Post-show Forum- Come for the Show; Stay for the Company!
All of Epic Theatre Ensemble’s programming is designed to place a theatrical experience at the center of a larger public dialogue about vital social issues. As a part of that effort, all of our Off-Broadway productions
include a Forum Series where following a performance, guest speakers join our company onstage to discuss the key questions and ideas that emerged with our audiences.
Friday October 5, 8PM: David Berreby, Journalist and author of Us and Them: The Science of Identity and Peter Asaro, Associate Professor of Media Studies, The New School
Peter Asaro
Dr. Peter Asaro is a philosopher of science, technology and media. His work examines artificial intelligence and robotics as a form of digital media, and the ways in which technology mediates social relations and shapes our experience of the world. His current research focuses on the social, cultural, political, legal and ethical dimensions of military robotics and UAV drones, from a perspective that combines media theory with science and technology studies. He has written widely-cited papers on lethal robotics from the perspective of just war theory and human rights. As Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (www.icrac.net), he works on the human rights issues surrounding targeted killing by drones, and arms control issues for autonomous lethal robotics. Dr. Asaro’s research also examines agency and autonomy, liability and punishment, and privacy and surveillance as it applies to consumer robots, industrial automation, smart buildings, and autonomous vehicles. His research has been published in international peer reviewed journals and edited volumes, and he is currently writing a book that interrogates the intersections between advanced robotics and social and ethical issues. His research is also informed by his involvement in digital media design projects with the Virtual Environments Group at the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA), the Advanced and Interactive Displays Lab at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Iguana Robotics, Inc., and was involved in the design of the natural language interface for the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine for Wolfram Research–this interface is also used by Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Bing to answer math queries, and won two SXSW Web Interactive Awards for Technical Achievement and Best of Show.