Cyborg Rights and The City?
This special feature explores how brain tech is changing urban infrastructures and human-technology relations in the city.
In this month's special feature, Tom and Beth are joined by Simon Marvin and Allan McCay to discuss how advances in neurotechnology - specifically Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) - are changing the way we think about urban infrastructures and human-technology relations in the city.
We discuss:
- How can we understand the complex and continuously changing relationship between cities and technology over the last few decades?
- What and where are the new frontiers of urban technology in light of neuro-technological advances, such as Brain Computer Interfaces?
- What are the legal and ethical implications for cities and residents of neurotechnological urbanism, and can science fiction prepare us for what’s to come?
The feature is followed by a short reflection from Tom and Beth which also draws on an interdisciplinary workshop on Neurotechnically-enabled Urbanism which was hosted by the Urban Institute and the ESRC project 'Experimenting with robotics as a new urban infrastructure', ked Aidan While.
Guests:
Dr Allan McCay is Co Director of The Sydney Institute of Criminology and an Academic Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School. His first coedited book is Free Will and the Law: New Perspectives (Routledge, 2019) and his second is Neurointerventions and the Law: Regulating Human Mental Capacity (Oxford University Press, 2020).
Professor Simon Marvin is an internationally recognised academic with an excellent publication profile, with expertise in the changing relations between socio-technical networks and urban and regional restructuring.
Recommended Reading:
Credits
- Guest: Dr Allan McCay (Co-Director of The Sydney Institute of Criminology and an Academic Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School)
- Guest: Professor Simon Marvin (Professor of Geography at the University of Sheffield)
- Podcast Production, Presentation & Editing: Tom Goodfellow (Professor of Urban Studies and International Development at the University of Sheffield)
- Podcast Production, Presentation & Editing: Beth Perry (Professor of Urban Epistemics at the University of Sheffield and Director of the Urban Institute)
- Post-Production Editing & Marketing: Polly Clifton (Student at the University of Sheffield)
- Training & Production Support: Jack Clayton (Creative Media Service Support Adviser at the University of Sheffield)
- Distribution, Promotion and Marketing: Vicky Simpson (Research Manager at the University of Sheffield)
- Podcast Cover: Dan Farley Designs
- Music: Horizon (Music by Tom Goodfellow, Recorded & Produced by Alan Thomson), Falling Down (Music by Tom Goodfellow, Performed by the Dice, Produced by Alan Thomson)
- Special Thanks: Supported by the Faculty of Social Science and the Creative Media Suite at the University of Sheffield
