Mar 28
Dr. Walter H. Judd Lectureship in Asian Studies: Artificial Intelligence, Affective Labor, and Death in Life
Artificial intelligence and genetic engineering are challenging the humanist definition of the human, causing deep rifts in human-human and human nature relations. Examining stories by Chinese Sci-Fi writer Hao Jingfang, this talk argues that digital self-image blurs the boundaries between human and machine. It cancels out as well as foregrounds the essential needs of human emotional reciprocity and rituals of working through trauma, sickness and death. Under the neoliberal regime, artificial intelligence creates a perfect subject of performance, efficiency, and profit, and the all-encompassing digital network polarizes society, manufactures consumer desire, and exerts a total control of the human mind and body.
Dr. Ban Wang, William Haas Professor in Chinese Studies, Stanford University