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Will AI Become Conscious? A Conversation with Susan Schneider

Posted by: Dan Turello

Susan Schneider is associate professor of philosophy and the director of the A.I., Mind and Society Group at the University of Connecticut. She was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Kluge Center in the spring and will be back in residence as the Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology beginning in October 2019. She …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

How to Think About Data: A Conversation with Christine Borgman

Posted by: Dan Turello

Members of the Scholars Council are appointed by the Librarian of Congress to advise on matters related to scholarship at the Library, with special attention to the Kluge Center and the Kluge Prize. The Council includes scholars, writers, researchers, and scientists. “Insights” is featuring some of the work of this group of thinkers. Dan Turello …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Can Big Data Save Us from Ourselves? A Conversation About Information, Democracy, and Dystopia

Posted by: Dan Turello

On a rainy day in late spring, a pan-Asian noodle restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue offered the perfect nook for a spirited conversation about big data, algorithms, and the construction of our legal and social realities. Among those at the table with me were Martin Hilbert, who was a Kluge Distinguished Visiting Scholar and is Associate …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

The John W. Kluge Prize: Recognizing an Impact on Public Life

Posted by: Dan Turello

As James English describes in his 2005 book, “The Economy of Prestige,” like so much in our cultural history, the practice of awarding prizes can be traced back to the Greeks, who, in addition to creating the Olympics, introduced drama and arts competitions as early as the 6th century B.C. Since then, prizes across a …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

What’s on Your Holiday Table? A Conversation About Health, Spirituality, Food, and Farming

Posted by: Dan Turello

I’m talking with three friends who think about, and work with, food, farming, and culture. Catherine Newell is a Larson Fellow who is studying how consumers use scientific concepts about food and diet to build a spiritual practice. Danille Christensen was a Kluge Fellow in 2016. As a folklorist, she investigates the social meanings of food practices and is writing about home …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Emoji, Texting and Social Media: How Do They Impact Language?

Posted by: Dan Turello

I’m here with Dame Wendy Hall, Kluge Chair in Technology and Society, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and early pioneer in web protocols; with Alexandre Loktionov, AHRC Fellow at the Kluge Center and an expert on hieroglyphic and cuneiform legal texts; and with Jessica Lingel, Kluge Fellow, assistant professor at …

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At the Library: An Interview with Peng Guoxiang, 2016 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North, Library of Congress

Posted by: Dan Turello

(The following is a repost from 4 Corners of the World: International Collections, written by Qi Qiu, Head of Scholarly Services, Asian Division.) For the first time in 16 years the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the North is a scholar in Chinese Studies. Peng Guoxiang, Professor of Chinese Philosophy, Intellectual History and …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Life as it Could Be: A Conversation with Luis Campos

Posted by: Dan Turello

Fourth Astrobiology Chair Luis Campos began his tenure at the Kluge Center on October 3. A historian of science, his most recent book is “Radium and the Secret of Life” (University of Chicago Press, 2015). He will spend his fellowship year at the Kluge Center studying the history of synthetic biology and its overlap with astrobiology …