Technology at the University of Illinois has long played a role in shaping how we imagine the future. Remember HAL from Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey? In the novel and the movie, HAL – the sentient computer — was created in laboratories in Urbana Illinois. Those origins evoked the reputation of the University for pushing the boundaries of the future through technological breakthroughs like ILLIAC, the supercomputers built on the Urbana campus in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Clarke’s HAL also put our campus on the map of the popular sci fi imagination for decades to come.
In November 2017, the CSL and the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities are combining forces to bring Speculative Futures to campus. Drawing on this world-famous technological legacy, Speculative Futures is a series of events that bring artists, writers and technology innovators into conversation with one another in order to spark new creative projects at the intersection of science, technology and the sci fi imagination.
Whether you are an avid reader of speculative fiction or you are just curious about the technological wonders that dot our campus, join us for two days of tech events that are guaranteed to inspire and amaze.
November 3, 2017
Creative Writers/Artists Tech Talk
1:30 p.m. | Levis Faculty Center
Inside NCSA: Reception + Interactive Demonstrations
5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. | National Center for Supercomputing Applications
November 4, 2017
Creating for the Future Workshop
10:00 a.m. | Champaign Public Library
For students in Grades 6–12
Imagining Futures
2:00 p.m. | Electrical and Computer Engineering Building Auditorium
Worlds Colliding
3:30 p.m. | Electrical and Computer Engineering Building Auditorium