Closing Keynote

Abstract

Nicholas Carr, author of such celebrated books as The Shallows and The Glass Cage, will offer a lively and provocative examination of how digital technologies are shaping our jobs, lives and society. Drawing on examples ranging from doctors' offices to airplane cockpits to the recent presidential campaign, Carr will argue that prevailing software and systems design philosophies end up eroding skills, diminishing contextual and critical thinking, and creating a culture of distraction and dependency. He will make the case that only by shifting our assumptions about technology and its personal and social consequences will we be able to forge a future fit for human beings rather than robots.