In aiming to establish a community in Australia around the topic of AI and literature, the AI and Other Scientific Fables Symposium couldn’t have been organised at a more perfect time.
Today, many individuals across society are starting to work with and think about the implications of AI-enabled technologies. In having to adopt technology we are also having to adapt to technology.
At the School of Cybernetics, we are interested in the responsible, safe, and sustainable use of AI, a consistent theme of this two-day event.
Three questions asked by this event are:
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How does the literary form of the fable enable a type of speculation that is important to the practice of science?
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Equally, how have scientific understandings of nonhuman life inspired literary fables, particularly in the genres of fantastic and speculative fiction?
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How can we think about AI itself as a kind of fable involving human and nonhuman characters and perspectives?
We invite you to visit or revisit the talks, presentations, panels, readings, and screenings that formed the AI and Other Scientific Fables symposium below.
Catch-up on the Symposium here:
Day 1#
Session 1:
Welcome from Katherine Daniell & Chris Danta
Campfire (reading + talk) from Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker
Session 2:
Fables of the AI Child from Judith Bishop
Alice’s Adventures, Ambiguity & AI from Tyne Daile Sumner
Session 3:
Misalignment and the Fable from Baylee Brits
A Fable of a Narrating Brain in Andrea Long Chu’s “China Brain” (2021) from Monique Rooney.
Session 4:
Fabulous Devourment in Philip K. Dick from Chris Danta
Demonic Multitudes: Monstrous AI from Charles Paulk
Day 2#
Session 5:
Panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities of working at the intersection of literary studies/humanities and AI
Session 6:
Suzie and the Dark Vessels: Satellite Data, Environmental Subjects, and Fable in Ocean Governance from Jasper Montana
Climate Change Fables and Their Calls to Action from Isabel Richards and Ella McCarthy
Session 7:
“He’s not there. He doesn’t reflect”: The Mimetic Nonhuman in Hoffmann and Offenbach from Sarah Collins
Klara and the Reader from Bridget Vincent
Session 8:
Screening of Moonrise (2021; 11 minutes) and Requiem (2023; 16 minutes), two short films in the Archival Futures of Outer Space Film Quartet, from Ceridwen Dovey and Rowena Potts.
The Future Fables project is run by 2024 Australian Academy of the Humanties Fellow, Professor Chris Danta FAHA. Chris’s research as a Professor of Literature at the ANU School of Cybernetics operates at the intersection of literary theory, philosophy, science and theology.