2021 Tech Talk Season
“Tech Talks” are presented by the Center for Technology & Society (CTS). This season features an exciting mix of technology-based topics that impact society at large. For more information, please contact Scott Tilley (stilley@cts.today).Wednesday, July 7, 2021 at 2:00pm: "Fake News"
Presented by Scott Tilley, PhD
Fake news is not news at all. Before we had social media and other technologies to spread misinformation at scale, we had old-school propaganda. In 1960, Robert Ensor wrote: “people will believe anything, provided they are told it often enough and emphatically enough, and that contradicters are either silenced or smothered in calumny.” The COVID-19 pandemic has exemplified how fake news can spread through society to our detriment. Nation states who interfere with our elections are another example of how difficult it is to counter fake news. This talk discusses how fake news is created, how it is spread, and what we can do to counter it.
Monday, January 25, 2021 at 7:00pm: "Fake News (Part 7): Augmented and Virtual Reality"
Presented by Scott Tilley, PhD
Note: This is a joint presentation with Big Data Florida.
It’s been 30 years since the film “Total Recall” was released. Its premise was prescient: give people a way to escape from their humdrum lives by experiencing any fantasy they wanted – all without leaving home. Today, many companies are investing heavily in augmented and virtual reality hardware and software to provide a similar experience to their customers. If we exist in social silos now, imagine what it would be like if we’re all totally immersed in our own reality? This was the seventh and final entry in our FAKE NEWS series to discuss the ultimate propaganda engine.
Note: Due to the novel coronavirus, this talk will be delivered using Zoom. It is still free and open to the public, but you need to be a member of CTS to receive the meeting invitation. Go to www.cts.today/join and signup.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 at 7:00pm: "Looking Back at 2020"
Presented by Scott Tilley, PhD
I’m sure we’re all glad that 2020 is now in the rear-view mirror. It was a very challenging year, dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In sifting through the news items for the past 12 months, I found five technology developments affecting society that warrant a quick summary: fake news, Zoom, working from home, data science, and vaccines. Some of the developments were positive, some were decidedly negative, and some were both. It’s no surprise that all of them had a direct relationship with the novel coronavirus. This was the first Tech Talk of 2021. It took a final look back at an unprecedented year.
Note: Due to the novel coronavirus, this talk will be delivered using Zoom. It is still free and open to the public, but you need to be a member of CTS to receive the meeting invitation. Go to www.cts.today/join and signup.
