Lecture 2 - Sept 17 (8-10) - Daniel Pargman

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Time and place: Tuesday September 19, 8-13 in lecture hall D3.

Title: "Global resource challenges and implications for ICT and media"

Guest: Daniel Pargman, Assistant Professor in Media Technology at the School for Computer Science and Communication, KTH

Talk: You have by now heard lectures focusing on the meaning of sustainability and challenges regarding climate change (CO2 emissions, global environmental challenges etc.). I will try to convince you that resource challenges and a global "energy crunch" will pose a more immediate concern than the (possibly more serious, but also acting on a longer time horizon) challenge of climate change - even though these two issues are tightly linked.

The first part of the lecture will concern resource and energy issues (especially "peak oil"). The second part will discuss implications for ICT and media technologies. Note: the first part of the lecture will use an "unorthodox" lecture format (see the instructions below).

About: Daniel Pargman is Assistant Professor in Media Technology at the KTH School of Computer Science and Communication. His research interests concerns social media, virtual communities, Internet culture, sustainability and resource challenges. He is a member of the steering committee for the KTH VINN ExcellenceCenter for Sustainable Communications (CESC).

Instructions and literature to read before the lecture:

1) Start by looking at the 35 minutes long film with the not-so-uplifting name "There's no tomorrow" (below). Please do not look at it on your smartphone while you're on the move. The film is packed with information, so treat it the same way you would treat a complex text (or a math problem). Concentrate on the movie and keep paper and a pencil at hand in order to write down any questions or thoughts that the film raises (the message is very grim and it should raise many questions and perhaps objections). The first part of the lecture will partly be based on the questions you bring to class. The movie below is "backed up" by two texts that you should read (see further below).

2) Rubin, Jeff (2009), "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller: Oil and the end of globalization". Chapter 1, "Redefining recovery". Note: available in Bilda.

3) Heinberg, Richard (2003), "The party's over: Oil, war and the fate of industrial societies". Parts of chapter 1 ("Energy, nature and society") and chapter 2 ("Party time: The historic interval of cheap, abundant energy". Note: available in Bilda.

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