Digital Trust and Security Seminar Series: Dr Colin Williams
Date: 28th May 2025
Time: 14:00-16:00
Location: Ellen Wilkinson Building Room No. B2.4, The University of Manchester
Join us for an engaging seminar on The Human Use of Non-Human Beings: Computational Synthetic Agency and Human Exceptionalism (A Partial History and Some Possible Futures). In 1948, the venerable American mathematician Norbert Wiener published Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Despite its arcane title and bewildering mathematics, Cybernetics became an instant best seller and changed the world. Far more than in name only, it’s the reason humanity now inhabits cyber. This talk will explore the long neglected history of the cybernetics movement; and, relatedly, a hitherto overlooked yet formative schism between cybernetics and AI. From these historical roots, we can trace some of the potential future trajectories for the development and societal use of AI, autonomous systems and human machine teaming.
About the speaker:
Dr Colin Williams: Dr Colin is a principal consultant with CDS Defence and Security, a specialist cyber security and resilience consultancy based in Cheltenham. He is also a visiting honorary professor at De Montfort University and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Warwick. His career in information assurance and cyber security spans three decades.
Photography will take place at this event. If you do not wish to be photographed, please speak to an event organiser upon event registration.
Connect with the Centre for Digital Trust and Society
The Centre for Digital Trust and Society organises the DTS Guest Seminar Series and is a focal point for research across the University of Manchester that explores aspects of trust and security in our digital world. The Centre is part of Digital Futures, a highly interdisciplinary network which operates across the whole range of the University of Manchester's digital research.
About Digital Futures:
Digital Futures is a highly interdisciplinary network that operates across the whole range of the University’s digital research. We aim to present a coherent overview of The University of Manchester's digital research activity to external stakeholders and bring together research communities to explore new research areas and address strategic opportunities.
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