Antikythera: Philosophy of Planetary Computation in the Design Studio (Recent Projects and Provocations)

As Stanisław Lem once put it, some technologies are instrumental, providing a means through which to change the world, but others are ultimately existential in significance, revealing aspects of reality previously unknowable and thus changing how intelligence knows the world and comprehends itself. Computation, both discovered and invented, is both instrumental and existential. Antikythera is a think tank, design studio and publishing platform (with MIT Press) that seeks to reorient planetary computation as a philosophical, technological, and geopolitical force, by collaborating with scientists, philosophers, designers on a portfolio of research projects. In this talk, Bratton, will explore the theoretical provocations that underlie the program’s recent work and upcoming initiatives.

Benjamin Bratton’s work spans Philosophy, Computer Science and Geopolitics. He is Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Speculative Design at the University of California, San Diego. Bratton is also Director of Antikythera, a think-tank on the speculative philosophy of computation at the Berggruen Institute.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Digital Humanities, the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Comparative Literature, the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in the Humanities, Humanities Council, and the Program in Italian Studies.