Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF)

CONVENORS: KAY JUNGE (BIELEFELD, GER), KIRILL POSTOUTENKO (BIELEFELD, GER), FERNAO VISTULO DE ABREU (AVEIRO, POR) Across the natural and social world, some fairly advanced and apparently robust systems seem to suddenly destroy themselves without discernible reason, function or purpose. While some living bodies succumb to the diseases of their own making, empires collapse and revolutions, as the late 18th century French used to say, tend to devour their own children. Whereas such and similar cases have been extensively discussed within…

CONVENORS: BENJAMIN GESS (BIELEFELD, GER), GUIDO MONTUFAR (LEIPZIG, GER), NIHAT AY (LEIPZIG, GER) In recent years, machine learning algorithms have seen an unprecedented success in a variety of fields, ranging from science and engineering to medicine and social sciences. As a result, artificial intelligence has been identified as one of the key technologies for future social and economic advance. With its rising importance also in failure sensitive systems, for example in medical devices and autonomous driving, the need for a…

Convenors: Oliver Böhm-Kasper (Bielefeld, GER), Saana Jukola (Bielefeld, GER), Anna Kirova (Edmonton, CAN) In our post-truth era, accepted ways of getting at the truth are in crisis. In the context of intensifying borders, forced migration, climate crisis and extinction, and the rise of the global right, we are witnessing an intensifying crisis in meaning making about orders of humanity. The positivist research paradigm that dominates the social sciences and humanities confronts researchers and practitioners across disciplines with shared limitations in…