Upcoming conference: MICE - Mistakes, Ignorance, Contingency and Error in Science and Technology, Fürstenfeldbruck
Hello everyone,
We have an upcoming international conference at TUM (Technical University Munich). I am sorry to say that our deadline for applications is already over. However, if you are interested in the topic and our projects, please feel free to contact us at mice@mzwtg.mwn.de.
Greetings from Munich,
Elsbeth
Here is our outline:
International Conference
MICE Mistakes, Ignorance, Contingency and Error in Science and Technology
Fürstenfeldbruck, October 2-4, 2014
Mistakes, Ignorance, Contingency, and Error are companions to all human work. There is no zero risk and, all best efforts notwithstanding, never will be. Since all techno-scientific activity will increase complexity, it permanently erodes the foundations of scientifically guided search for security. More science cannot solve this problem; at best it can elevate it to a higher level of complexity. Old problems don‘t just disappear; they are being replaced by new problems. MICE can only be eradicated as individuals never as a species. We will have to coexist. In this research conference, we focus on how both, science and technology, on one side and society on the other, have dealt in the past and presently deal with mistakes, ignorance, contingency, and error.
These are some of the problems we will discuss at the conference:
How has the expectation of absolute security provided by science, still asserted in the 19th century in many disciplines, been overcome?
Where did it never develop?
How did different disciplines cope with MICE in the past and how do they today?
How is this process being communicated to society?
What kinds of alterations in understanding and describing these problems were provoked by their transformation into media messages?
How did society‘s expectations change? Do we witness a historical learning process in science and society?
Conference program:
Thursday, 2 Oct., 1.00 p.m. - 7.30 p.m.
2.00-2.45 Introduction
Karin Zachmann (Technische Universität München)
2.45-3.45 Keynote
Angela Creager (Princeton University) The Uncertainty Trap: MICE in Science and Technology
Panel 1: MICE in the Life Sciences
Chair: Kärin Nickelsen (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
4.15-5.45 Christina Brandt (Ruhr-Universität Bochum): Metaphors in the Life Sciences and the Problem of Contingency Comment: Nicole Karafyllis (Technische Universität Braunschweig)
6.00-7.30 Elsbeth Bösl (Technische Universität München) Palaeopopulationgenetics: Managing and Communicating MICE in Ancient DNA Research
Comment: Veronika Lipphardt, (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science / Freie Universtität Berlin)
Friday, 3 Oct., 9.00 a.m. - 6.30 p.m.
Panel 2: Engineering MICE Chair: Ulf Hashagen (Deutsches Museum, Munich)
9.00-10.30 Nathan Ensmenger (Indiana University): When Good Software Goes Bad: The Surprising Durability of an Ephemeral Technology
Comment: Liesbeth De Mol (Université Lille )
11.00-12.30 Matthias Heymann (Aarhus University): Engineering Climate Models: Ignorance, Contingency, Uncertainty, and the Construction of Trust in Prediction
Comment: Gabriele Gramelsberger (Freie Universität Berlin)
Panel 3: MICE in Economics
Chair: Stephan Lindner (Universität der Bundeswehr München)
3.00-4.30 Philip Mirowski (University of Notre Dame): How to Remain Impervious to Cognitive Dissonance: Neoclassical Economics in the Financial Crisis of 2007-2012
Comment: Nicola Giocoli (University of Pisa)
5.00-6.30 Roman Köster (Universität der Bundeswehr München): Perpetual Disappointments? Living with Failure in Economic Prognosis, 1945-1980
Comment: Nicola Giocoli (University of Pisa)
Saturday, 4 Oct., 9.00 a.m. - 2.15 p.m.
Panel 4: Debating and Regulating MICE in Society
Chair: Sabine Maasen (Technische Universität München)
9.00-10.30 Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School) Runaway MICE: Contingency and Containment in Public Scientific Debates
Comment: Jack Stilgoe (University College London)
11.00-12.30 Michael Schüring (University of Florida): Communicating Confidence in Nuclear Technology
Comment: Helmuth Trischler (Deutsches Museum, Munich)
Panel 5: Concluding Comment and Final Discussion
1.00-1.30 Concluding Comment
David Gugerli (ETH Zürich)
1.30-2.15 Final Discussion
Chair: Mariacarla Gadebusch-Bondio (Technische Universität München)