Robots are moving out of the closed environments of laboratories, factories, and hospitals to augment and replace the maintenance and management of human and non-human life as part of a broader process of societal and ecological automation. Robotic delivery vehicles, driverless cars, service robots and police drones and robots are starting to appear on the streets and in the skies of cities. Robots are being used to monitor, augment, and reshape nature, ecology and climatic process via robotic insects, automated agriculture, and many other robotic entities.
This lecture series explores the impact and implications of robotic applications and new cyborg environments for human and non-human life in different global contexts. For example, how do we grasp the impact of robotics and robots, as robot-enabled automation moves out of enclosed environments and comes to mediate social, ecological, and infrastructural relations? The lecture series will be of interest to anyone interested in the future of cities, climate change, ecology and the prospects for ever more sophisticated AI-enabled robots and automation.
If you missed the lectures the first time, you can watch them via the links below.
Aidan While delivered the first lecture on Cities on 4 October 2023Simon Marvin delivered the second lecture on Ecology Climate on 18 October 2023