“Autofac, Science Fiction and the Future of Work: A Conversation with Simone Browne, Nitin Verma, and Bruce Sterling.”

At this panel, which was sponsored by the Beyond the Future of Work Pop-Up Institute convened by the Rapoport Center for Human Rights at the University of Texas, “Bad AI and Beyond” festival participants took the Future of Work conversation past the bromides of today by meditating on yesterday’s visions of our future, as encapsulated by Philip K. Dick’s classic science fiction story “Autofac” and its recent adaptation for Amazon’s “Electric Dreams” video anthology. Participants include Dr. Simone Browne, Associate Professor in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, Director of the Good Systems Critical Surveillance Inquiry (CSI) Research Focus Area, and author of Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness; Nitin Verma, an advanced graduate student in the School of Information whose research concerns political and scientific misinformation and the ethical issues raised by machine learning technology; and the celebrated cyberpunk writer UT graduate Bruce Sterling. June 7th, 2021. https://youtu.be/gmlxWNwLi5w