Next DigHum Lecture:

Tuesday, October 21, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. (17:00) Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

Topic: “Who Owns the Future?”
(scroll down for abstract and CV)

Speaker: Jaron Lanier (Microsoft, USA)
Moderator: Sarah Kriesche (Ö1, Austria)

Live in FH Hörsaal 1, Freihausgebäude, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040 Vienna

To participate in the talks via Zoom go to: https://tuwien.zoom.us/j/96389928143?pwd=UU5YRkNuRmdoWHV4MFBwMWRCcUErdz09
(Password: 0dzqxqiy)

The talk will be live streamed and recorded on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/digitalhumanism

For further announcements and information about the speakers in the Lecture Series, see https://dighum.org/#latest-news. Please note that you can access the slides and recordings of our past events via that link.

In case you missed the last lecture by Mathieu Guillermin you can watch the recording of “New Humanism in the Time of Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence (NHNAI): a Research-Action Project”.

Next events:
20.-21.11 Digital Humanism – Interdisciplinary Science and Research Conference

We are looking forward to seeing you!

Stefan Woltran

ABSTRACT “Who owns the future”:

Abtract for “Who owns the future” will be forthcoming.

Short Bio of Jaron Lanier:

Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist, composer, artist, and author. He is a founder of the field of Virtual Reality (a term he coined), aa well as adjacent disciplines including surgical simulation, and has received a lifetime achievement award from the IEEE. His bestselling books on computer science and society have won numerous honors, including the German Peace Prize for Books. Lanier also writes for the New Yorker and for movies and TV. He is a specialist in performing on rare musical instruments of all cultures and periods. Lanier currently serves as Prime Unifying Scientist at Microsoft.

Short Bio of Sarah Kriesche:

Sarah Kriesche is a science editor for Ö1, an Austrian radio station, and was born and raised in Graz. Sarah’s career in broadcasting began in 1999 when she moderated the radio program “Nachbar in Not” for ORF, reporting on current events in Southeast Europe in six languages. She has worked at various stations, including St. Pölten, Wiener Neustadt, Gran Canaria, and Vienna. She is a recipient of the Prälat-Leopold-Ungar Recognition Award for her weekly series “Vielfalt in Wien,” (Radio Wien) which highlights the diversity of Vienna’s people and how cultural coexistence enriches the city’s quality of life. Her contribution to the history of surveillance in Vienna (Ö1) was awarded the Hamburg Surveillance Studies Prize. Sarah’s work emphasizes the exploration of technical innovations and their societal impact. Since 2010 she designs and presents several programs, including “Matrix”, “Digital Leben”, “Radiokolleg” and news broadcasts.

After the end of TU Vienna’s DigHum Conference mentioned above, in the evening of 21 November 2025, GSIS invites together with the Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftlcue Verantwortung to its Conference in German “Digitaler Humanismus für eine techno-öko-soziale Transformation der Weltgesellschaft”. Keynote speakers are Julia Neidhardt from the Digital Humanism Initiatve at the TU Vienna and Sarah Spiekermann-Hoff from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and the European Future Foundation. You can join the conference by registering without fee. Read more here.