[acc-cca-l] Decimal Lab Speakers Series, Toronto, Nov 14, 5:30-7:30

[Isabel Pedersen]

Dear CCA colleagues,

Just a reminder, this is tomorrow night!
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The Decimal Lab in partnership with the UOIT Digital Life Research Group and FSSH welcomes the public to its second Speakers Series, an Evening of Technocultural Questions at CSI Toronto

Speakers

1. Andrea Slane, PhD
"Protecting Vulnerable Humans in the Emerging Era of Robot Companions"

Popular culture is filled with examples of companion robots that not only embody the best of human qualities, but indeed exceed them:  they are unflappably loyal, steadfast, trustworthy, and brave; they are often charming, sweet, cute.  Companion robots for the consumer market are an emerging technology that has not yet lived up to the fantasy.  However, other home and personal use technologies are becoming more commonplace: digital assistants, like Amazon's voice-oriented Alexa, and text-based chatbots, like Mitsuko and Replika, are sure to converge to eventually produce a companion robot for home use that is capable of sustained, personalized, AI-powered conversation.  What's missing from this future is a clear picture of how the various functions that home-use personal robots can perform to be monetized.  While consumer-grade robots are being marketed according to projections of their eventual capabilities, the missing business models make it difficult to ensure that the interests of users who take up the promise of robot companionship will be protected.  Drawing on existing models for assigning responsibility for the well-being of vulnerable people, this talk considers how to protect users when robots - or robot platform proprietors -- become personal information custodians, fiduciaries, or confidentes.
Bio: http://socialscienceandhumanities.uoit.ca/research/researcher-profiles/dr.-andrea-slane.php

2. Steven Downing, PhD
"Pains of imprisonment in a "lock em' up" video game: exploring peacemaking discourse through gaming"

An extremely limited body of literature has considered video game portrayals of the prison experience. This inquiry examines the game Prison Architect, with respect to how its interactive experience has the potential simultaneously portray and problematize pains of imprisonment, and how these portrayals may prompt a public discourse surrounding prison, particularly from a peacemaking perspective, even if the game itself does not incorporate concepts such as restorative justice.  Drawing from game developer video diaries, this inquiry links pains of imprisonment in Prison Architect to the broader societal discourse surrounding rationales for incarceration (i.e., retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation) and considers implications for prison themed games, particularly those such as simulation games that afford players a broad degree of freedom, as vehicles through which to engage the public in discourse about prison that can adopt a more human-centered, peace-oriented approach.
Bio: http://socialscienceandhumanities.uoit.ca/research/researcher-profiles/dr.-steven-downing.php

Date: November 14, 2018
Time: 5:30-7:30PM
Place: Toronto, Centre for Social Innovation, 192 Spadina Ave. ground floor Atrium (new building)
https://goo.gl/maps/m3YjQjE1jBv
Rsvp: free and open to the public (decimal.lab.uoit at gmail.com) Let us know if you are coming so we can order cookies. Please circulate this invitation!
Host and Moderator: Isabel Pedersen, PhD, Decimal Lab Director

Isabel Pedersen, PhD
Canada Research Chair in Digital Life, Media, and Culture Director of Decimal: Digital Culture and Media Lab
Faculty of Social Science and Humanities
University of Ontario Institute of Technology Oshawa | Toronto Canada

UOIT is proud to acknowledge the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation. We are situated on the Traditional Territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation which includes Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi.
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