March 12: "From Survivor, to Researcher, to Steward" with Dr. Kay Coghill of Blacksky
In this talk, Dr. Kay will discuss how their own life's experience fueled their decades-long research on digital harm and how Blacksky Algorithms is taking what was once considered "me-search" and creating a safer internet rooted in self-determination and self-governance.
Blacksky is one of the most vibrant corners of the Bluesky/ATProto ecosystem, pushing the boundaries of open social media. To learn more, hear our 2024 podcast interview with founder Rudy Fraser.
Lunch provided for registered guests.
March 24: Protocol Ecologies Symposium
The fate of the world may depend on protocols—from climate treaties to AI guardrails, from Indigenous stewardship to diasporic cultures. It is a concept that has spread far and wide, but scholarship has yet to take seriously the breadth and power of the concept.
This event introduces both the theory and practice of protocols. It features a keynote talk by a leading theorist of protocol media, Johannes Bennke, followed by a panel including Colorado protocol practitioners.
Breakfast provided for registered guests.
Magic Mountain Talks this Thursday: Perry Anderson on World War I and the present international crisis
MEDLab, along with collaborators on and off campus, is helping to build a new event series around the intersection of literature and politics. The events take place at Trident Booksellers & Cafe, an employee-owned business. Our second event, with historian Perry Anderson, still has some space!
Perry Anderson is the author of, among other books, Spectrum, Lineages of the Absolutist State, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, Considerations on Western Marxism, English Questions, The Origins of Postmodernity, and The New Old World. He taught History at UCLA for thirty years and is on the editorial board of New Left Review.
Collective Governance with AI
Last month, we shared a new publication from Metagov, edited by MEDLab director Nathan Schneider, that breaks apart the AI stack and identifies ways that people can—and already are—reshaping it with collective governance.
Since then, Nathan has been exploring ways that AI agents invite us to rethink some of our designs for collective governance in diverse online spaces. See his blog post "Constitutional Agents for Online Governance" and his talk on the topic at the inaugural ETHBoulder event. This thinking has important consequences for projects like our ongoing redesigns of CommunityRule and Modpol.
Podcast: What can ancient cosmologies teach the future?
MEDLab's radio show, Looks Like New, comes out the fourth Thursday of every month on KGNU, 88.5 FM, or online as a podcast. Last month's episode is now available:
Kadallah Burrowes is joined by Ytasha Womack, an author, filmmaker, and independent scholar whose work has been foundational to how we understand Afrofuturism as both a cultural movement and a philosophical practice. Best known for Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, Womack has spent decades exploring the intersections of Black culture, technology, imagination, and liberation across writing, film, music, and embodied practices like dance.
In reference to her book, The Afrofuturist Evolution, this conversation explores Afrofuturism as an active world-building practice rather than a distant or purely speculative future. Womack reflects on living inside futures once imagined by thinkers like Octavia Butler, the role of imagination in shaping present realities, and how ancient cosmologies, rhythm, and storytelling can inform more humane technological systems.
Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or directly through our website. You can also follow the show on Instagram, Mastodon, and X.
