Ramesh Srinivasan, UCLA

Date: April 17, 2019

Time: 1:00 PM

Room: Luddy Hall 0006

Title: “Beyond the Valley: The Challenges and Promises of a People-Centered Internet”

Abstract: The past 20 years have profound the impact is of digital technologies to connect our world. What we may not have expected is how these technologies did not shape ‘connectivity’ but became so central in everyday life. From our economic systems to how we receive news, to how we automate the future, technological intermediaries have interwoven themselves into everyday life, not just in the West but across the world. But in whose image are these forms of connectivity created, and how can we ensure that there is appropriate balance between the values we aspire toward as human-beings with the ways we build and design such systems? This talk will be a sneak preview of some material from Srinivasan’s third book, which is built upon research conducted with leading figures in politics, economics, and culture/across the world. Srinivasan will share insights around how our future is being shaped by the decisions we make with technology right here and now.

Bio:        Ramesh Srinivasan studies the relationship between technology, politics and societies across the world. He has been a faculty member at UCLA since 2005 in the Information Studies and Design|Media Arts departments. He is the founder of the UC-wide Digital Cultures Lab, exploring the meaning of technology worldwide as it spreads to the far reaches of our world. He is also the author of the books: “Whose Global Village? Rethinking How Technology Impacts Our World” with NYU Press, and “After the Internet” (with Adam Fish). He is currently working on his third trade/academic hybrid book discussing the relationships between data, and the Internet with political life, automation and the future of labor, and questions of cultural and global sovereignty. He also writes extensively about issues associated with AI and ethics.

Srinivasan earned his doctorate in design studies at Harvard; his master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at Stanford. He has served fellowships in MIT’s Media Laboratory in Cambridge and the MIT Media Lab Asia. He has also been a teaching fellow at the Graduate School of Design and Department of Visual and Environmental Design at Harvard.

Srinivasan is a regular speaker for TEDx Talks, and makes media appearances on MSNBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, “The Young Turks,” National Geographic, Radio Pacifica, the Atlantic, and Public Radio International. His writings have been widely published by Al Jazeera English, CNN, Wired, The Washington Post, Forbes, and The Huffington Post.