Presented at
The Eleventh HOPE (2016),
July 22, 2016, 7 p.m.
(60 minutes).
History is littered with techno-utopian visions, particularly those of powerful American industrialists. Henry Ford's Fordlandia, Walt Disney's Epcot, Peter Thiel's Seasteading. Technologies play a recurring role in inspiring and enabling these attempts to forge or impose new governmental and/or social relations. Techno-utopian dreams are once again emerging in the form of sensor and data-driven "smart" cities and decentralized, blockchain-based organizations. What are the similarities and differences between techno-utopian visions over time? What role does technology play in forming and operationalizing these visions? Who ultimately defines what a perfect society is? How does this determine whether the techno-utopian visions end up as dreams or nightmares?
Presenters:
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Burcu Baykurt
Burcu Baykurt is a doctoral student at Columbia University whose research interests are in the intersection of cultural sociology, urban policy, and media studies. Her dissertation examines the smart city experiments in U.S. cities, and how they are affecting civic culture, local politics, and urban inequality. Before coming to Columbia, she studied political communications at Goldsmiths, University of London and completed her MA in media, culture, and communication at New York University.
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James Cropcho
James Cropcho has been building software applications - and companies around those applications - for over a decade. He is the creator of the MongoDB schema analyzer Variety, which was featured on the official MongoDB blog in 2012. He was a member of the two-person team which uncovered the first wide-scale breach of the secret ballot in American history, and has been featured on National Public Radio and BBC News. Last spring, James designed and taught the graduate course "Web Development with Open Data" at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program.
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Benjamin Dean
Benjamin Dean is a fellow for cyber-security and Internet governance at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). An economist by training, his research focuses on the economics of information, privacy, and data security. Benjamin worked on technology policy for three years in Paris, France, at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). An Australian national, he has lived and worked in China, India, Bhutan, France, Venezuela, and the United States.
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