[act-ma] Tech & Revolution: A Participatory Workshop | Saturday, February 2, 1:00PM @ E5

[Boston Socialist Unity Project]

Tech & Revolution: A Participatory Workshopfeaturing Alfredo Lopez and
Rajesh Kasturirangan
*Saturday, February 2nd, 1:00 - 4 p.m., 9A Hamilton Place, Boston, MA 02108*
*encuentro5* (e5), *DigBoston, *Agaric Design, and Boston Socialist Unity
Project invite your participation in an important discussion on Technology
and Revolution. The event is part of a series of discussions being held
nationwide and coordinated by May First/People Link and the Center for
Media Justice—leading up to an international convergence in Mexico City
later this year.

Notable participants include: Alfredo Lopez, author, Puerto
Rican independista, and co-director of May First/People Link; and
Rajesh Kasturirangan, mathematician, cognitive scientist, and professor at
the National Institute of Advanced Studies in India.

Over the last few decades, technological advances have not only radically
changed methods of human communication but have also started to change
humanity itself in ways that grassroots organizations on the political left
have been slow to address. To the extent we have done so, it has been
mostly to advocate for disenfranchised communities’ access to computers and
broadband internet service.

But we have largely failed to grapple with issues beyond the rise of
the internet and huge corporate social media platforms like Facebook
and Twitter. And we’ve barely scratched the surface of those key
changes, let alone put much thought into analyzing the effects of
newer technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence, big data,
and genetic
engineering on our communities. This is all the more alarming because rapid
technological has aggravated the inequalities about which the left has
traditionally cared.

Nonetheless, social-change movements continuously emerge, often
in unexpected spaces, but especially in artistic and youth spaces or from
insurgent social movements of the oppressed and exploited. They
create campaigns to challenge potentially negative technological
developments and propose more helpful community-centered technologies in
their place.

In the interest of promoting these movements and their just agendas, this
gathering will convene organizers for an afternoon of sharing and thinking
together. We will be sharing information and analyses about these topics in
short, plain-spoken, manageable conversations. Our thinking together will
be strategic, asking and answering straightforward questions:

   - What are the most urgent and important challenges connected with
   technology?
   - What are the key areas for intervention?
   - Who are our allies?
   - What are our resources?
   - Before we can talk about joint and/or coordinated campaigns and
   targeting, what do we need?

Please let us know if your organization will be able to attend -  please
contact us at info at encuentro5.org

*Co-sponsored by the Boston Socialist Unity Project.  *



______________________________

*Boston Socialist Unity Project*
*Together we fight. Together we win.*