Two conferences, two moods, two photos

During the last two weeks I've participated in two rather different academic conferences, and I'd like to share a couple of photographs that illustrate the rather diverse states of mind that the conferences put me in.¹

First I took part in the IS4SI (International Society for Information Studies) 2017 Summit in my hometown Gothenburg. The invitation I received early on to give a keynote lecture (in which I spoke on the topic Should AI Armageddon scenarios be taken seriously?) generated further invitations to various sessions at the conference, so I ended up also participating in a panel discussion on The good information and communication society - from theory to actions, as well as contributing to a session on transhumanism (speaking on Aspects of mind uploading). All in all, the conference had its ups and its downs, and on at least one occasion I had trouble staying awake, as the following photo indicates.

The next week I went on to the 24th Ulvön conference on environmental economics, where I contributed a talk on Energy vs information: environmental economics meets singularitarianism. This annual meeting (this was the second time I participated; the first was in 2007) is truly enjoyable for many reasons including its intellectual content, the general friendliness of its participants, and its traditional menu on the final evening (surströmming - pretty much my favorite dish!).

Footnote

1) Photo credit to Torbjörn Lundh and Jason Shogren, respectively.