The Ends of the Humanities

– An international network and conference for the scholarly analysis of technological change The humanities have a general responsibility towards society and one of their mandates is to preserve the cultural skills and knowledge societies depend on. Their role is to reveal alternatives in dealing with current issues and future challenges. – 2022 edition at the World Expo Dubai Organized during the World Expo Dubai 2022, the Ends of Humanities conference focused for its second edition of Humanities and the rise of AI. Powerful technology arises from AI research, opening the gate for various forms of cultural and societal engineering. Potential consequences of the changes imposed by technological advancement on human practice reach from the level of the individual, through cultural techniques, to the organization of society as a whole. Bringing together scholars and scientists from sociology, computer science, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, educational science, philosophy, and linguistics, the conference investigates not only opportunities and shortcomings of AI research, but also implications and potential structural effects of technological innovation the organization of societal practice and techniques of cultural self-reflection. Humanities and social sciences foster a form of active examination of the past in relation to the present and the future, thus expanding the scope of the thinkable. Their prospective and forward-looking character and their willingness to engage in the problems of the present make it possible to reveal alternatives in dealing with current issues and future challenges. This volume explores how individual disciplines position themselves in relation to recent challenges in the humanities. The contributions illuminate the relationship between the humanities on the one hand, and ethics, cultural and social politics, the education system, law, the economy, new technologies, and other sciences on the other. – 2017 edition in Belval (Luxembourg) The conference The Ends of the Humanities seeks to underline the various ways in which the humanities engage with the future and inform ongoing cultural processes; at the same time, it acknowledges that to ensure their survival, the humanities must reach beyond established traditions in teaching and research. More specifically, it aims to examine how individual fields position themselves in relation to different social issues in the humanities – and which areas need to be developed further. Papers will investigate the relationship between the humanities on the one hand, and ethics, cultural and social politics, the education system, the law, the economy, new technologies and other sciences, on the other.