Society Archives - Page 2 of 3

June 17, 2022June 17, 2022

The Ukrainian President as a Hologram

“Leia in ‘Star Wars’, who as a hologram delivers a message, Darth Vader, who forges plans with the imperator even though they are far apart from each other, William Riker in ‘Star Trek’, who moves on the holodeck through artificial landscapes, Major in ‘Ghost in the Shell’, who walks through a city while fish are swimming in the air next to her, Officer K in ‘Blade Runner 2049’, who lives together with a holographic assistant and meets holographic dancers and singers (Frank Sinatra under glass and Elvis Presley on stage) – fictional holograms make an appearance in all these instances.” (Oliver Bendel, “Hologram Girl“, 2018) According to the Guardian, Volodymyr Zelenskiy referenced Star Wars and the second world war as he appeared as a hologram (or pseudo-hologram) at a conference in Paris to seek aid from big tech companies. “He told a crowd of hundreds at the VivaTech trade show that he was offering technology firms a unique chance to rebuild Ukraine as a fully digital democracy.” (Guardian, June 17, 2022) The British newspaper quotes him as saying: “It’s unusual for presidents or heads of government to use a hologram to address people but this is not the only aspect of Star Wars that we are putting into practice” (Guardian, June 17, 2022). The Ukrainian president is not only following in the footsteps of Leila, but also of ABBA, who are currently causing a sensation with their avatars at concerts in London.

December 7, 2021December 7, 2021

Human and Animal Enhancement in the Context of Architecture

The 17th International Architecture Exhibition – the entire series, including the art section, is known as La Biennale di Venezia – ran from 22 May to 21 November 2021, with the Salon Suisse curated by architect and publicist Evelyn Steiner. On 18 November 2021, the event “Jethro Knights, Armor Guyver, and Mutant X: How transhumanists challenge architecture” took place. Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel gave a talk on “Human and animal enhancement in the context of architecture”, followed by a discussion with Mike Schaffner (a Swiss cyborg) and Prof. Dr. Georg Vrachliotis (an architect at TU Delft). First, the information and machine ethicist clarified key terms such as “human enhancement”, “animal enhancement”, “biohacking”, “bodyhacking”, “cyborg”, and “transhumanism”. He also brought in his own terms “robot enhancement” and “reversed cyborg” or “inverted cyborg”. He then presented examples of human enhancement and animal enhancement, including in the context of architecture: cats with chips getting into the house, humans with chips bringing the smart home to adaptations, animals and humans with chips and transmitters detected in time in traffic, and enhanced and improved organisms that can live on alien planets. He concluded by offering ethical considerations. He was open to the idea of cyborgs and critical of the transhumanism movement. The booklet on Salon Suisse is available here.

August 19, 2021August 19, 2021

Don’t Scan Our Phones

The U.S. civil liberties organization Electronic Frontier Foundation has launched a petition titled “Don’t Scan Our Phones”. The background is Apple’s plan to search users’ phones for photos that show child abuse or are the result of child abuse. In doing so, the company is going even further than Microsoft, which scours the cloud for such material. On its website, the organization writes: “Apple has abandoned its once-famous commitment to security and privacy. The next version of iOS will contain software that scans users’ photos and messages. Under pressure from U.S. law enforcement, Apple has put a backdoor into their encryption system. Sign our petition and tell Apple to stop its plan to scan our phones. Users need to speak up say this violation of our privacy is wrong.” (Website Electronic Frontier Foundation) More information via act.eff.org/action/tell-apple-don-t-scan-our-phones.

June 17, 2021June 17, 2021

Jethro Knights in Venice

The Salon Suisse at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice presents its program under the title “Bodily Encounters”. Salonnière is Evelyn Steiner, under assistance of Viviane Ehrensberger. “Bodily Encounters revolves around the fundamental Relationships between the body and architecture: when space is being experienced, the body serves as the most important system of orientation and measurement.” (Booklet Salon Suisse) On November 18, 2021, Palazzo Trevisan will host the event “JETHRO KNIGHTS, ARMOR GUYVER, AND MUTANT X: HOW TRANSHUMANISTS CHALLENGE ARCHITECTURE”. In the booklet you can read: “Body hacking means invasive or non-invasive intervention in the human body for the purposes of human enhancement or transhumanism. Implanted chips and technical enhancements, for instance, enable the human senses to be extended or purposefully controlled. This evening, the focus is on physical and mental transformation and its impact on architecture. How does architecture respond to members of the human species who take the course of evolution into their own hands? For example, the human sensorium could be adapted to external influences and optimised in such a way that construction in compliance with noise regulations or adherence to climate-related requirements and disability standards would become obsolete. After an introduction to transhumanism by Professor of Information Ethics and Machine Ethics Oliver Bendel, Georg Vrachliotis, Professor of Architectural Theory, and the body hacker Mike Schaffner, will discuss various scenarios and leave room for some surprises.” (Booklet Salon Suisse) You can download the booklet with further information about the Salon Suisse program here.

June 10, 2021July 14, 2021

Chips, Devices, and Machines within Humans

In September 2021, the book “Mensch. Maschine. Kommunikation.” will be published. It is edited by Sarah Brommer and Christa Dürscheid. One chapter (by Oliver Bendel) is in English and is entitled “Chips, Devices, and Machines within Humans: Bodyhacking as Movement, Enhancement, and Adaptation”. From the abstract: “This contribution about bodyhacking as movement, enhancement, and adaptation has three purposes. First, it aims to clarify terms in this field or to draw attention to the fact that they are used differently. Second, it wants to shed light on and explore a phenomenon that has a history but is also making history at the moment. Third, it wants to bring possible fields of application into play which remain unexplored, or which lie in the future. Literature analysis and own considerations and conclusions are used. The article first defines and distinguishes ‘biohacking’, ‘bodyhacking’, ‘human enhancement’, ‘animal enhancement’, ‘cyborg’, and ‘transhumanism’. It then addresses selected examples of bodyhacking. The author lists typical and known applications, ordered by their different objectives. He discusses actual and potential developments, for example as a response to potential crises and disasters (including pandemics) and in the context of satellites and foreign planets. On this basis, a brief philosophical discourse takes place leading to a summary and outlook. It turns out that bodyhacking brings opportunities with it, especially for the self-determined person, who takes his or her own body as a starting point and deals responsibly with the potentials. In this way, it can break with outdated conventions and create a new view of the body and its relationship with the environment. Moreover, it promises solutions to present and future problems. Of course, it also harbours moral and health risks.” The book is available for pre-order now. More information via www.narr.de/mensch-maschine-kommunikation-18471-1/.

May 29, 2021May 29, 2021

The Digger Finger

Radhen Patel, a postdoc in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and his co-authors Rui Ouyang, Branden Romero, and Edward Adelson presented a sharp-tipped robot finger equipped with tactile sensing to meet the challenge of identifying buried objects. “In experiments, the aptly named Digger Finger was able to dig through granular media such as sand and rice, and it correctly sensed the shapes of submerged items it encountered. The researchers say the robot might one day perform various subterranean duties, such as finding buried cables or disarming buried bombs.” (MIT News, 26 May 2021) The article, titled “Digger Finger: GelSight Tactile Sensor forObject Identification Inside Granular Media,” can be accessed at arxiv.org/pdf/2102.10230.pdf.

December 10, 2020December 10, 2020

A Digital Supermodel

Cameron-James Wilson, 31, founded an agency for digital models in London in 2019, The Diigitals. He is the creator of the digital supermodel Shudu. “Since baffling the fashion and modeling world at large, he’s added virtuals Galaxia, Brenn, Dagny, Koffi, Margot, and Zhi to the Gram family.” (Virtual Humans, 4 May 2020) Galaxia is an alien model and has long, pointed ears and a long neck. Koffi is a male virtual influencer with a muscle-rich body, which he likes to show in sparse clothing. Shudu is the most famous avatar of the agency. At this year’s digital fashion shows in Paris and Milan, a number of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) models and avatars presented the new looks. Shudu was not there, which the creator explains in a SPIEGEL interview by the fact that it is still difficult to animate her to move like a real person. At the end Barbara Markert asks him what Shudu means to him. He answers: “It may sound crazy, but I feel a responsibility for this woman and the community she represents.” (SPIEGEL, 9 December 2020, own translation)

December 2, 2020December 2, 2020

Young Girls could Kill Autonomous Driving

On behalf of Prof. Dr. Oliver Bendel, M. Hashem Birahjakli investigated possible attacks on self-driving cars as part of his final thesis in 2020. The supervisor was Safak Korkut. In the chapter “Attacking Scenarios on Sensors” the student divided into invasive attacks and non-invasive attacks. In the section on invasive attacks he dealt with different sensors and examined possible attacks based on scenarios: vision-based cameras (chewing gum, lipstick, and nail polish; spraying paint; transparent colored foil; concave lenses), radar (chaff, countermeasure), lidar (mirror and reflective objects; dust; face powder), inertial measuring unit (magnet), and sonar (carrot and stick; duct tape). In the section on non-invasive attacks he dealt with fake traffic signs, invisible or fake obstacles, and roadside attacks. The results of the work suggest that every 14-year-old girl could disable a self-driving car. So far, hacking has been seen as the greatest threat to autonomous driving. But while not everyone can hack, almost everyone carries chewing gum or lipstick. The automotive industry should consider this threat seriously.

November 13, 2020November 13, 2020

Gates and Jones Ask Big Questions

Bill Gates will start his own series of podcasts on 16 November 2020. The title is “Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions”. In a YouTube video (as well as in a description of the video) he and his partner explain what it’s all about. According to the description, the podcasts pair “Bill Gates with actress and writer Rashida Jones to tackle some of the biggest questions facing us today”: “Is it too late to solve climate change? Does everybody lie? Is inequality inevitable? Join them for deep dives into these questions” (YouTube, 12 November 2020). The podcasts will be available on Apple Podcasts and other services. Gates plans to give an overview on his own blog GatesNotes of all the episodes that have run so far, not to forget a transcript of each episode. Certainly there will also be statements on robotics and artificial intelligence – at least some episodes will deal with the modern workplace. Can one hope to get big answers to big questions? The future will show.