Culture and Democracy in the Age of the Post-Human: The Second Delphi Dialogues
Roilos, Panagiotis
Dear all,
I would like to invite you to the Second Delphi Dialogues, which will take place at the European Cultural Centre of Delphi on June 21-22 and will focus on the topic "Democracy and Culture in the Age of the Post-Human." The Delphi Dialogues will be also live-streamed (see information below).
The Initiative
Τhe Delphi Dialogues, initiated by the European Cultural Delphi Centre in 2023, explore systematically and shed new light on important aspects of humanity’s way towards its emerging future. They also aim at highlighting the everlasting relevance of the Delphic maxim “know thyself” not only for individual but also for collective ‘selves’, for the very existence of contemporary humanity and its collective self-knowledge in this markedly transitional period of its history.
Delphi Dialogues 2024
The Second Delphi Dialogues, under the patronage of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic, Ms. Katerina Sakellaropoulou, will extend the theme of the First Dialogues focusing on the transition of societies to the technologically determined ‘post-human’ age.
Important questions to be discussed include the following:
1) How will this transition redefine key structures and functions of democratic institutions and the ways in which citizens relate to decision-making centers?
2) Could this transition involve practices and mechanisms of cultural, social, and political homogenization?
3) How will the dialectic of indigenous cultural traditions and cultural globalization be shaped?
4) In what ways can fundamental human freedoms and rights be safeguarded in the face of dramatically evolving and widely adopted and applied technological mechanisms of monitoring citizens’ choices both in their private lives and in the public sphere?
5) How could humanistic values and ideals inform/influence “digital ethics” and vice versa?
6) Can we predict the changes that developments in digital technology and artificial intelligence (e.g. “deepfakes”) will bring about to hitherto established ontological and epistemological categories?
Program
Friday 21 June
17.30 – 17.45
Addresses
17.45 – 18.45
First session
Opening speech
Panagiotis Roilos, Harvard University
«Neomedieval Metacapitalism» and Mechanisms of Anti-Democratic Homogenization
Kate Hayles, University of California, Los Angeles
Are AIs a Threat to Democracy?
18.45 – 19.15
Discussion
19.15 – 19.30
Break
19.30 – 20.30
Second session
Luciano Floridi, Yale University
AI for and against Democracy
Patrice Maniglier, University Paris-Nanterre
Citizens of the Earth: Rethinking Cosmopolitanism in a Planetary Age
20.30 – 21.00
Discussion
Saturday 22 June
10.00 – 11.30
Third Session
Rosi Braidotti, University of Utrecht
Posthuman Convergence and Affirmative Ethics
Melani Cammett, Harvard University
The Promises and Pitfalls of AI for Divided Societies
Martin Crowley, University of Cambridge
Political Agency in the Age of the Posthuman
11.30 – 12.00
Discussion
12.00 – 12.15
Break
12.15 – 13.30
Roundtable discussion
The Delphi Dialogues will be live-streamed. If you want to watch them online, please follow these links:
For further details, please visit:
Panagiotis Roilos
George Seferis Professor of Modern Greek Studies and Professor of Comparative Literature
Department of the Classics and Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
Faculty Associate, The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
President of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi