Background on Keynote Speakers

Below are articles that may be worth reading in advance on our keynote speakers:

• William Wimsatt: the epilogue to his book "Re-Engineering Philosophy" discusses his early career working as an engineer and studying philosophy. It contains a call for philosophers to study how engineers make knowledge. 
• Malka Older is the author of the book Infomocracy, which focuses on a near-future world where society has been reorganized into a micro-democratic system. Much of the book is about "Information", a technology/news system that tries to provide objective information surrounding elections. The first five chapters of Infomocracy can be read here.
• Daniel Sarewitz: this 2008 piece, co-authored with Richard Nelson in Nature, discusses three rules for a technological fix. (NEW, added post-conference): His book the Technohuman Condition offered a framework for levels of function and socio-technical complexity in technology. His thoughts on how technologies can shape political conflict are discussed in the article "How Science Makes Environmental Controversies Worse."
• Robyn Gatens is the Deputy Director for the International Space Station Division at NASA Headquarters. More information on the ISS can be found here. 

The overall fPET conference agenda can be found here.