Larisa Jašarević: "The world after: Robobees and plant futures"

The world after: Robobees and plant futures

Abstract

In sci-tech labs world over, the race is on to develop robotic pollinators. Autonomous vehicles and drones, guided by AI frameworks and fitted with precision pollination features, the artificial species of robotic pollinators are hailed as solutions to the planet’s ecological and climate challenges. The latest addition to the prolific speculations about the world after bees, robobees are attracting massive funds, public interest, and criticism of pollination ecologists. This talk darts back and forth between some biotic and robotic plant-insect-human relations to ponder cosmologies and eschatologies—ideas of the world and “the world after”—at work in divergent responses to the world in trouble.

Following her research seminar, Larisa will join BIOrdinary for a discussion of her latest book and documentary film, Beekeeping in the End of Times (2024), which concerns Islamic eco-eschatology, honeybees, and climate change. We warmly invite you to participate in…