Panelists

William Lockett

Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology

Panel: Deep Time & Intelligence

William Locket, “The Science of Fun and the War on Poverty.” 2019, Grey Room. Courtesy of the National Archives.
William Lockett, “Video Games: Culture and Industry.” Courtesy of William Lockett.

The Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship with CAST is awarded based on a proposal for a conference theme. The role of the postdoc is to work closely with MIT faculty from across all disciplines at MIT to collaboratively shape a robust conceptual framework that can facilitate discussion between, and enrich research within, otherwise enclosed domains of knowledge and practice.

The 2019-21 fellow, media historian William Lockett, has told the story of the history of the personal computer from the perspective of 1960s researchers who analyzed, modeled, and observed learning phenomena in natural and artificial systems during that key decade of foundational AI research. As the convener of the panel, “Deep Time & Intelligence,” he foregrounds how multimodal models of perception and the archaic art of music suggest ways that AI might learn.

 

Website: williamlockett.org
Social: Twitter

Symposium Schedule

Panel: Deep Time & Intelligence
Video Release: Friday, April 2, 2021 / 9:00am EST
Live Q&A: Monday, April 5, 2021 / 11:00am–12:00pm EST

Related Works

“The Science of Fun and the War on Poverty”

2019, Grey Room Quarterly

A story about a forgotten language learning system elucidates the relevance of the War on Poverty for the domestication of computing.

“Cybernetic Child Psychology: A Genealogy of the User”

2019

A history of the personal computer told through a genealogy of user construct.

Video Games: Culture and Industry

2016-current

An award-winning course linking classic works in video game studies to media history, art history, anthropology, and critical cultural studies of play and games.