Thought Experiments for a Changing Planet – Keynote by Jonathon Keats
What if trees could vote in Swiss elections? What if clocks in Zürich were calibrated by the flow rate of the Limmat? For over twenty-five years, Jonathon Keats has been questioning the operating principles of human civilization — and proposing alternatives for collective consideration.
As the keynote of the DSI Minor / LAO Digital Skills Semester Celebration, Keats presents some of his most provocative thought experiments, exploring how philosophy can be practiced in public through artistic methods — and why, in a changing world, that matters.
Jonathon Keats is an experimental philosopher, artist, and writer whose work combines methods from the sciences and the humanities. He is a research associate at the University of Arizona and a fellow at the Berggruen Institute. At the DSI, Keats teaches in the Artistic Reflection module of the DSI Minor / LAO Digital Skills and serves as advisor for metadisciplinary studies.
The talk is followed by an apéro.
When / Wann: May 18, 2026, 16:00 - 17:00
Where / Wo: Digital Society Initiative, Rämistrasse 69, 8001 Zurich
Language / Sprache: English
Registration / Anmeldung: Link
Organisation: DSI Minor / LAO Digital Skills