“Our Digital Future - how human will it be?”

The future remains uncertain but humans continue to imagine it. Socio-technical imaginairies can be captured in future-making projects, like those based on RFID. Meanwhile, the digital transformation of our societies is fully under way, sweeping across many domains and sectors: Industry 4.0; the pervasiveness of the Internet and social media; the use and misuse of Big Data – all bring new opportunities but also reveal the unintended consequences of human action. They elicit controversial public debates: which way should we go? Are we sufficiently prepared for the digital life? The answer to the question how human our digital future will be depends on how we will redefine what it means to be human. I conclude with a humble view from inside evolution.

Helga Nowotny is Professor emerita of Science and Technology Studies, ETH Zurich, and a founding member of the European Research Council. In 2007 she was elected ERC Vice President and from March 2010 until December 2013 President of the ERC. Currently she is Chair of the ERA Council Forum Austria, member of the Austrian Council and Vice-President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. She is also Visiting Professor at NTU Singapore. Among other, Helga is Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and continues to serve on many international advisory boards in Austria and throughout Europe. She has published widely in Science and Technology Studies, STS, and on social time. Throughout her professional career, Helga Nowotny has been engaged in science and innovation policy matters and continues to serve as advisor at national and EU level.

Helga Nowotny has published more than 300 articles in scientific journals. Her latest book (in German) is Eigenzeit Revisited in Zeit der Algorithmen. Her previous books include The Cunning of Uncertainty, that was featured by the Financial Times on the list of the best books 2015; Naked Genes, Reinventing the human in the molecular age, (with Giuseppe Testa), MIT Press, 2011, Insatiable Curiosity, Innovation in a Fragile Future, MIT Press, 2008, and Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation (ed.), New York and London, 2006.

**Lunch Reception will be held at 11:00am before the lecture**