Girls Sc(AI)ence 6: Cognizing Subjects: Our Human Futures with Our Nonhuman Symbionts

An online lecture in the serie Girls Just Want To Have Sc(AI)ence.

Topic: Cognizing Subjects: Our Human Futures with Our Nonhuman Symbionts

Invited speaker: N. Katherine Hayle, Distinguished Research Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the James B. Duke Professor Emerita from Duke University.

When: 9 December 2025, 16.00 to 17.00 CET

Where: online - link by registration

Abstract

Among the practices driving the planet toward ecological collapse is anthropocentrism, the belief that Homo sapiens is the species superior to all others.  Such ideas find support in the notion that humans are cognitively the most advanced.  Crucial to bringing sanity, sustainability and ecological balance back, then, is a reassessment of cognition. The Integrated Cognitive Framework (ICF) proposes a relational definition of cognition as a process that interprets information in contexts that connect it to meaning.  This definition opens cognitive practices as well as meaning-making to nonhuman lifeforms and to AIs such as Large Language Models . In developed societies, most of the work is performed by cognitive assemblages, collectivities of humans, nonhumans and computational media through which information, interpretations, and decisions flow.

The broader context within which ICF operates is ecological relationality. Its implications are explored through case studies, including the cognitive capacities of microorganisms.  The cognitive capabilities of computational media are explored through analyses of the architectures and textual productions of Large Language Models, specifically OpenAI’s Transformer models. Replacing liberal political philosophy with ecological relationality enables us to take responsibility without at the same time reinscribing human dominance, and for embracing  choices that will lead to flourishing futures for humans and nonhumans.   

Registration

To participate is free of charge. Registration for online lecture at ai.lu.se.

About the workshop series

While feminist approaches to technoscience are getting increasing attention, fields such as Artificial Intelligence, Human-Robot Interaction and Human-Computer Interaction are still male-dominated. Similarly, new technologies, from assistive robots to chatbots, are often imbued with the same intrinsic gender and ethnic stereotypes and biases present in our Western society. An increasing number of scholars have thus called for a feminist reboot, praising more ethical, sustainable and inclusive research practices and epistemologies in the hope of better technology. Our workshop series "Girls just want to have Sc(AI)ence" aims to foster knowledge and discussions on critical and feminist approaches to technology by engaging scholars working with AI from a variety of disciplines -from data science to art, political studies and philosophy, and invite them to reflect and imagine together how to use tools and theories from critical and feminist studies to implement more thcial, sustainable and inclusive technology-related practices and research.
More info can be found here: https://www.ai.lu.se/GIRLSCAIENCE 

This event is sponsored by WASP HS and Lund university profile area Natural and Artificial Cognition