Professorial Lecture by Professor Luciano Floridi
The Fourth Revolution: The impact of Information Technology on our lives. Professorial Lecture by Professor Luciano Floridi
When
Tuesday 23 March
18.30 for 19.00
Where
Fielder Centre
Hatfield Avenue
Hatfield Business Park
Hatfield
AL10 9TP
Synopsis
Who are we? And what is our role in the universe? IT is radically changing not only how we deal with the world and make sense of it, or interact with each other, but also how we look at ourselves and understand our own existence and responsibilities. In this lecture, Professor Floridi will discuss such impact of IT on our lives and on our self-understanding. He will outline his belief that IT is bringing about a fourth revolution, in the long process of reassessment of humanity’s fundamental nature and role in the universe.
We are not immobile, at the centre of the universe (Copernican revolution); we are not unnaturally distinct and different from the rest of the animal world (Darwinian revolution); and we are far from being entirely transparent to ourselves (Freudian revolution). IT is now making us realise that we are not disconnected entities, but informational organisms (inforgs), who share with other kinds of agents a global environment, ultimately made of information, the infosphere (Turing revolution). In light of this Professor Floridi argues that we should expand our ecological and ethical approach to both natural and man-made realities, in order to cope successfully with the new moral challenges posed by IT.
About Professor Luciano Floridi
Luciano Floridi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire, where he holds the Research Chair in Philosophy of Information and the UNESCO Chair in Information and Computer Ethics, and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford. He is the founder and director of the Oxford University Information Ethics Research Group, and best known for his research on the philosophy of information and on information ethics. He is currently President of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy. In 2009, he became the first philosopher to be appointed Gauss Professor by the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen and was awarded the Barwise Medal by the American Philosophical Association. In the same year Luciano was also elected Fellow of the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour (AISB). According to the Encyclopaedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, Luciano is one of Italy's most influential thinkers in the area of philosophy of science, technology, and ethics. Luciano is Editor-in-Chief of Philosophy & Technology, the new international journal to be launched by Springer in 2011.
More Information and Booking
This is a free public lecture to book a place please contact Julie Huckle, Events Manger
+44 (0)1707 284004
j.a.huckle@herts.ac.uk