Yesterday, December 4, 2009, the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies convened an intimate but ambitious seminar to explore the “Biopolitics of Popular Culture.” We heard from a remarkable collection of speakers, including movie directors, screenwriters, science fiction authors, game designers, culture critics, and entrepreneurs.
If you weren’t able to be there, I hope you were among the tens of thousands of people who watched the live-stream of the event, coordinated by TechZulu. All of the talks were videotaped, and within a few weeks we expect to have them posted online.
I gave a brief opening presentation on the long history of human culture’s warning messages to those who might seek too much knowledge, exhibit undue curiosity, or aim too high, like poor Icarus.
Dr. James Hughes, executive director of the IEET, then considered the question, “Is There a Pro-Mutant Trend in Popular Culture?” and surprised himself with the results of his study that suggests the answer is, unfortunately, “No, there is not.”
Alex Lightman, executive director of Humanity Plus, offered a stimulating argument that nations with the most robust science fiction culture also tend to have the most successful innovation economies.
Kristi Scott, one of our dynamic IEET interns, reviewed the recent history of science fiction movies, specifically examining the impact of dystopic depictions.
Next, we heard a fascinating presentation from Richard Eskow, a blogger for the Huffington Post, who challenged the transhumanist and technoprogressive community to carefully assess the marketing messages we send—sometimes inadvertently—in the words we choose to describe our aspirations and our positions.
P.J. Manney, a writer for television and film, described “How Yucky Got Yummy: The Evolution of Empathy in SF” (which correlates nicely with my recent piece on “Getting Used to Hideousness”).
IEET Fellow Linda Glenn and her sister Jeanann Boyce gave the audience an informative report on some of the serious legal issues being raised by the prospect of virtually-real personalities, avatars, enhanced humans, cyborgs, and other emerging variations on personhood.
After lunch, we enjoyed a panel discussion on “Immersion: The Coming Fusion of Life and Entertainment” organized by IEET Fellow Natasha Vita-More, and featuring Jeannie Novak, the founder of Indiespace, Matthew Patrick, a director of feature films and TV movies, and Michael Masucci, a writer, producer, director, photographer, editor, and musician.
IEET intern Edward Miller took a rigorous look at what he calls “the ecology of science fiction” and suggested that we need much more emphasis on realistic depictions of societies that fall somewhere between Utopia and Dystopia.
Professor Michael LaTorra, a member of the IEET’s Board of Directors, applied the lessons from one of Arthur C. Clarke’s classic novels as a way of exploring the contrast in science fiction between urban and rural values.
Also taking a look back to see where we might be going, comic book historian Jess Nevins reviewed the repeated examples of heroes and superheroes in pulp culture who have been obligated to give up something significant in exchange for the use of their powers.
Best-selling author and raconteur extraordinaire David Brin then captivated the audience with an incisive critique of myth-making in modern (and pre-modern) popular fiction. If you only get to see one of our seminar talks online, make it this one.
Brian Cross, inventor of the role-playing game Eclipse Phase described the difficult task of imbuing a product designed for a mass audience with explicitly transhumanist concepts.
“Will Mind-Controlled, Genetically-Engineered Sexbots Want to Play Videogames?” was the provocative question posed by Annalee Newitz, editor of i09, who proposed the intriguing possibility that popular culture as we know it today may disappear in the relatively near future.
Finally, IEET Senior Fellow Jamais Cascio wrapped things up by predicting that the transhuman world of a few decades from now will most likely appear to its inhabitants as rather banal. Just as we in 2009 take for granted the comparatively miraculous technologies and social media that envelop us—things that might astonish a time traveler from just fifty years ago—so will the residents of 2059 take a ho-hum approach to their reality.
It was an amazing day of presentations, conversations, synergies, and insights. We are grateful to all the speakers and participants who made it such a memorable and productive event.
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