What is man? Kant and the digital transformation | October 7, 2024
What is Man? Kant and the Digital Transformation | October 7, 2024
Monday, October 7, 2024, 6:30 p.m.
Reading Room of the Vienna City Library in the City Hall
About the Event
Now, in the age of "artificial intelligence," we must abandon our familiar positions. We have reached a point where the world can only be explained in terms of digital code, and human individuals could be instrumentalized as insignificant data objects, reduced to commercial and political interests.
The philosopher Immanuel Kant defined enlightenment as "man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity," but also as "the maxim to think for oneself at all times." This definition, in particular, is gaining relevance in the current digital developments. Are we subject to "digital immaturity" today, and can the call to think for oneself herald a "digital enlightenment"?
The discussion will explore, among other things, how digital transformation can be shaped as a co-evolution of humans and machines. It will also address how to distinguish between narrative, reality, and fiction, and the fact that Kant's question can only be answered by humans.
Program
Panelists: Katja Mayer, sociologist, Elise Richter Fellow at the Institute for Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna, and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Social Innovation
Peter Knees, computer scientist, UNESCO Chair for Digital Humanism, TU Vienna
Peter Reichl, computer scientist and philosopher, Faculty of Informatics, University of Vienna, VRVis Center for Visualization and Virtual Reality, RDÖ Council for Digital Ecology, Berlin
Moderators: Anita Eichinger, Director of the Vienna City Library
Wolfgang Renner, Social City Academy