabian Hutmacher was admitted at the beginning of 2024, is funding his research.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Understanding Autobiographical Memory in the Digital Age: The AMEDIA-Model by Fabian Hutmacher, Markus Appel & Stephan Schwan. Psychological Inquiry; An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory Volume 35, 2024 – Issue 2 Pages 83-105 | Published online: 17 Sep 2024

This paper is open access.

Guinea pigging and a walk down memory lane for Remembrance Day 2024

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While this isn’t one of my usual areas of interest, there is a personal element for me (more about that at the end). Some people earn their living as subjects for drug tests; it’s called guinea pigging. (There’s more here in a July 1, 2015 posting; see the first three paragraphs after the information about cross-posting and the circumstances under which I wrote the article.)

Earlier this fall (2024), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) released a documentary, Bodies for Rent, focusing on two guinea piggers. Here’s more from a September 25, 2024 CBC online article about their documentary,

Before a drug becomes available on the market, it must undergo rigorous testing and multiple levels of clinical trials to ensure its functionality and safety. Every year, thousands of people in Canada and the U.S. take part in these trials, and may receive financial compensation for doing so. 

A new documentary highlights how some volunteers are attempting to earn a living by putting their bodies on the line. Bodies for Rent follows two men who spend their days searching for eligible clinical studies, and shows the lengths they’ll go to in order to complete a trial and get paid.  

A way to make a ‘living’

Participating in a trial for a medical drug still under development involves reporting any side effects. It’s a potentially dangerous “job,” but for many volunteers, the rewards outweigh the risks. 

“I think I’ve done more than 40 studies,” says 55-year-old “Franco,” who conceals his real identity with makeup in the documentary. “I was struggling to pay my rent. And I saw an ad at the subway in Toronto, and they said, ‘Would you like to make up to $1,200 over a weekend?'”

“I usually make [$30,000] to 40,000 a year. Before, I was making, like, $18,000 working at a factory.”

Raighne, an artist living in Minneapolis, was raised by a single mother and grew up on welfare. “I’ve done about 20 or 30 drug trials,” he says in the film. “And nothing makes money like clinical studies.”

Trying to get out of debt and manage an unstable business, Raighne sometimes spends days or weeks away from home while participating in a study. “I had a friend describe it as, like, ‘drug jail,'” he says. “Because you’re trapped for a set amount of time. You’re under observation.”

From testing on prisoners to testing on the poor

Before the 1970s, most Phase I clinical trials — which look at a drug’s safety, determine the safe dosage range and see if there are any side effects — were conducted on prisoners. This allowed researchers to control and monitor every aspect of participants’ lives. 

“These studies did the most unimaginably horrible things you can think of to prisoners there,” says Carl Elliott, a University of Minnesota bioethicist featured in Bodies for Rent and the author of The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No [emphasis mine]. 

“For example, they injected inmates with herpes. They injected them with asbestos. They even tested chemical warfare agents on them.”

Public outcry and new reforms eventually made research in prisons much more difficult. “The question was, ‘Well, who do we do Phase I trials on now?’ We can’t do them on prisoners anymore,” says Elliott. 

“The answer is poor people.”

‘A financial incentive to lie’

When testing in prisons stopped and financial incentives were introduced, students and people impacted by poverty became more common test subjects. However, the promise of money at the completion of a trial has added complications. 

“When I started doing studies, I used to be very honest,” says Franco. “I [would] tell all the side effects that I was going through.” 

But after reporting severe migraines during one study, Franco says he was forced to leave — with less than 20 per cent of the promised payout. He says he was also blocked from doing further studies with that company. 

“I [was] being penalized for being honest. So, after that, I kind of learned my lesson and I decided to tone down the side effects,” he says. 

…

Once in a study, the risks persist. Franco says that after participating for nearly two months in a study worth around $20,000 to him, he received a call from the clinic saying he had inflammation in his pancreas. The study manager told him he was being removed from the study, and later, the clinic advised him to go to an emergency room immediately. 

“I hope it’s not permanent. If it’s permanent, then I’m gonna be upset,” Franco says to the camera in the documentary. “I was supposed to get around $20,000. If I don’t get the full amount because I am getting side effects, I think that it’s unfair.”

In the end, Franco was paid $9,000. 

…

The September 25, 2024 CBC online article also includes an embedded video about testing on prisoners. “Bodies for Rent” can be viewed on CBC Gem. (You do have to create an account in order to view the documentary or anything else on CBC Gem.)

A walk down memory lane for Remembrance Day 2024

When my father was in basic training for the Canadian army and preparing to fight in World War II, he participated in some kind of experiment. The details are fuzzy as he didn’t talk about it much but he did insist that some of his medical problems (specifically, the problems he had with his skin) were directly due to his experience as a guinea pig and that he should be compensated by the Canadian government. If memory serves, he felt the army had misled him into participating in the experiment. .

Papa was 15 1/2 when he lied his way into the army. Not too long after, the army realizing its mistake kept him back from the front (in some training camp in the Prairies), which is when he became a medical experiment for a time. On reaching the age of 18 the Canadian army shipped him overseas.

When he finally did try to speak up about his experience as a guinea pig it was the late 1960s and he didn’t pursue the matter for long being of the opinion that no one would pay much attention. He wasn’t wrong.

It wasn’t until details about the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study were revealed that there was serious discussion about informed consent (about 1972) in the United States. I don’t know when it became a serious discussion in Canada. Even then, some of the research from the 1970s is stomach churning as I found on stumbling across a study from that period. The researchers were conducting an experiment with a drug they knew was not going to work and that had bad side effects as was noted in the abstract. The testing took place on patients in a hospital ward.

There is still a long ways to go as evidenced by the “Bodies for Rent” documentary and Elliott’s 2024 book “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No”. I hope there are changes to how drug testing is done as a consequence of added awareness but it’s a long hard road to change.

For my father on Remembrance Day 2024: you were right; what they did to you was wrong. And still, you went and fought. Thank you.

From AI to Ancient Greece; the 2024-25 theatre season at Concordia University (Montréal, Québec)

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An October 30, 2024 Concordia University news release by Vanessa Hauguel announces the upcoming theatre season, which features a focus on how current technology and historical narratives intersect, Note: Links have been removed,

The Concordia Department of Theatre recently announced its 2024-25 season, featuring a diverse lineup of scripted and devised works. The program delves into themes relevant to today’s world, from artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfakes to the timeless human experiences and societal change.

Two upcoming productions highlight the department’s wide range of creative approaches. The first is Concord Floral by Jordan Tannahill, directed by Emma Tibaldo. The second is a devised adaptation of La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream), based on Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s classic play, directed by Peter Farbridge.

While these two productions kick off the season, additional performances are planned throughout the year until April 2025, continuing the department’s exploration of contemporary and classic themes. Directors Farbridge and Tibaldo, as well as this season’s artistic producer, Noah Drew, share the creative vision behind the shows and the thematic connections between them.

Modern ghost story

Concord Floral, by Canadian playwright Tannahill, is a modern ghost story set in an abandoned greenhouse where a group of teenagers face a buried secret. Directed by Tibaldo, a Concordia theatre graduate, 99, and artist-in-residence, it incorporates cutting-edge technology to navigate themes of guilt, adolescence and the weight of collective silence.

“Concord Floral is a play that sticks with you,” Tibaldo explains. “It speaks to growing up, discovering yourself and grappling with your accountability to others. The haunting or ‘plague’ in the play is represented through movement, lighting and sound, creating a visceral embodiment of guilt and regret.”

The play draws on The Decameron as a point of reference, adding a sense of timelessness to the teenage experience. “During our teen years, we often react or make impulsive decisions, as we’re discovering or aiming to break boundaries, and sometimes they come with lasting consequences,” Tibaldo says. “This play will resonate strongly with many, as it captures that intense, confusing period of early adulthood.”

La vida es sueño: mixing AI, deepfakes & philosophy

Meanwhile, La vida es sueño offers a reimagining of Calderón de la Barca’s work, making allusions to contemporary issues like AI deepfakes. Farbridge, MA 22, explores the philosophical themes of illusion and reality in this adaptation, examining how modern technology manipulates perception.

“At the heart of the play is the idea that our lives are shaped by false narratives, a timeless concept that feels increasingly relevant in today’s world,” Farbridge says.

“Our adaptation looks at how political systems manipulate truth on a massive scale. And the deeper question we’re asking is, if belief in what we see and hear in online media collapses, where will we land?”

Farbridge’s production will use a combination of video screens, shadow-play and physical performance to explore these themes. “We’re experimenting with form and trying to find new ways of engaging with the audience. It’s an exciting process, and unnerving too, as we won’t know the full impact of it until the public is in the theatre with us..”

A season of learning and innovating

As this season’s artistic producer, Drew sees the productions as essential learning experiences for students. “A big part of students’ education has to come from ‘stage time’ — those moments when a live audience is experiencing their work,” the associate professor says.

“These two productions offer a chance to engage with classic stories radically reinvented —Concord Floral reinterprets The Decameron, while La vida es sueño rethinks a Spanish Golden Age play. I hope it gives students the opportunity to see how historical narratives can connect with today’s issues, and grasp a deeper, more personal understanding of how history loops and cycles.”

Drew also points out the importance of technology in both productions.

“Lighting, sound and video are used all the time in many forms of art and entertainment media. What’s special about their use in theatre is that audiences get to see them in a real three-dimensional space interacting with our species’ original ‘technology’ — the human body. This liveness and immediacy can create almost-hallucinatory images that make audiences rub their eyes and wonder if the haunting moments in Concord Floral or the manipulations of truth in La vida es sueño are illusions or are really happening.”

Reflecting on the broader significance of theatre, Drew believes that storytelling plays a vital role in addressing the challenges of today’s rapidly changing world.

“We live in a time of war, climate crises, political polarization, flawed AI, and many forms of injustice,” he says. “Theatre can help us step outside of our routines, wake up, and yearn for more. It’s a way to make sense of a complicated world and spark inspiration.”

La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream) runs from November 14 to 16 [2024] in room 240 of the Molson (MB) Building, 1450 Guy Street.

Concord Floral runs November 27 to 30 [2024] at the Concordia Theatre in the Henry F. Hall (H) Building, 1455 Boulevard De Maisonneuve West.

Should you be in Montréal and able to attend the performances, you can find more details via Concordia University’s PUBLIC PERFORMANCES 2024-25 webpage.

Submit abstracts by Jan. 31 for 2025 Governance of Emerging Technologies & Science (GETS) Conference at Arizona State U

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This call for abstracts from Arizona State University (ASU) for the Twelfth Annual Governance of Emerging Technologies and Science (GETS) Conference was received via email,

GETS 2025: Call for abstracts

Save the date for the Twelfth Annual Governance of Emerging Technologies and Science Conference, taking place May 19 and 20, 2025 at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in Phoenix, AZ. The conference will consist of plenary and session presentations and discussions on regulatory, governance, legal, policy, social and ethical aspects of emerging technologies, including:

National security
Nanotechnology
Quantum computing
Autonomous vehicles
3D printing
Robotics
Synthetic biology
Gene editing
Artificial intelligence
Biotechnology

Genomics
Internet of things (IoT)
Autonomous weapon systems
Personalized medicine
Neuroscience
Digital health
Human enhancement
Telemedicine
Virtual reality
Blockchain

Call for abstracts: The co-sponsors invite submission of abstracts for proposed presentations. Submitters of abstracts need not provide a written paper, although provision will be made for posting and possible post-conference publication of papers for those who are interested.

  • Abstracts are invited for any aspect or topic relating to the governance of emerging technologies, including any of the technologies listed above
  • Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and must contain your name and email address
  • Abstracts must be submitted by Friday, January 31, 2025, to be considered

Submit your abstract

For more information contact Eric Hitchcock.

Good luck!

Modem Futura: a podcast about where technology, society and humanity converge

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An October 9, 2024 notice from Dr. Andrew Maynard, Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society At Arizona State University (ASU) about one of his latest projects, a podcast, popped into my emailbox,


 My apologies if this is a duplicate email, but I wanted to let you know
that we’ve just launched a new podcast through the ASU [Arizona State University] Future of Being Human initiative that you may be interested in:

 Modem Futura:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/modem-futura/id1771688480 [1]

 The podcast’s available on Apple Podcasts and pretty much everywhere
else you listen to your favorite podcasts. Hosted by myself and my
colleague Sean Leahy, it’s a conversational podcast that explores the
intersection between emerging technologies, society and the future in
what we hope is an authentic, nuanced and entertaining way.

 Please do check it out if you have a moment (or are an avid podcast
listener), and if you enjoy it, please do spread the word, subscribe,
and even leave us a review.

 We believe there’s a real hunger for nuanced and balanced discussions
in this area, and are expecting the podcast to have considerable reach
— but every bit helps us in achieving this.

I listened to the episode, “The Pilot – Exploring the Future of Being Human” and it was an engaging 22 mins. The two hosts, Andrew Maynard and his colleague, Dr. Sean Leahy, obviously like and get along well with each other. Here are some episode notes, from https://modem-futura.simplecast.com/episodes (click on the Pilot episode for the notes),

In this pilot episode of Modem Futura, hosts Sean Leahy and Andrew Maynard explore the intersection of technology, society, and the human experience. They discuss the origins of the podcast, the significance of the Future of Being Human Initiative, and the importance of inclusive conversations about the future. The episode highlights personal journeys into futurism, the need for diverse voices in discussions about emerging technologies, and the wonder of scientific exploration. The hosts also tease future topics and themes for upcoming episodes, emphasizing the podcast’s goal of inspiring curiosity and dialogue.

Key takeaways

The podcast aims to explore the intersection of technology and humanity.

Modems symbolize the translation of complex signals into understandable insights.

The Future of Being Human Initiative seeks to create inclusive conversations about the future.

Personal experiences shape our understanding of futurism and technology.

Everyone has valuable insights to contribute to discussions about the future.

Creating spaces for difficult conversations is essential in a polarized world.

Science and wonder can coexist in discussions about the future.

The podcast will cover a wide range of intriguing topics.

Engaging with diverse voices enriches the conversation about the future.

Sean and Andrew are excited to explore the unknown and challenge conventional thinking.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Modem Futura

01:53 The Concept of Modems and Futures

04:51 The Future of Being Human Initiative

08:41 Personal Journeys into Futurism

12:21 The Importance of Inclusive Conversations

16:24 Exploring the Intersection of Science and Wonder

19:05 Looking Ahead: Topics and Themes for Future Episodes

Modem Futura is a production of the Future of Being Human initiative at Arizona State University.

…

The Future of Being Human Initiative is describe this way on its homepage,

We are a unique community of bold, audacious and visionary thinkers who are inspired by what it might mean to be human in a technologically transformed future and who are passionate about exploring how this influences our thinking and actions in the present.

…

We create and curate ways of bringing people together to explore compelling questions and transformative ideas around the future of being human.

Some of these are intimate informal hangouts, others are cutting edge online discussions. And some are high profile public events and even retreats.

We are even developing educational opportunities unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else!

All of these are driven by a passion to bring together audacious, original and passionate thinkers to push the boundaries of how we imagine the future of being human in a technologically complex world, and how this can inform our ideas, aspirations, and actions, in the present.

…

As a community we are captivated andinspired by compelling questions around the how emerging technologies may challenge and transform what it means to be human.

Questions like:

  • Will we live our future lives in a computer simulation?
  • Will aging one day become a thing of the past?
  • Will artificial intelligence upend our notions of personhood and autonomy?
  • Could cryopreservation transform how we think about the future?
  • What will life in a post-scarcity future look like?
  • Will we be able to design and create synthetic consciousness in the future?
  • How will quantum computing change our understanding of ourselves and what is possible?
  • How could atomically precise manufacturing transform our lives?
  • Will we be able to upload our memories and personalities to the cloud in the future?
  • How will advanced technologies transform the future of travel?
  • Could advanced gene editing allow us to radically rethink our biological selves?
  • How do we successfully navigate Advanced Technology Transitions?
  • Is longtermism a viable approach to designing the future?
  • Will future technologies radically catalyze our creative potential?

…

Enjoy!

Biobots (also known as biohybrid robots) occupy a third state between life and death?

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I got a bit of a jolt from this September 12, 2024 essay by Peter A Noble, affiliate professor of microbiology at the University of Washington, and Alex Pozhitkov, senior technical lead of bioinformatics, Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at City of Hope, for The Conversation (h/t Sept. 12, 2024 item on phys.org), Note: Links have been removed,

Life and death are traditionally viewed as opposites. But the emergence of new multicellular life-forms from the cells of a dead organism introduces a “third state” that lies beyond the traditional boundaries of life and death.

Usually, scientists consider death to be the irreversible halt of functioning of an organism as a whole. However, practices such as organ donation highlight how organs, tissues and cells can continue to function even after an organism’s demise. This resilience raises the question: What mechanisms allow certain cells to keep working after an organism has died?

We are researchers who investigate what happens within organisms after they die. In our recently published review, we describe how certain cells – when provided with nutrients, oxygen, bioelectricity or biochemical cues – have the capacity to transform into multicellular organisms with new functions after death.

Life, death and emergence of something new

The third state challenges how scientists typically understand cell behavior. While caterpillars metamorphosing into butterflies, or tadpoles evolving into frogs, may be familiar developmental transformations, there are few instances where organisms change in ways that are not predetermined. Tumors, organoids and cell lines that can indefinitely divide in a petri dish, like HeLa cells [cervical cancer cells taken from Henrietta Lacks without her knowledge], are not considered part of the third state because they do not develop new functions.

However, researchers found that skin cells extracted from deceased frog embryos were able to adapt to the new conditions of a petri dish in a lab, spontaneously reorganizing into multicellular organisms called xenobots [emphasis mine]. These organisms exhibited behaviors that extend far beyond their original biological roles. Specifically, these xenobots use their cilia – small, hair-like structures – to navigate and move through their surroundings, whereas in a living frog embryo, cilia are typically used to move mucus.

Xenobots are also able to perform kinematic self-replication, meaning they can physically replicate their structure and function without growing. This differs from more common replication processes that involve growth within or on the organism’s body.

Researchers have also found that solitary human lung cells can self-assemble into miniature multicellular organisms that can move around. These anthrobots [emphasis mine] behave and are structured in new ways. They are not only able to navigate their surroundings but also repair both themselves and injured neuron cells placed nearby.

Taken together, these findings demonstrate the inherent plasticity of cellular systems and challenge the idea that cells and organisms can evolve only in predetermined ways. The third state suggests that organismal death may play a significant role in how life transforms over time.

…

I had not realized that xenobots are derived from dead frog embryos something I missed when mentioning or featuring them in previous stories, the latest in a September 13, 2024 posting, which also mentions anthrobots. Previous stories were published in a June 21, 2021 posting about xenobots 2.0 and their ability to move and a June 8, 2022 posting about their ability to reproduce. Thank you to the authors for relieving me of some of my ignorance.

For some reason I was expecting mention, brief or otherwise, of ethical or social implications but the authors offered this instead, from their September 12, 2024 essay, Note: Links have been removed,

Implications for biology and medicine

The third state not only offers new insights into the adaptability of cells. It also offers prospects for new treatments.

For example, anthrobots could be sourced from an individual’s living tissue to deliver drugs without triggering an unwanted immune response. Engineered anthrobots injected into the body could potentially dissolve arterial plaque in atherosclerosis patients and remove excess mucus in cystic fibrosis patients.

Importantly, these multicellular organisms have a finite life span, naturally degrading after four to six weeks. This “kill switch” prevents the growth of potentially invasive cells.

A better understanding of how some cells continue to function and metamorphose into multicellular entities some time after an organism’s demise holds promise for advancing personalized and preventive medicine.

I look forward to hearing about the third state and about any ethical or social issues that may arise from it.