Peter Paul Verbeek | Co-founder and former scientific co-director DesignLab | DesignLab

PHTR conference 2020 | understanding the relations between humans and technology

INTRODUCED BY...

Project overview

The Philosophy of Human-Technology Relations conference (PHTR) was a four-day conference loaded with interesting and inspiring plenary sessions of speakers. These speakers helped us to understand, evaluate and shape the relations between humans and technology. This conference was in the beginning of the pandemic, so it was done as a live stream. 100% humans and technology, how fitting was that?

In short
Full name: Philosophy of Human Technologies Conference
Duration: November 4 - 7, 2020
Status: Project Closed
How it started
The PHTR conference was held for anyone interested in understanding, evaluating and shaping the relations between humans and technology, ranging from philosophers and ethicists of technology to social scientists, humanities scholars, artists, designers, and engineers. The goal was to bring together a community of people to foster dialogue and creative collaborations on the interactions between humans, technologied and society.
Objectives
- Bring together a community of people to foster dialogue and creative collaborations on the interactions between humans, technologied and society.
- Since the pandemic just hit, the goal was to do so 100% digitally.
From process to realisation
This conference was held in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, so some different steps needed to be taken. The entire conference was held via zoom. Over 500 people joined digitally over the course of 4 days to join the inspiring plenary sessions. It ended up being much bigger than anticipated. It attracted people from design, philosophy, social sciences and ethics to work on improving technology worldwide. It was so, because it showed that the University of Twente had become the hub for doing these kind of things.
Results

Collaboration partners

Meaningful impact

Peter-Paul is proud to be a co-founder of DesignLab. He explains the importance of a space like DesignLab for the University of Twente "When we started, I thought this is what the University really needs. A place to connect the social sciences and engineering. And also to start asking scientific questions from a societal point of view."

He is also proud of the approach that is used at DesignLab, "We use the design thinking approach to improve society through technology and design. It integrated scientific methods, citizen science, working with external parties. I'm still really proud of this approach."

Looking ahead: What you can do

The relations between humans and technology grow closer, yet more complex everyday. It is important to be open to understanding and shaping these relations in an ethical way. Whether you are a student, teacher, scientist, artist, engineer, citizen, or anyone. Be open to it, so we can get the most out of our futures together.

Contact

Would you like to know more, join, collaborate, or receive more inspiration? Please contact Programme manager Maya van den Berg.

dr. M.M. van den Berg (Maya)

Program Manager

+31534893225

m.m.vandenberg@utwente.nl

Building: Gallery