“The Technogenetic Spiral: Implications and Interventions”

Katherine Hayles will be visiting campus on March 22-23rd.

She is giving a public talk and a workshop on chapters from her new book, “How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis”
(coming out May 2012).

Her public talk will be held at 3:30 pm on Thursday, March 22nd
(location: IMU Dogwood Room), and is sponsored by media@iu, the Sawyer Seminar, and the Center for Theory in the Humanities.

“The Technogenetic Spiral: Implications and Interventions.”

Technogenesis is the idea that humans and technics are co-evolving together, both historically and in the contemporary period. While genetic adaptation was involved in previous eras, in the contemporary period the primary mechanisms of adaptation run between technologically engineered environments and human cognitive systems, including consciousness, subconsciousness, and the (adaptive or cognitive) unconscious. The adaptive presssures toward increased information density and more (and more flexible) information streams (among other
factors) are re-configuring human cognition on multiple levels, including neurophysiological. This talk will explore the implications of these adaptations and discuss works of digital literature that attempt to intervene constructively in the present situation.

She will discuss her chapters in a workshop on Friday, March 23rd at 10 am (location TBA).

In anticipation of her visit, we will be reading chapters from her new book and meeting to discuss them. The reading group meets 10 am on
Fridays: Feb 24, March 2nd and March 9th.

We will be meeting at COB -- 800 East Third St., room 203. It is the first room on your left at the top of the stairs.

If you would like copies of the chapters, please contact Eric Harvey
(eharvey@indiana.edu)