Envisioning the Future · Scenarios as Theoretical Tools

Scenarios of new emerging technologies describe social, political, and economic change due to the application of new developments. They play an integral part in discussions on how to handle, control, or regulate these developments. They are not only important for technology assessment institutions but also for the public to bring possible outcomes of scientific developments to mind and to outline in which way these developments can affect our daily lives.

In this workshop, we are interested, on the one hand, in the nature of techno-scientific scenarios and the role they play as visions of the future. On the other hand, we want to ask if the design of scenarios should be guided by certain moral constraints.

Are scenarios more than mere descriptive estimations of possible outcomes? Do they have an inherently normative element in advising us of what futures states of affairs we might want to bring about and what pitfalls we want to avoid? And how is this action-guiding function of scenarios justified?

Speakers:

- Angela Kallhoff    (University of Vienna)

- Petra Schaper-Rinkel (AIT Vienna)

- Arie Rip (University of Twente)

- Alexandra Hausstein (KIT Karlsruhe)

- Elias Moser (University of Vienna)

- Christopher Coenen (KIT Karlsruhe)

Registration:

[email protected]