Science Facts/Fictions (SFF): Science Fiction, Robotics Engineering and Policy
SFF invites discussion on the interchange between AI, robot science, and science fiction.
Science Facts/Fictions (SFF): Science Fiction, Robotics Engineering and Policy
DIAS Seminar Room - SDU
November 15, 2024
SFF invites discussion on the interchange between AI, robot science, and science fiction.
SFF will investigate the practicality of speculative science fiction as thought experiments of potential futures and future technologies, but also of the way in which engineering is influenced by science fiction, consciously or unconsciously. In this, SFF also asks: to what extent is there a need to proactively influence legislation based on imagined technology instead of reactively addressing legal problems connected to new technology that has already been introduced?
Deadline for registration: November 8. Please register here: https://event.sdu.dk/sff
Event is sponsored by Odense Robotics, DIAS and the Center for Culture and Technology at SDU.
Program - November 15, 2024
9.15 – 9.20: Welcome – Simon Møberg Torp, Dean of Humanities and Sten Rynning, Director of the Danish Institute of Advanced Study
9.20 – 9.30: Introduction. Rune Graulund and Erik Granly (Department of Culture and Language), Norbert Krüger (SDU Robotics)
9.30 - 10.30: Keynote 1 - Professor Adam Roberts, Royal Holloway, University of London: "Robots, Slaves and Orphans"
10.30 – 11.00: Coffee Break
11.00 – 12.00: Science Fiction Inspiring Technical Development
- Anna Nadibaidze (SDU) “Visual portrayals of weaponised AI: How popular is Western pop culture?"
- Kasper Opstrup (KU): “Inner Paths to Outer Space”
- Erik Granly Jensen (SDU): “In the Zone. H.G. Wells on Time and Technology”
12.00 – 12.45: Lunch
12.45 – 1.45: Science and Technology Inspiring Science Fiction
- Jonas Jørgensen (SDU): “Soft Robot Aesthetics – Sensuous Speculations on Future Human-Robot Engagements”
- Robert Ladig (SDU): “From Alternative Post-Apocalypse to Dystopian Cyberpunk Fantasy: Aerial Manipulation in Games Media”
- Christian Schlette (SDU): “Large Structure Production: Its current status and future”
1.45 – 2.45: Keynote 2 – Niels Jul Jacobsen, CEO Capra Robotics: “How a space opera spawned a generation of roboticists”
2.45 – 3.45: Panel – Industry Visions for the Near and Far Future
- Thor Ellegaard Hansen (Odense Kommune): "Odense: The City of the Future, The City of Robots. A talk on City Development in the Space Between Reality, Ambition and Science Fiction."
- Ole Georg Andersen (Odense Robotics): Emerging robot technologies
- Representative from Universal robot (to be confirmed)
Background
The first employee of Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin was the science fiction writer Neal Stephenson, just as the musician and artist Laurie Anderson was invited to be the first artist in residence at NASA. Similarly, Elon Musk has confirmed that the direct inspiration for SpaceX and the ultimate goal of colonizing Mars has been directly inspired by science fiction and Tesla’s Cybertruck has been marketed as a car “that looks like the future”, and has the distinct look (and name) of 1980ies cyberpunk cinema. In this, science fiction becomes fact, if not yet in human colonization of Mars, then at least in Space 2.0. as the manner in which the tech industry envisions and designs the way in which we communicate and interact, shop and drive.
Keynotes
Professor Adam Roberts is an Arthur C. Clark Award nominee, the author of a range of science fiction novels and a range of academic monographs, including Science Fiction (2005) and The History of Science Fiction (2016).
Niels Jul Jacobsen is the CEO of Capra Robotics. He has worked in industrial robotics and automation for more than 30 years. He is the founding father of Mobile Industrial Robots (MIR) and was on the board of Universal Robots from 2008-2015.