[Sci-tech-public] Schedule of events for week of November 20th

[Debbie Meinbresse]

Hello all.  The holiday next week leaves us with 
a light schedule.  Since I only have two STS 
events to bring to your attention, I'll mention 
them below.  Hope to see you at both of them!

Monday, November 20
STS Colloquium -- Science, Technology, and Society: The Big Questions
What Questions do "Sociable Robots" Pose for STS?
Sherry Turkle
4:00 pm, MIT, E51-095

Sherry Turkle is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor 
of the Social Studies of Science and Technology 
in the Program in Science, Technology and Society 
at MIT and the founder (2001) and current 
director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and 
Self, a center of research and reflection on the 
evolving connections between people and 
artifacts.  She is the author of Psychoanalytic 
Politics: Jacques Lacan and Freud's French 
Revolution; The Second Self: Computers and the 
Human Spirit; and Life on the Screen:  Identity 
in the Age of the Internet.  Professor Turkle is 
currently completing a book on robots and the 
human spirit and editing a three volume 
collection on the relationship between things and thinking.

Abstract:
Roboticists talk about today's robot creatures as 
"affective," "relational," "sociable." Here, I 
discuss ethnographic materials from children's 
first interactions with Furbies to relationships 
with contemporary "sociable" robots such as Paro, 
designed to have a therapeutic effect, 
particularly on the elderly. Key issues for STS 
include: ethical questions about deploying 
machines as companions for times in the life 
cycle (childhood/the elderly) where we claim to 
not have enough people as caretakers, the 
psychodynamics and sociology of human-robot 
encounters, and the moral issues one encounters 
as one creates increasingly believable cybercompanions.


Wednesday, November 22
X-ray Laser- The story behind the story*
William J. Broad
11:00 am, MIT, E51-275
This talk is sponsored by STS in conjunction with 
STS.073/.421 (The Science, Technology and 
Politics of Weapons Systems Procurement)
*Please note this is an "off the record" conversation.

William J. Broad writes about science for The New 
York Times and has twice shared the Pulitzer 
Prize with colleagues there. Covering such topics 
as outer space, he has worked at the newspaper 
since 1983 and had written about science for more 
than two decades, receiving every major 
journalistic prize in the field. Born in 
Milwaukee, he studied the history of science at 
the University of Wisconsin. He is the author of 
Teller's War: The Top-Secret Story Behind the 
Star Wars Deception, Star Warriors : A 
Penetrating Look into the Lives of the Young 
Scientists Behind Our Space Age Weaponry, and 
Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the 
Halls of Science. He lives with his wife and 
three children in Larchmont, New York

Debbie Meinbresse
STS Program, MIT
617-452-2390
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