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Short abstract

This presentation discusses a human-machine communication class and a counter futures project designed to develop critical literacy skills that challenge dominant techncultural myths. It also invites discussion to consider the (im)possibilities of expanding these methods beyond the classroom.

Long abstract

Examining hegemonic myths relating to technology to denaturalize them is a continual challenge animating work in science and technology studies, and media and cultural studies. In this presentation, I present one attempt to design and guide a Human-Machine Communication class dedicated to the project of challenging myths associated with communicative AI and social robots. I explore specific challenges and opportunities of working with students at a STEM-oriented, US-based institution to question naturalized technocultural assumptions and develop critical orientations toward technology. Most of this presentation focuses on exploring a counter futures group project I designed for the class inspired by projects like counter-n[dot]net, which provide ideas to question dominant technological narratives and pathways to challenge the immanence of technoimperialist futures. Students worked in groups to produce an imagined future based on the identification of a counter-hegemonic value, the creation of a new myth based on that value, and a conceptual prototype of a communicative machine that could emerge given those conditions. The assignment helped students interrogate the way materiality, myth, and social values intersect to create the conditions for the emergence of new technologies and practices and imagine the technocultural world otherwise. Beyond sharing my experience with the class and the project, I hope to discuss the possibilities of expanding this type of praxis to support critical literacies beyond the classroom and to critically reflect on ways these methods may be co-opted to reproduce the dominant myths they seek to challenge.