Towards Life 3.0 - Ethics and Technology in the 21st Century: Unfollow | Deradicalization via Twitter

Date: 

Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 5:30pm to 6:45pm

Location: 

Wexner 434AB

Towards Life 3.0: Ethics and Technology in the 21st Century is a new talk series organized and facilitated by Mathias Risse, Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights, Global Affairs and Philosophy. Drawing inspiration from the title of Max Tegmark’s book, Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, the series draws upon a range of scholars, technology leaders, and public interest technologists to address the ethical aspects of the long-term impact of artificial intelligence on society and human life.

Megan Phelps-Roper, Author of "Unfollow" & Granddaughter of the Founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, will give a talk titled, "Unfollow | Deradicalization via Twitter."

A light dinner will be served.

 

Megan Phelps-Roper:

Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church -- the fire-and-brimstone religious sect at once aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic, and jubilant about AIDS and natural disasters. From the age of five, Megan participated in the church's picketing almost daily and spearheaded the use of social media in the church.

Dialogue with "enemies" online proved instrumental in her deradicalization, and in 2012, at the age of twenty-six, Megan left the church, her family, and her life behind. Since then she has become an advocate for people and ideas she was taught to despise -- especially the value of empathy in dialogue with people across ideological lines.