IDFN 2026 Meeting

How will the rapid pace of technological change reshape the future of interaction? 

Across distinct domains, new technologies appear to signal transformations in how we will interact. For example, the growth and scope of innovation in education point towards a future of digitally mediated learning. In the field of healthcare, fundamental questions of what it means to live well are entangled with projections of futures in which devices play a key role. In our workplaces and our social lives, technologies are becoming more ingrained with AI chatbots and companions, robotic colleagues, and new ways of living and loving. 

At the same time, these futures are caught up with infrastructural concerns that have been with us for some time. The energy, storage and data analysis infrastructure that underpins these futures raises significant questions of what will count as ethics and privacy, acceptable use, speed, accessibility and sustainability. Join us to work through how futures of interaction will play out: between humans mediated by machines, between machines that have consequences for humans, and the possibility of holding on to a space for human interaction not mediated by technology.