The Wilson Center invited CSH PostDoc Hannah Metzler to participate in an online event discussing digital humanism and how to put humans at the center of emerging tech on April 20, 2022.
The other panelists were
- Hannes Werthner, co-founder of the Digital Humanism Initiative
- Allison Stanger, professor at Middlebury College
- Michael Stampfer, managing director of the vienna science and technology fund
- Elizabeth M. H. Newbury, acting director of the Science and Technology Innovation Program
Abstract:
Recent years have seen a growing backlash against technology companies, brought on by the rise of concerns around privacy, disinformation and surveillance. In part, this “techlash” is a consequence of innovation that is constantly trying to build faster, better, and stronger than competitors, forgetting a key stakeholder in the process: people. A growing number of researchers and advocates are turning to digital humanism as a framework to consider the long-term effects on societies and human welfare, putting issues such as democracy and inclusion first before the application of technology.
The Digital Humanism Initiative, founded in 2019 in Vienna, attempts to foster technologies in accordance with human values and needs, instead of allowing technologies to shape humans. Central to these considerations are how human values, such as agency, democracy and sovereignty, are vital to the practice.
How can the U.S. and Europe advance inclusive and democratic technologies where people are at the center of the conversation? Join us for a conversation on the prospects for innovation and technology guided by digital humanism.