Media
Isabel Pedersen, Canada Research Chair in Digital Life, Media and Culture
What could wearable technology mean for communication, social interaction and how we will conduct our lives? Dr. Isabel Pedersen, Associate Professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Canada Research Chair in Digital Life, Media and Culture talks about the digital paradigm and how we're moving towards that future.
Presupposing A Future in Digital Telepathy | Isabel Pedersen | TEDxStMaryCSSchool
Imagine a world where information is sent through digital telepathy. In this engaging TEDx talk, Dr. Isabel Pedersen questions the impact of advancing personal technology on human society in the near, as well as, the distant future. Drawing on the "Continuum of Embodiment" concept she coined throughout her extensive research, Pedersen discusses how the social normalization of mobile technology made way for the current trend of wearable technology, which in turn will most likely make way for the future of implantable and embodied technology and beyond. Pedersen encourages listeners to be excited and optimistic for the future and the technological advancements it will bring, but also appeals to the audience to consider the social implications of inventions while looking to the future. Will the implantable computer chips promised by large corporations have a positive or negative effect on human society? Only time will reveal the answers, but the questions need to be asked right now.
High-tech meets high-fashion: Ontario company may finally win eyewear technology race
The writing of this AI is so human that its creators are scared to release it
Distracted too often by your smartphone? This company thinks it can help
Biography
Isabel Pedersen, Canada Research Chair in Digital Life, Media and Culture, is the Director of the Decimal Lab at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). She is also an Associate of the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University and York University. Currently, she holds a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Grant for her research into Digital Culture and Quantified Aging. She studies how humans are framed in light of the 'digital evolution', that is celebrated so extensively in mass communication venues. As technological advancements occur, we adopt new or future technologies before we ever see, touch, or experience them, which instigates changes in our values, culture, identity, and everyday life. While the digital turn often betters society, other consequences to human participants are often ignored or simply go unexplored. In the fall of 2014, Pedersen was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. She is the author of Ready to Wear: A Rhetoric of Wearable Computers and Reality-Shifting Media. Currently, she researches critical dystopian film, transhumanist pondering, and brain interfaces that promise dramatically divergent futures.