Peoria   

Dr. Eduardo Pagán, Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History at Arizona State University, will delve into the nature of Violence and Order in Territorial Arizona. Taking 1874 as a case study, he explores what essentially was a low‑intensity warfare amid weak civil institutions, which illustrates how violence enforced territorial settlement and mirrored wider Western trends of high per capita homicide rates in sparsely populated frontiers. He also examines spatial patterns to determine where violence is most likely to occur, under what circumstances, and with what means. Finally, by examining the per capita death rates, he will also investigate which populations were most affected by frontier justice.

Previous technology systems, such as the railroad and electrification, dramatically changed human, natural, and built systems at regional and global scales – but that’s nothing compared to what today’s rapid – and accelerating – evolution across the entire frontier of technology might do. Even today, AI writes music, novels, and Ph.D. dissertations, and creates fascinating paintings and videos from simple verbal commands. It is becoming impossible to know whether a picture, video, or voice is real or fake. That call from your mother might actually be from an AI, which could then use your voice to scam money from your friends and bank accounts. Meanwhile, many start-up companies are developing “brain chips” that could enable telepathy between humans, as well as metacognitive mixtures of AI and human cognition that may surpass the most gifted humans. Scientists are increasingly treating the human aging process as a curable disease, believing that our children may live healthy lives of 150 to 200 years – perhaps much longer. These are only a few examples in a future where our planet, and humans themselves, become design spaces subject to deliberate change in ways never before possible. The psychological, political, economic, and social implications are vast, but we are not helpless: there are ways to think about and prepare for this turbulent period of change.