The Digital Sessions are an initiative launched by the NaDI, the digital research institute at UNamur. The latter brings together researchers from the Faculties of law, informatics and EMCP.

To stimulate interdisciplinary collaboration, NaDI has launched a call for projects. One of the selected projects? Les Séances du Numérique, an original format in which fiction becomes the starting point for debate. Each meeting begins with a film screening, followed by an interdisciplinary conference on a digital-related social issue.

An outstanding first Séance du Numérique

To inaugurate the cycle, the team chose to screen The Social Network last May. The film traces the creation of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg, and the debate focused on the moderation of social networks, a hot topic since the election of Donald Trump. Two experts led the discussion: Julien Albert, expert at the PReCISE center, and Jérémy Grossman, expert at CRIDS.

Affiche du film "The social network"

Educating through fiction

The ambition of these sessions is simple: to educate about digital issues through fiction, and to confront a variety of viewpoints.

This format extends the experience of the podcast Pop-Code already hosted by Anthony Simonofski and Benoît Vanderose, but with an added dimension: interdisciplinarity and direct exchange with the audience. After the film, everyone can question the experts and enrich the reflection.

What next?

Digital technology will be at the heart of future screenings, with a dynamic that is both collaborative and rooted in current affairs:

  1. Fostering collaboration between several NaDI centers to bring disciplines into dialogue (as was the case at the first session with CRIDS and PReCISE).
  2. Bouncing off themes linked to current events to guarantee the relevance of exchanges.

Four sessions will be offered per year, open to all, with one priority: reaching out to citizens. The films are there to give the event a cultural and scientific outreach.

Eventually, the team would like to diversify its formats: screenings in cinemas like Caméo, broadcasting series, even playconferences where we play a video game during the debate. The idea: to use fiction in all its forms to kick-start discussion.

The team behind the project

  • Fanny Barnabé, lecturer at CRIDS / NaDI
  • Anne-Sophie Collard, professor at the EMCP Faculty
  • Anthony Simonofski, professor at the EMCP Faculty
  • Benoît Vanderose, professor at the Computer Science Faculty

In collaboration with the Knowledge Confluence and the Administration de la communication

Next session: November 4 - "Does AI have a conscience?"

Projection of the film Ex Machina followed by a discussion with Isabelle Linden and Benoît Frenay.

Think, think: is the human being still unique?

Behind the AI revolution, a question arises: does AI have a conscience? For this second screening-debate of Séances du Numérique, we invite you to dive into the film Ex_machina, a troubling face-off between creation and creator, between human and machine, between future and humanity.

Program:

  • 5pm: Welcome & film presentation
  • 5:15pm: Screening of the film Ex machina
  • 7:05pm: Debate "Does AI have a conscience? " (with Isabelle Linden & Benoît Frenay)
  • 19h45: end

Two experts will take part in the debate:

  • Benoît Frenay, who will shed light on the learning logics of today's artificial intelligences and the limits of their "autonomy". Can we really speak of intelligence without consciousness? How far can imitation go?
  • Isabelle Linden, who will question the very foundations of what we call "thinking" in a computer logic. Can we create a conscious machine? Or are we merely facing mirrors of our own desires?
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affiche séance du numérique 25.11.04