Of Masters and Machines. Anthropological Reflections on Invention and Intelligence

This year‘s JJ Bachofen lecture considersanthropological approaches to the relationshipbetween human beings andthe material world, especially the worldshumans create. Around the globe we arewitnessing unprecedented forms of „making“,of people inventing, recycling andrepairing, with or without highly advancedtechnological apparatuses. I am interestedin the engagements between society andmateriality in terms of belonging, representationand communication, but also wantto pay attention to the moral panics thatundergird collective and individual choiceswhen confronted with man-made machinesthat become too smart, and at times,that appear beyond the control of theircreators and/or users. The presentationwill situate the „homo faber“ of electronicmodernity, or man who „makes“, fabricates,in a world governed by high-tech devices,within a longue durée of scholarship onthe socio-cultural contours of creativityand knowledge, and on the ever-changingconfigurations of nature and culture.

Publication year:2018