Join us to watch Things to Come
the science fiction classic by H.G. Wells,
author of The time machine and The war of the worlds!
Oct. 6 @ 7pm in E5 6006.
Free admittance—Free popcorn!
In 2002, Ghyslain Raza made a fun video of himself playing a Star Wars character. Later the video was posted on the internet without his consent.
It became the first viral video, with enormous consequences for Raza.
In 2022, Raza broke his silence to speak about his experience and reflect on its meaning today.
Join us in E5 6004 @ 7pm on Feb. 15 to watch this documentary as Raza revisits "The Star Wars Kid."
Free admittance! Free popcorn!
Join us for an urgent discussion on "surveillance capitalism", its threat to our information civilization, and how its trajectory undermines democratic norms and the centuries-long evolution of market capitalism.
Vinton G. Cerf, Internet pioneer and Vice President and "Chief Internet Evangelist" at Google, will speak about the history of the Internet, beginning with the Arpanet, then move along the terrestrial Internet trajectory. He will then present emerging policy and technical challenges and, finally, discuss the interplanetary Internet project.
His lecture is free, open to everyone, and takes place on Tuesday, June 11 at 2:30 p.m. in the University of Waterloo's Humanities Theatre.
Event info: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/events/distinguished-public-lecture-vint-cerf-internet-past-present-future
Registration (free but required): https://www.ticketfi.com/event/5709/distinguished-public-lecture-internet-past-present-and-future
The documentary Chasing Time will be screened with a following panel discussion, Friday in the E7 event space (2nd floor). The documentary is the visually stunning culmination of the Extreme Ice Survey project: an unprecedented 15-year photographic record of the melting glaciers around the world.
Admission is free. RSVP at the event site.
This event is part of the visit of David and Linda Cornfield to the Systems Design Engineering department. David Cornfield is a Waterloo Engineering graduate ('85), who went on to a successful career with Microsoft. David and Linda Cornfield turned their attention to philanthropy and environmentalism, choosing to support projects that will have great social and environmental impact.
Chatting Time is a follow-up to the documentary Chasing Ice (2012).
Join us to explore the impact of the Voluntary Code of Conduct on the Responsible Development and Management of Advanced Generative AI Systems. The code, introduced by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Industry, aims to foster public trust in AI technologies, intending to accelerate adoption. This engaging panel discussion featuring education leaders, computer science researchers and industry experts will explore the broader implications of accelerating AI adoption beyond economic impacts. Speakers will share insights hopes and concerns about the potential societal changes, ethical considerations and regulatory challenges that come with AI.
Admission free. Register at the Critical Media Lab website.
TAWAW is a design-research firm dedicated to advancing Indigenous architecture. Our current research centres on the meaning found in original structures – the tipi, hogan, longhouse or wigwam - which we have come to understand as a microcosm of a larger world. Each project we undertake, offers behavioural, social and ideological meanings, that we integrate into contemporary form. Our work is not about replicating traditional designs but about understanding the meanings they hold, to bring meanings forward, making culture visible, but also stable. Join us as we explore the work of encoding and decoding Indigenous environments.
The Critical Media Lab is excited to invite you to register for Critical Tech Talk 11: Speculative Imaginaries and Technological Design with guest speaker Sherryl Vint, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, on how speculative fiction can help us cultivate a more inclusive social imagination.
This is a virtual event taking place on Zoom, Friday January 24th at 3:00 PM. Full details are below. Registration is required using this link.
We look forward to you joining us!
About the talk: Speculative fiction (sf) is an influential mode that shapes how we imagine what technologies and futures we find desirable, feasible, and valuable. But whose values inform imagined techno-utopian futures? How can we draw on the power of sf if we understand the genre not as a storehouse of technologies we might one day create, but instead as a critical engagement with the way that technology inevitably shapes the social world in ways that extend far beyond its intended use? Using the example of the intersection of sf with disability studies, this talk will outline how sf can function as a mode of enquiry, a rhetorical tool that can help us guide technological development toward greater inclusion and equity by opening new perspectives on the problems technology seeks to solve. Focusing on the specific example of sf written from the perspective of people with disability, it will show how such fictions can help us understand how to cultivate a more capacious social imagination as a crucial element of equitable and inclusive technological design.
Sherryl Vint is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies and of English at the University of California, Riverside, where she founded the Speculative Fictions and Cultures of Science program. She has published widely on science fiction, including, most recently, Biopolitical Futures in Twenty-First Century Speculative Fiction (2021), Science Fiction: The Essential Knowledge (2021), and Programming the Future: Speculative Television and the End of Democracy (2022, co-authored with Jonathan Alexander). She was a founding editor of Science Fiction Film and Television and is the Managing Editor of Science Fiction Studies and editor of book series Science in Popular Culture.
Join us to enjoy and discuss the classic Sci-Fi movie Blade Runner (1982) by Ridley Scott! Free popcorn! Free admittance! Screening followed by a discussion of the movie's relation to technology and society today!
Open to all Waterloo students, staff, and faculty.
See you March 4 @ 6:30pm in E5 6004!