'Human Limits' Symposium
‘Human Limits’ Symposium
Friday 28 September 19.00-21.30 and Saturday 29 September
10.30-17.00 Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE
The onset of the industrial revolution and the
technological advances that followed it have stretched our limits more than
ever before. We’ve taken to the skies, to outer space and to the depths of the
ocean. But what do these new-found environments mean for our bodies and minds?
Why do humans always want to stretch their capabilities? How have we imagined
the future in the past, and what possibilities might be opened up in the
future? How are these possibilities represented in science fiction?
This symposium will examine our relationship with
technology and how it stretches our ability to perform in the world. From the
influence of the light bulb on our working patterns to space missions and the
impact they have had on our physiology, the event will also look forward to
what our relationship with technology might be like in the future.
Friday 28 September<http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/human-limits/friday-programme.aspx>
Enjoy a screening of 'Aelita: Queen of Mars' (Yakov
Protazanov, 1924), one of the first films to depict space travel. This silent
film will be accompanied by a live band, Minima, and followed by a drinks
reception.
Saturday 29 September<http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/events/human-limits/saturday-programme.aspx>
Talks and discussions will continue on the Saturday, when
the following questions will be explored using several different perspectives:
*
How were the technologies that we take for granted today
received when they were first invented?
*
What pressures do extreme environments put on the body,
physiologically?
*
Where does the boundary lie between training our bodies
and technology?
*
What will our relationship with technology be like in the
future?
*
How did science fiction shift from outer space to inner
space?
10.30 Opening remarks – Oliver Morton (chair), Emily
Sargent An introduction to Superhuman Exhibit from the curator.
11.00 To Boldly Go – Kevin Fong
In the last 100 years, technology and medical science
have changed the way we look at ourselves and our expectations of survival in
all walks of life. What was routinely fatal at the start of the 20th century
has today become simply routine. How do we see the limits of our survival in
the 21st century? How will this change the way we explore?
11.40 Coffee break
12.00 Electrical Destiny? Ariel, Aladdin and alienation –
Graeme Gooday The electric light bulb is the emblem of human ingenuity. It
symbolizes the productive taming of arguably nature’s most violent force. Over
the last 150 years, electricity has extended human vision, speech and travel to
global scope and ever-greater speeds. But if electricity has taken bodily
sensation to new exciting and remote places, why is it that candlelit
conversation and steam locomotion still captivate us? Do our electrically
wrought superpowers perhaps threaten to make us too efficiently modern?
12.40 Looking Back at the Earth: From Silent Running
(1972) to The Day After Tomorrow (2004) – Christine Cornea
When Apollo 8 launched in 1968, the objective was to send
the first manned mission into lunar orbit and the astronauts were charged with
taking close-up pictures of the far side of the moon. Today, however, this
mission is most remembered for the famous colour photograph known as
‘Earthrise’, which offers a vision of the Earth as it rises over the lunar
horizon. Looking back at the Earth from the moon was, of course, prefigured in
science fiction. For instance, the film screened for this symposium, Aelita
(1924), both literally and figuratively looked back at the Earth from the
distant planet of Mars. Christine Cornea will consider the sociocultural impact
of the publication of the ‘Earthrise’ picture – how this strangely reflective
picture of the Earth as a vulnerable, blue planet, hanging in space, came to be
associated with the rise of the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s
and how, in turn, this affected the visions offered by science fiction films in
the years that followed.
13.30 Lunch
14.30 The Man-Machine: Redesigning ourselves into
pseudohumans or superhumans? – Anders Sandberg The idea that we can upgrade our
bodies has been around for a long time. What are our real options, now and in
the near future, for enhancing ourselves? And what are the implications –
practical, ethical, social– of turning ourselves into objects of design and
culture? In the future, the coevolution of humans and our technology might be
far more intimate and complex than we expect. What kind of humanity would we
want to become, and do we have any choice in the matter?
15.10 Becoming a Channel Swimmer: Training, technology
and the marathon swimming body – Karen Throsby Swimming the English Channel is
a sport that is simultaneously high- and low-tech. Karen Throsby argues that
the process of training to become a Channel swimmer not only exploits advanced
technology (GPS, specially developed foods), but is also heavily reliant on
much more mundane practices (swimming, stretching, purposeful weight gain) that
are not usually thought of as technology but that enhance the body’s
capacities. She challenges what counts as ‘technology’ and what counts as the
‘natural’ body.
16.10 Roundtable discussion
Join Graeme Gooday, Anders Sandberg and Oliver Morton as
they reflect on the discussions of the day.
16.50 Concluding remarks – Oliver Morton
17.00 Drinks reception
£30 full price/£25 concessions for both days, including
drinks on Friday evening and lunch, tea and coffee on Saturday.
To book, please call +44 (0)20 7611 2222.
For details of the ‘Superhuman’ Exhibition see http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman.aspx
____________________________________________________________
Dr. Jon Topham
Senior Lecturer in History of Science & Director of the
Centre for History and Philosophy of Science
School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science
University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT
Tel: +44 (0)113 34 32526
Fax: +44 (0)113 34 33265