Presented by the Emerging Technologies Research Lab, this slow symposium discusses futures at, in and from the edge. It calls for a decentralising vision and asks how; people, other species, environment and emerging technologies might live together in the as yet unknown, propelled by its edges.

The deepening integration of the technology sector with the FIRE sector—finance, insurance, real estate—is a profoundly consequential development in modern capitalism. Separately these sectors are among the most powerful forces in society, with access to untold wealth and the ability to act like private forms of governance. When working together, they boost each other to new levels of dominance. Going by terms like fintech, insurtech, and proptech, these interdisciplinary enterprises have acquired an inescapable influence over our lives, even if we only notice a fraction of the ways they interact with us. These terms are large umbrellas under which vast arrays of systems are clustered, each one aiming to deploy digital solutions that serve the needs of technological and financial capital.

This panel will offer a broad, critical discussion of this integration and its consequences. To anchor our conversation, we will pay special attention to the role of data—and data-driven systems like artificial intelligence—in the FIRE sector. These industries are now among the most powerful creators and users of data in society. They hold key positions in how data is governed and make key decisions about how data is valorised. For the last fifty years, the world has been consumed by a regime of FIRE. As we all try to grapple with the latest developments in technology, and what they mean for the future of everything, we must also look closely at the political economy of FIRE.

Panel

Jathan Sadowski (Monash University)

Salomé Viljoen (University of Michigan Law School)

Jake Goldenfein (University of Melbourne)

Megan Nethercote (RMIT University)

Futures at the Edge symposium

This slow symposium discusses futures at/in/from the edge. It calls for a decentralising vision and asks how people, other species, environment and emerging technologies might live together in the as yet unknown, propelled by its edges.

This event is presented in partnership with the Centre of Excellence Automated Decision Making + Society.