SET at WeRobot 2025

SET @ WeRobot 2025

Society Ethics Technology (SET) is a joint working group of Orthogonal Research and Education Lab and JOPRO.

Congratulations to Jesse Parent, Jennifer Jiang, and Bradly Alicea for their acceptance to WeRobot 2025, hosted by Windsor University School of Law.

Their work centers on how AI-driven recommendation algorithms, real-time notifications, and streaming services can exacerbate immediate, fragmented experiences — particularly when viewed against broader political-economic contexts. In addition, they highlight a series of mitigations, such as digital wellbeing tools, AI-assisted journaling, and user interface designs intended to counterbalance this intensification of the present.

The project further addresses the importance of interdisciplinary curricula that bridge technology, history, design, and philosophy, enabling individuals to develop narrative-based thinking, long-term planning, and an intentional “Destination” mindset. Three case studies — including an LLM-based mental health application, an EdTech gameworld, and a research collective imbued with valuing historical literacy — demonstrate concrete strategies for embedding narrativity into emerging technologies. By reframing AI as a potential tool for restoring agency rather than reinforcing an endless “now,” the poster calls upon policymakers, educators, and designers to incorporate historical perspective and forward-thinking approaches into the development and deployment of AI systems.

Project Abstract

Navigating Present Shock: Reclaiming Agency Through AI-Enhanced Narrativity

The rapid evolution of technology has shifted societal experiences from Alvin Toffler’s notion of Future Shock to what Douglas Rushkoff terms Present Shock. Today’s AI and robotic tools not only accelerate our immersion in the immediate moment but also intensify an incentivizing to mind the present, in a way that is reminiscent of an ever-present surveillance via Foucault’s panopticon. In this environment, individuals find themselves under persistent observation and algorithmic scrutiny, which further fragments experience and erodes personal agency: “Are you appeasing the algorithm?”

This poster explores the dual role of AI and related technologies. On one hand, these tools contribute to the pressures of Present Shock by overwhelming users with real-time data and fostering a digital panopticon where every interaction is monitored. On the other hand, there exists a promising potential for reconfiguring human-AI and human-machine interactions to cultivate narrative literacy, historical awareness, and agency. Drawing from classic narratives like Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens, we argue for an urgent need to develop new educational and technological frameworks that help individuals navigate modern pressures. Incorporated into this analysis are critical perspectives such as from Ruha Benjamin’s work on imagination and futurism, as well as insights from Nita Farahany and others on the battle for attention. We consider how emerging neurotechnologies and digital surveillance not only shape our cognitive landscapes but also dictate the terms of our freedom and self-determination.

More information about WeRobot 2025

On April 3–5, 2025, We Robot is coming to Canada! Since We Robot’s inception in 2012, this peer-reviewed interdisciplinary conference has brought together leading scholars and practitioners to discuss legal and policy questions relating to robots.

We Robot 2025 will be hosted by Windsor Law in the new Ron W. Ianni building, located beside the busiest international commercial crossing between Canada and the United States.

The city and the University of Windsor sit on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations, which includes the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. Waawiiatanong (“Where the River Bends” in Anishinaabemowin) has served as a meeting place for centuries.

We Robot is the most exciting interdisciplinary conference on the legal and policy questions relating to robots. The increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread introduction everywhere — from the battlefield to the home, from hospitals to public spaces — disrupts existing legal regimes and requires new thinking on policy issues.