Royal Institute Philosophy- Kieron O’Hara, Technology Histories & the Past

What we remember is a central expression of who we are. So what should we remember, and what is best forgotten? Talks will focus on various aspects of the question, such as trauma, conflict resolution, forgiving and forgetting, memorialization, and constructing identities on- and off-line. Explore these questions, among others, through the lens of philosophy at the 2024/5 London Lectures.

Insta-Worthy Memories and Filtered Truth: The Effects of Technology on Our Personal Histories and Records of the Past

Speaker: Kieron O’Hara is emeritus fellow in electronics and computer science at the University of Southampton. He has been interested in the politics and philosophy of technology throughout his career, beginning with his DPhil in the philosophy of artificial intelligence in the 1980s. His work covered AI, expert systems and the World Wide Web, and focused on issues such as trust, privacy and the nature of digital modernity. He is the author of several books, of which the most recent is The Seven Veils of Privacy: How Our Debates About Privacy Conceal its Nature (2023).

Human memory has benefited from recording devices for millennia. In the world of digital modernity, our lives are increasingly conditioned by and through our networked gadgets, and the ambient data infrastructure used to record us, including smartphones and social media. Apps improve facial appearance in photos. Image-sharing on social media leads to the physical world being altered to become ‘Insta-worthy’. Physical reality is augmented by smartphones or headsets, virtual realities may be created, and in extreme cases, AI-created deepfakes are almost undetectable. As recording has been transformed, how will it affect the way we recall the past? Has the truth fragmented into a menu of possibilities? Are the experiences of our avatars and digital twins somehow more ‘real’ than ours? Has human memory been eclipsed? Will it be overwhelmed by the ocean of data, or can it retain its integrity and ability to select valuable truths?

Host or Publisher The Royal Institute of Philosophy