Anthroporobotics, Cryptophilosophy and Vochongos

I've spent the last two days attending a preconference in Xalapa Mexico at Universidad Anáhuac de Xalapa. The subject was the convergence of technology (robotic) and humanity (anthropos). Some would argue today that the convergence of these two is ultimately and continuously positive. Some would go a bit further, like John Kurzweil in the Singularity, and argue that it is invevitable. But this conference delved into the more interesting question of how do you reconcile the role of humanity with technology. This was not a Luddite assemblage in any sense. However, it was also not, as some of the supporters of the Singularity suggest, a naive cheerleading session for the inevitable melding of man and machine. Some of these questions are as old as philosophy itself. And the claims in this generation are often as grandiose as generations before them.

The preconference was designed to give the students and faculty a dry run in thinking about the issues and in working with the logistics of running an international conference. So there were a limited number of outside speakers from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, and economics. IF you would like to read the paper that got the issue started it can be seen at Universidad Anáhuac de Xalapa If the preconference is any indication of the quality of the discussions that included faculty, some outsiders and students - then the conference in October will be a very interesting event. The odd thing I was struck with in listening to two days of talk and discussion was how involved the students were in this issue - they probably understand the ubiquity of technology better than my generation simply because most of it has been around since they were born - but they also began to explore the consequences of technology in many venues.

Vochongos are an interesting word. At one point the current rector of UAX was looking for a word that was common in many disciplines where everyone knows the word but no one can give you a precise definition. Some academics spend a good part of their lives creating vochongos (vonchongero) and living off the results. Others consume and perpetuate these new words that sometimes catch on and then spend their lives analyzing this semisense (vonchogistas) For someone who lives around academics for any part of their lives this is a very interesting and useful word. Please feel free to pass it on. A vocho in Spanish is a bug - often a VW bug - No tengo un coche tengo un Vocho (I do not have a car I have a bug). hongo is a mushroom. (Which often induces a haze) - Thus a vochongo is a word that is created with the quality of a bug but often leaves you in a haze. Vochongos are useful but limited vehicles of transport which the vonchongero disguises as a Lambringini but which is really only a Trabant. The best part of this exercise is the the best vochongeros produce this matter with OPM (other people's money - often from places like the Ford Foundation). The mushroom suggests the rapidity which these things reproduce themselves especially in the organic substrate of stables of professorial offices. Many students have been avochongated (filled with vochongos).

The discussion of Anthroporobotics is not a vochongo - the substance of the debate has not yet been joined on both sides and at this point the technologically exuberant side has done a lot of the talking.