Marcel O'Gorman talks posthumanism on social media ethics panel

Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Professor Marcel O'Gorman, GI faculty member and Director of the Critical Media Lab (CML), was a panelist in the final instalment of the 2019 Waterloo Symposium on Technology & Society, "Team Human: It's time to remake society together as the team we are", hosted by the Balsillie School of International Affairs.
The event opened with a talk by Douglas Rushkoff and then concluded with a panel discussion about the ethics surrounding human connection in a digital age, featuring social media scholars and industry stakeholders. 

In addition to O'Gorman and Rushkoff, the panelists were Sarah Bannerman, Communication Studies and Multimedia professor from McMaster University, and Kevin Chan, global Director and Head of Public Policy at Facebook Canada.

Marcel on Panel
O'Gorman contributed research-based perspectives grounded in posthumanism to the conversation, providing a critical, nuanced perspective to the way we think about our dynamic entanglement with technology.

Dr. O'Gorman co-wrote the "tech for good" declaration in 2018 and is currently working with a team of graduate students at the CML to advance research in how to implement the document. O'Gorman brought this up during the conversation and urged the panel to consider that it's now time to take action:

We don't need another manifesto. What we need is to take the manifestos we do have and start doing some good with them.

- Dr. O'Gorman

Read the "tech for good" Declaration here.