Technobiophilia

Updated: Audio and Slides from The Future of Cyberspace - Professorial Lecture, DMU, 26/4/12 #Technobiophilia

Update 29/5/12: I've recorded audio over the slides Right-click to download Sue Thomas The Future of Cyberspace 2012 with audio (thanks to everyone who helped me test it)

Many thanks to everyone who came to my Professorial Lecture last night. We had good conversations afterwards, and there were some interesting comments on Twitter too - see #technobiophilia

I've uploaded the slides here, and audio will follow soon. I've added two more slides at the end with some links I used in the lecture plus a brief bibliography for those interested in finding out more about biophilia.

Technobiophilia: Sue Thomas, The Future of Cyberspace, Professorial Lecture, De Montfort University, 26 April 2012

View more presentations from Sue Thomas

Your Home in Cyberspace

I'll be talking about technobiophilia at The Home and the World Creative Summit for Artists and Other Thinkers, 19-21 June 2012, at Dartington Hall in Devon, England.

It's a chance to think about how we feel at home in cyberspace and will probably be more of a brainstorm than a straight presentation. #thehomeandtheworld

Online booking available for my rescheduled Professorial Lecture

Online booking is now available for my rescheduled Professorial Lecture at 6.00pm on Thursday 26th April 2012. Admission is free and booking is here.

My Professorial Lecture: new date Thursday 26 April 2012

I now have a new date for my Professorial Lecture, postponed from last November. It will take place at 6pm on Thursday 26 April 2012. Tea and coffee are usually available from about 5.30, the lecture lasts an hour, and then refreshments are provided afterwards.

People who had booked for the previous date have, I think, already been re-invited. It's not showing on the DMU website yet but you can watch for it here or email them. The title and abstract are the same:

The Future of Cyberspace

The act of entering cyberspace was, along with the entering of outer space, one of the most profound experiences of the twentieth century. In 1969, humans landed first ‘on’ the moon (July), and then ‘in’ cyberspace (September) with the connection of the first two nodes of the internet. Today the mountains of the Moon remain neglected and unexplored, but cyberspace has evolved into a deeply familiar habitat whose geography has been shaped by those who built and used it. This lecture will explore the evolution of the landscape of cyberspace from its creation as an unpopulated wilderness through its exploration, colonisation, cultivation, settlement and growth, and offers some predictions for the future of this most exotic place.

 

UCLA and IFTF, California, January 2012

Next month I'll be in California to do further research on my book and give two talks. The first, on 'Nature and Cyberspace', is at the Technology, Knowledge and Society Conference at UCLA 16-18th January. The second is on 'Amplification and Biophilia in a Networked World' at the Institute for the Future, Palo Alto, on 24th January. It will be a special pleasure to go back to IFTF, where I gave a talk a few years ago. I'll also be doing some research during the trip, and very much hope to visit the new Kleinrock Internet History Center at UCLA, located in the room which hosted the very first ARPANET node. 

Postponement of my Professorial Lecture

My Professorial Lecture has been postponed. The date, 30th November, was set months ago but now it clashes with possible nationwide industrial action. I feel this creates too many conflicts and complications so would prefer to find a different date. We are looking for an alternative some time in Spring 2012, and meanwhile I'd like to thank everyone who signed up and hope very much you'll be able to make it on the alternative date. I really appreciate your interest in the talk, and will announce the new date as soon as it's decided.

 

Professorial Lecture: The Future of Cyberspace 30/11/11

Every professor is asked at some point to give a Professorial Lecture. I've been invited to present mine on the evening of 30th November 2011. I'm really looking forward to it and I'd like to extend a warm welcome to all friends and colleagues. Admission is free but you need to register via this page. 

The Future of Cyberspace

The act of entering cyberspace was, along with the entering of outer space, one of the most profound experiences of the twentieth century. In 1969, humans landed first ‘on’ the moon (July), and then ‘in’ cyberspace (September) with the connection of the first two nodes of the internet. Today the mountains of the Moon remain neglected and unexplored, but cyberspace has evolved into a deeply familiar habitat whose geography has been shaped by those who built and used it. This lecture will explore the evolution of the landscape of cyberspace from its creation as an unpopulated wilderness through its exploration, colonisation, cultivation, settlement and growth, and offers some predictions for the future of this most exotic place.

Video: Why do geeks go camping? my talk at FutureEverything 2011 #futr

Why Do Geeks Go Camping? FOO And Other Brushes With Nature from FutureEverything on Vimeo.

Audio: I fell into LambdaMOO at #VirtualFutures

Warwick Knowledge Centre have put the audio of my talk online and it can be downloaded here. Sue_thomas_-_virtual_futures_2011 (1)

And here's a very nice photo of my talk by the talented photographer Prof Andy Miah!

A few more snippets from FutureEverything

I had some interesting responses to my talk 'Why do geeks go camping?'  Jag Goraya told me about Geeks in the Peaks, a weekend geek camping event in the English Peak District. He wrote "We're fully subscribed this time round, but it usually happens twice a year (May/June and early September), doubling the opportunity for enjoying some geeky camping. :-)" 

 

Lisa Barron wrote about it alongside Bill Thompson's talk in Alt Digital, and Claire Welsby of LIfe|Art|Us has a very enjoyable blog post with an iPad portrait of Howard Rheingold working in his garden. I followed the link to Flickr, which led to this movie of the process.  

FutureEverything: Why do geeks go camping? slides and interviews from #futr

I really enjoyed speaking at FutureEverything in Manchester last week and, indeed, met quite a few UK geeks who go camping :) Thanks very much to Imran Ali, who invited me, and to Drew Hemment, the magician who has made this impressive event happen annually for 16 years in a row.

I believe there will be a filmed interview available soon but for now here are links to an audio interview and a pdf of my slides.

Interview with Sue Thomas about her talk 'Why Do Geeks Go Camping?' by Future_Everything

Why do geeks go camping? FutureEverything 2011

View more presentations from Sue Thomas

Virtual Futures 2.0'11

This summer I'm doing two future things - FutureEverything in Manchester, which I guess is mostly about the present, and Virtual Futures in Warwick, which is mostly about the past. Not a futurefuture conference yet then!

Anyway, Virtual Futures will be a great opportunity to revisit the most inspiring conferences I went to in the 1990s. My talk 'I fell into LambdaMOO at Virtual Futures' will reflect that and I'm really looking forward to reminiscing.

(Image by Dan Slavinsky)

Slides from the Society for the History of Technology meeting, Tacoma, Oct 2010

 SHOT 2010 30 September - 3 October 2010

Session Title: Networks as Places in the History of Computing

Paper: Shaping the Landscapes of Cyberspace: West Coast Metaphors

Topic: This paper discusses the contribution of nature metaphors drawn from the West Coast / Pacific North West to the computer technology and the culture surrounding it. It focuses on the experience of two key individuals:  Douglas Engelbart, inventor of many revolutionary technologies including the hyperlink and the mouse, and native of the Pacific Northwest, and Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media and initiator of the concept of Web 2.0. O’Reilly emigrated from Ireland to San Francisco as a child and his technology discourse is permeated with metaphors of the Northern California landscape.

Download SHOT 2010 Thomas