Mou Zongsan and AI ethics

Anna Greenspan

April 24, 2025, 19:00-20:30

Room 301, building 10, Sophia University

In person only / No registration required

China has a singular media ecology. Tencent and Alibaba are giant Internet platforms that rival Facebook and Google. Urban environments have been entirely reshaped by biometrics and QR codes. Mobile payments have almost totally replaced cash. My recent work stems from the basic premise that to understand the contemporary mediasphere requires an engagement with China. This talk will draw from my new book China and the Wireless Undertow: Media as Wave Philosophy published in the Technicities book series at Edinburgh University Press in 2023 and the upcoming volume Machine Decision is Not Final: The History and Future of China, which is co-edited will Benjamin Bratton and Bogna Konior and will be published by Urbanomic/MIT Press in 2025. This talk will focus on the work of philosopher Mou Zongsan, and argue that a synthesis of media theory and New Confucian thought can deepen and enrich our thinking about AI ethics. 

Anna Greenspan is Associate Professor of Global Contemporary Media, NYU Shanghai. Her research focuses on speculative philosophy, urban futures and emerging media. She teaches courses in media theory, philosophy of technology, environmental humanities and urban studies in the program of Interactive Media Arts. She is the Director of NYU Shanghai’s new Center for AI and Culture.  Anna's current research project is on the nature of artifice. Anna maintains a website at https://annagreenspan.com/

This talk is organized by James Farrer (Professor of Sociology, Sophia University).

Photo: Chinese philosopher, Mou Zingsan giving a lecture in Hong Kong in the 1960s.