Disrupted Futures

In this episode of Disrupted Futures, Dr. Radhika Mittal speaks with Prof. Dr. Joel Anderson, Professor of Moral Psychology and Social Philosophy at Utrecht University and ESDiT research fellow and Management Board member, about how artificial intelligence is transforming the way we remember, forget, and make sense of our lives. 

Together, they explore the promises and ethical challenges of AI-powered memory technologies, from digital assistants that help us recall everyday information to systems that record, organise, and curate our personal and shared experiences. 

Joel invites us to rethink memory as something more than simply storing and retrieving information. Our memories shape our identities, relationships, and sense of belonging, and remembering is often something we do together. As AI increasingly takes on the role of remembering for us, new questions arise about privacy, autonomy, ownership, and the value of forgetting. 

From memory augmentation and digital inequality to the right to control our memories, this conversation explores how we can harness AI to strengthen human capabilities and connections without creating new forms of dependency or leaving vulnerable communities behind. 

🎧 Have a listen, share your reflections, and join the conversation! 

In this episode: 

• How AI-powered memory technologies are changing the way we remember and forget 
• The role of memory in shaping personal identity, relationships, and shared experiences 
• The promises of memory augmentation for people with cognitive impairments 
• Who owns and controls our digital memories, and why portability matters 
• How AI memory technologies could deepen digital inequalities 
• Why forgetting, spontaneity, and serendipity are essential to human experience 
• How we can design memory technologies that support autonomy, inclusion, and human flourishing 

#MemoryAugmentation #AI #AIEthics #TechnologyEthics #DigitalMemory #HumanAutonomy #DigitalInequality #DigitalRights #PersonalIdentity #HumanFlourishing #MemoryCuration #RememberingTogether #ForgettingTogether 

Guest: Prof. Dr. Joel Anderson, Utrecht University

Host: Dr. Radhika Mittal, ESDiT Programme Director and Impact Lead

Produced by: Stella Pekiaridi, ESDiT Communications Officer | University of Twente Podcast Studio

In this episode of Disrupted Futures, Dr. Radhika Mittal speaks with Dr. Florence Chee, Associate Professor of Digital Communication and Director of the Center for Digital Ethics and Policy at Loyola University Chicago, about what happens when more and more of our everyday lives become datafied.

Together, they explore how digital games offer a window into wider transformations in our digital lives: from data collection and surveillance to questions of privacy, consent, power, and the growing influence of AI.

Florence invites us to look beyond what technologies can do and ask what they should do. As our leisure, work, interactions, and everyday habits become sources of data, she argues that meaningful informed consent and attention to power imbalances are essential — particularly when vulnerable and marginalised communities are affected.

From free-to-play games and predictive analytics to AI, smart cities, and even the apps we use to buy our morning coffee, this conversation asks how we can put ethics at the heart of technological development rather than treating it as an afterthought — and how communities can play a greater role in shaping the digital futures they inhabit.

🎧 Have a listen, share your reflections, and join the conversation!

In this episode:

• How digital games became spaces for data collection and surveillance
• Why informed consent matters in our everyday digital lives
• Datafication, predictive analytics, and the rise of AI
• How data-driven technologies can reinforce existing inequalities
• Why designing for marginalised and vulnerable communities benefits us all
• How communities can challenge power imbalances in the digital ecosystem
• Why ethics needs to be built into technology from the beginning

#DigitalEthics #Datafication #AIethics #TechnologyEthics #DigitalGames #DataPrivacy #Surveillance #InformedConsent #DigitalCulture #AI

Guest: Dr. Florence Chee, Associate Professor of Digital Communication and Director of the Center for Digital Ethics and Policy at Loyola University Chicago
Host: Dr. Radhika Mittal, ESDiT Programme Director and Impact Lead
Produced by: Stella Pekiaridi, ESDiT Communications Officer | University of Twente Podcast Studio

In the second episode of Disrupted Futures, Dr. Radhika Mittal speaks with Prof. Dr. Sabine Roeser, Professor of Ethics at TU Delft and ESDiT Management Board member, about the often-overlooked role of emotions in decision-making around emerging technologies. 

Together, they explore why emotions such as empathy, care, and concern are not obstacles to rational thinking but essential sources of moral knowledge.  
 
Sabine invites us to rethink the place of emotions in ethics. Rather than seeing them as irrational, she argues that they reveal the values at stake in debates on AI, climate change, nuclear energy, and the technologies shaping our future. 

From risk management and emotional deliberation to the role of art, public engagement, and intergenerational justice, this conversation invites us to rethink not only how we evaluate disruptive technologies, but also what it means to make the right decisions in an increasingly complex world. 

🎧 Have a listen, share your reflections, and join the conversation!

In this episode:

• Why emotions are essential to right decision-making 
• How emotional deliberation can improve technology governance 
• AI, climate change, and the ethics of technological disruption 
• Why public participation matters in decisions about risky technologies 
• The role of art in fostering ethical reflection 
• How empathy, care, and responsibility can shape more sustainable futures 

#Emotions #EmotionEthics #RiskEthics #TechnologyEthics #AI #ClimateEthics #PublicEngagement #RiskTechnologies #Decision-Making #ClimateChangeMitigation

Guest: Prof.dr. Sabine Roeser, TU Delft
Host: Dr. Radhika Mittal, ESDiT Programme Director and Impact Lead
Produced by: Stella Pekiaridi, ESDiT Communications Officer | University of Twente Podcast Studio

In the first episode of Disrupted Futures, Dr. Radhika Mittal speaks with Dr. Patty Reyes Benavides, philosopher of technology, climate activist, ESDiT fellow and researcher at the University of Twente, about the complex relationship between digital technologies, climate activism, and social change.

Together, they explore how the internet has transformed climate movements, why climate change cannot be separated from broader social and political crises, and what alternatives exist to today's Big Tech-dominated digital landscape.

From technopolitics and pluriversality to digital activism, coloniality, and the future of an ethical internet, this conversation challenges us to rethink not only the technologies we use, but the worlds we are creating through them.

🎧 Have a listen, share your reflections, and join the conversation!

In this episode:

• How digital technologies are reshaping climate activism
• The shift from collective to connective action
• Why climate justice is deeply intertwined with social justice
• The role of Big Tech in the climate crisis
• Can we build a more democratic, ethical internet?
• Practical ways to imagine and create alternative technological futures

#reversalclimateaction #technopolitics #interneting 

Guest: Dr. Patty Reyes Benavides
Host: Dr. Radhika Mittal, ESDiT Programme Director and Impact Lead
Produced by: Stella Pekiaridi, ESDiT Communications Officer | University of Twente Podcast Studio