The Technology in Society conference was held at FIT CTU, where experts addressed the question of the historical role of technology in shaping human society. Throughout eight lectures and an Oxford debate, nearly 150 participants learned about the impact of technology on society, from medicine and finance to AI technology or blockchain. The event was hosted by the new research group CCHAOS on 13 November 2022.
The keynote speaker at the conference was Iain Standen, CEO of the Bletchley Park Trust, where Alan Turing and colleagues deciphered the Nazi Enigma during World War II. Iain Standen talked about the rise and fall of this key company during the Second World War. The other eight speakers included, for example, William Lobkowicz (House of Lobkowitz), who discussed culture, blockchain and digital preservation of the past. In the final Oxford debate, experts focused on the question of whether there is an objective morality.
The event was organized by the new research group CCHAOS (Cloud Civilisations, Honest, and Optimised Systems), which was established by the faculty with the idea of multidisciplinary research on the phenomena of social complexity and the impact of technology on human behaviour. The world around us is complicated, and with the state-of-the-art technologies available today, we can understand why we behave the way we do.
“FIT CTU focuses on rigorous research in the field of computer science, but it is also a faculty passionate about popularizing science for the general public. The emphasis is on the applicability of research to everyday life and industry, and an interdisciplinary approach to science,” said Sara Polak, the co-founder of the CCHAOS research group, an anthropologist and an artificial intelligence archaeologist, adding: “The formation of the CCHAOS group is a testament to the progressiveness of this faculty as well as its dedication to educating the public about technology and creating a community around the courses taught in the faculty.”
