Project Lead: Prof. Karla Erickson, Professor of Sociology
Vivero Fellow (2021-2022, 2022-2023): Tanmaie Kailash
I like to think
(it has to be!)
Of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.
-Richard Brautigan
“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”
If the age of reason was, in part, a reaction to the existence of the printing press, and 1960s futurism was a reaction to the atomic bomb, we need a new philosophical and moral framework for living with the social web—a new Enlightenment for the information age, and one that will carry us back to shared reality and empiricism. . . We may not be able to predict the future, but we do know how it is made: through flashes of rare and genuine invention, sustained by people’s time and attention. Right now, too many people are allowing algorithms and tech giants to manipulate them, and reality is slipping from our grasp as a result.
Adrienne LaFrance 12.15.20 The Atlantic
What remains in an era of Artificial Intelligence? and, “How will/have our relationships to the machines changed our relationships to other humans? These are the central questions of Prof. Erickson’s current research project, tentatively titled Messy Humans: An Ethnography of Machine Life. The Vivero Fellow paired on this project will work with Prof. Erickson over the course of year to support two classes focused on the sociology of robots. In the fall, the Fellow will develop content knowledge, visit Prof. Erickson’s tutorial, and plan for a more deeply course embedded role for spring terms Sociology of Robots course. Prof. Erickson also anticipates creating a digital complement to her research project that will delve into the history and ethnography of devices that have become co-present in our lives. Some of the content for this site will be created by students through their digital assignments in her courses. The Fellow will help design, build out, and document the workflow for maintaining this site.
