Nazife Şişman Speaks on "Muslims' Future Envisioning in the Age of Digitalization"
Nazife Şişman who is author of books such as “From Trust to Property”, “Muslim Identity in the Digital Age”, A Brief History of the Day, “Privacy & Secrets and Limits of Life”, and translated various works of Martin Lings and Seyyid Hüseyin Nasr into Turkish, visited our university.
“Almost Every Day We Are Encountered With News That Indicates The Dystopian Landscape Of The Future”
In the interview followed by an interested audience, Nazife Şişman said that almost every day we come across news that bears the signs of the dystopian landscape of the future; robots that do backflips in the air; robots designed as women and given citizenship, saying that their greatest longing is to start a family; Japanese teenagers marrying anime characters; engineers who designed the artificial intelligence of his father, who passed away a few months ago, and said that his aim is to let his children, who were not born yet, to know their grandfathers through this artificial intelligence, which reacts like his father, and many similar events are the first parts of the possible picture of the future. She mentioned that every technological change also changes the way people view the world and interpret it, and transforms the pattern of daily life. She added that, for example, in such a period when it would be possible to both design and produce something without the need for humans, we now have to pursue serious questions.
“There Is An Interaction Between Science Fiction and Scientific Imagination”
“There is an interaction between science fiction and scientific imagination. Continuing her words by saying that science fiction products affect our perceptions and imaginations, the speaker mentioned some of Charlie Cahiplin's films and gave examples from the "Blade Runner" movie series and the movie "Her".20th century Reminding that the 21st century, which we are in with the end of the world, is the scene of the digital revolution and biotechnology revolution; Noting that in fact, we can say that the book "Brave New World" published in 1932 heralded the era of biotechnology and the book "1984" published in 1949, in a sense, heralded the digital revolution. We can tell through the book,” she said.
“Cells, Tissues, Organs, DNA Are Now in Commercial Circulation”
At the point we have reached today, Nazife Şişman stated that many issues related to human life depend on the rules of the global economic structure; He said that cells, tissues, organs and DNA are now in commercial circulation, for example, there has been a huge organ transplant traffic from underdeveloped South American countries to developed North America in recent years. He stated that the north/south hierarchy parallels the division into donors/recipients. Nazife Şişman underlined that those who approach the problems of the age with a critical eye, those who talk about ethics and social morality, actually speak from within the system, and stated that we need an intellectual and moral criticism that can transcend institutional commitments, and the grounds on which this critical thinking can develop.
“The Questions About What Future We Should Envision Are For Most Muslims Are Pointless, Fantastic”
Referring to the accumulation of past civilizations, Nazife Şişman says that there is a Muslim world that suffers from the disease of "trapping into the past", and that questions about what kind of future we should envision seem meaningless and fantastic to most people; She stated that we are stuck at the point of approaching every new development by asking whether it is permissible or not. Noting that every new development has a serious economic, philosophical, sociological and ethical background, the speaker said. She stated that they talk about a future where technology and biology will be more intertwined, bodies and data will become market commodities, and an economic order will prevail.
“For us, it is important from where we look at these issues. Nazife Şişman said, "How do we, as Muslims, approach the present and the future, where even 'human nature' is more questionable," said Nazife Şişman. She added that the words we say are important. The productive interview ended with a question and answer session.
