The idea behind “DenkRäume”

Topics are always approached from multiple perspectives. Quite often, topics are controversial. The experimental “DenkRäume” format was developed in 2018 to offer space for such disputes in a concentrated and relaxed atmosphere. To achieve this, we always look for physical spaces beyond the typical university seminar room.

Thus, “DenkRäume” provide a space for questioning reflection and scientific creativity that has become rare in the academic world. Because thinking not only takes time. Thinking also needs space – and not just in a metaphorical sense.

Denk-Räume indicate the need for an “ in-between” between the disciplines, whereby their boundaries are not fixed once and for all.

Overview of the FiF DenkRäume

FiF DenkRäume 1.26 | “Security-related research: What are we doing at TU Darmstadt?”

What needs to be done to ensure that scientists address the potential security implications of their research? And what are the consequences? This concerns both potential opportunities, such as the use of research results to create security, resilience and peace, and risks, such as the possibility of use for harmful purposes. But how do we define what constitutes useful and harmful purposes? What considerations exist between the two? What role does our civil clause play in view of the upheavals in security policy? In other words, how could and should the topic of security-related research be conceived and implemented at TU Darmstadt?

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FiF DenkRäume 1.25 | Can technology combat disinformation?

We rarely realize the extent to which our own beliefs depend on what others tell us. But even in the area we consider to be our knowledge (and not merely our own opinions), trust in others is at least an important pillar of that knowledge. Very few of us can say, based on our own experience or logical reasoning, whether it is true that viruses exist, that Japan is a group of islands, that computers process binary states, or who won the last election.

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FiF DenkRäume 1.22 | When technology polarises: Between hype and horror

The one thing: what seems technically possible, which scenarios are planned by developers and which products of knowledge gained in advance go into the market. The other: how does the public actually react – even in the medium term? What “fits the times”? And what causes hardened controversies or what even “crashes”? It is important for science to address the fate of technological knowledge 'out there' in economy and society…

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FiF DenkZoom 1.20 | Safety-critical infrastructures: Networked security – networked responsibility?

The increasing optimisation and networking of systems leads to more and more mutual dependencies between different devices and actors. Safety-critical infrastructures represent a special challenge, because basic needs such as nutrition, health care or mobility cannot be satisfied without them.

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FiF DenkRäume 2.19 | Dual Use-technologies – opportunities vs. risks

Many technologies can be used for both civil and military purposes – and this does not disqualify them automatically. Many technologies can be used for peaceful and violent purposes – and this is even more alarming. A third aspect has recently been added: Many technologies secure basic needs, but increase “ safety-critical” also the insecurity and vulnerability of societies.

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FiF DenkRäume 1.19 | Smart, networked and transparent: The end of privacy and publicity in the digital world?

Digitalisation makes everything "smarter": from the "smart home" and self-driving vehicles to the "digital city". But with every use of these new technological possibilities, we become more visible. And thus more controllable.

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FiF DenkRäume 1.18 | Eergy revolution: Yes please, but not with me!

The idea of the energy revolution and the politically intended change to clean energy sources has a very strong backing in German society. But the practical realisation of this transformation often meets with resistance.

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