Friday April 25th's sessions will be held in Atlas Building ATLS 100 - Cofrin Auditorium

Saturday April 26th's sessions will be held in Wolf Law Wittemyer Courtroom

“Tech” isn’t like other industries. In addition to money and products, it is now a source for politicians, policy, culture, and philosophies with unprecedented influence throughout the globe. Figures like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel hardly count as mere industrialists; they function as thought-leaders and government operatives.  
 

This two-day conference gathers actors from today’s tech world–entrepreneurs, makers, thinkers, observers, and critics–to discuss the meaning of the tech counterculture, and what it might entail for the future of technology and American democracy.     

Register!

Speakers:

• Governor Jared Polis
• Glen Weyl
• Balaji Srinivasan
• Geoff Shullenberger
• Patrick Deneen
• James Pogue
• Julia Steinberg
• Julie Fredrickson
• Augustus Doricko
• Josh Vandiver
• Lynne Kiesling
• Josie Zayner
• Louise Liebeskind
• Hadley Manning
• Ben Teitelbaum

PROGRAM

April 25th Atlas Building ATLS 100 - Cofrin Auditorium

9:00AM-10:15AM “How dissident is today’s tech?”

Technology can be a democratizing tool or a weapon of centralized authority. If those are perennial alternatives in technology’s history, which has predominated during recent years?

Panel: Julia Steinberg, Geoff Shullenberger, Patrick Deneen, Julie Fredrickson
Moderator: Paul Diduch

10:45AM-12:15PM “Elon versus Bannon”

The trump coalition now contains two camps at odds with each other: the tech builder and the populist patriot. How can these camps collaborate, where might they diverge, and which archetype or faction will win the future?

Panel: James Pogue, Hadley Manning, Josh Vandiver, Nathan Schneider 
Moderator: Andrea Kowalchuk    

1:45PM-3:00PM “AI is God”

Since the dawn of the Enlightenment, moderns have spoken of technology and its powers in theological terms. Today, nowhere is this trend more visible than in AI discourse. To what extent has this “religion of technology” affected our conception of AI? Are AI Doomers and Accelerationists just two sides of a prophetic spectrum?

Panel: Josie Zayner, Geoff Shullenberger, Louise Liebeskind, Lynne Kiesling, Ben Teitelbaum
Moderator: Nathan Schneider

5:30PM-6:30PM KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Glen Weyl 

April 26th Wolf Law Wittemyer Courtroom

9:00AM-10:15AM “How Dangerous is Tech?”

According to some, tech is on the verge of unleashing unprecedented threats to humanity. Others contend that the threats are not tech creations themselves, but rather the fear they generate and the regulatory reactions bound to follow

Panel: Augustus Doricko, Louise Liebeskind, Lynne Kiesling, Josie Zayner
Moderator: Andrea Kowalchuk

10:45AM-12:15PM “Tech as a Rebel Alliance” 

Yesterday we looked at the tech world as one faction among many in politics. But is it internally heterogenous? What is it that divides and unites the actors in this world

Panel: Josh Vandiver, James Pogue, Hadley Manning, Ben Teitelbaum
Moderator: Adina Glickstein

1:45PM-3:00PM “Fighting for the Future”

Introductory Remarks: Governor Jared Polis

Is tech the problem or is tech the solution? Does tech bolster states or undermine them? Which specific technologies augur a more auspicious future? And vice versa?

Panel: Augustus Doricko, Patrick Deneen; Julia Steinberg, Nathan Schneider
Moderator: Paul Diduch

5:30PM-6:30PM KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Balaji Srinivasan