From Mind Control to Mind Expansion: Hacking Technology to Rebuild Our World

Friday, July 22, 2022: 8:00 pm (Little Theatre): It's time for hackers to think bigger and act bigger. We're used to poking at systems and finding the weak spots so they can be patched before things break catastrophically. But what do we do when the ...

Friday, July 22, 2022: 8:00 pm (Little Theatre): It's time for hackers to think bigger and act bigger. We're used to poking at systems and finding the weak spots so they can be patched before things break catastrophically. But what do we do when the system is broken beyond hope of patching? When the magical power of technology that we see and understand so well is co-opted for cheap conjuring tricks for the ends of persuasion and power? When we have a technological infrastructure that supposedly "connects" billions of us to each other, but which, because it struggles to escape the gravity well of these distorting motivations, fails to enable us to effectively support each other even in the face of a global existential threat?

This will be a HOPEful, interactive session where Javair and Geva will take some elements at the edge of today's technology - virtual reality, brain-computer interfaces, AI - and apply the hacker spirit to use them in ways the system never intended, to allow us all to see and act on more forward-moving visions of the future together.

Javair Ratliff
Geva Patz