Seminar in Honor of Jean-Guy Meunier

In collaboration with UQAM's Institute of Cognitive Sciences, the Research Group on Computer-Assisted Analysis of Québécois Philosophical Texts will host Marcello Vitali-Rosati as part of its upcoming hybrid seminar, on Wednesday, March 18th, at 3:00 p.m. He will deliver a talk entitled "Modeling and Malfunction," of which here is a brief summary:

In an era where digital technology giants are successfully imposing upon us a handful of applications supposedly designed to amaze us and provide the right answer by "saving us time," this presentation will seek to demonstrate that a computer's value lies precisely in its capacity to make us waste a great deal of time by forcing us to rigorously formulate our concepts and ideas. A computer is a machine for modeling. And if these models then don't work at all... well, that's even better! The argument will be illustrated with a concrete case: the use of computational approaches to better understand the literary form of variation in the Greek Anthology.

The session will be followed by a discussion period and a friendly reception.