The Möbius Prize returns with the 2022 edition

MÖBIUS PRIZE 2022 – The Foundation that organizes and promotes the Möbius Prize has decided to dedicate the next edition, the number twenty-six to Discourses of hatred (hate speech), fake news (fake news) and metaverses. This is an appointment that will be held on 14 and 15 October at USI in Lugano, exactly one year after the previous edition in which ated-ICT Ticino was awarded in the category “mutant publishing” for having created Swiss Virtual Expo.

Returning to the next edition of the Möbius Prize, in a popular note the organizers say that: Reality is under attack. The boundaries between virtual and real fade, the digital world expands and creates new realities. Technology attempts to eliminate interfaces, looking for ways to allow us to interact with computers without mediating between the brain and the machine. Even the very concept of truth is questioned, with operations on a scale that we could define industrial able, thanks to the network, to spread falsehood and manipulate the truth. We are witnessing efforts from multiple directions to change the way we interact with the worlds, real and virtual, some with positive intentions and outcomes, some less. This is why it is essential to continue studying the changes underway, remaining attentive to the nuances and possibilities, with an eye to the great challenges facing humanity in the 21st century, and this is why the Foundation has decided to dedicate the 26th edition of the Möbius Prize to the theme: Discourses of hate (hate speech), fake news (fake news), metaverse».

As for the program, to open the exhibition is confirmed in this edition the MöbiusLab Youth, that is, a debate that sees the active involvement of high school students and that benefits from the presence of Annamaria Testa, Italian advertising and prominent figure in the media landscape. The emphasis will be placed in particular on “How does misinformation work in the network between words and images”, referring among other things to the latest edition of the volume of Annamaria Testa “The ways of the sense. How to say opposite things with the same words” (Garzanti 2021).

Through the Symposium-Möbius, a debate dedicated to “Discourses of hatred”, it is intended to reserve adequate space for the theme of contrast to the discourses and hate phenomena present on the web. A prospective theme to be linked with a future Möbius Prize for Artificial Intelligence, which in the first place can be dedicated to the search for specific applications of quality against hate speech. And back again in this edition a rich selection of meetings, in which leading figures of the sector will deepen the themes touched on in this edition, accompanying us on a journey between the true and the false, to open the doors that from the real universe leads to the virtual ones.

In terms of Awards, the Grand Prix Möbius editoria mutante in Italian takes a look at the innovations in the field of virtual reality, rewarding this year the “Metaverses immersive quality”. The Grand Prix Möbius Suisse (in collaboration with the Fondazione Agire) is dedicated in 2022 to the activities of innovative companies in relation to the theme “Digital and energy”. The “Möbius Youth Award” (in collaboration with SUPSI), finally, will focus on different ways of cultural communication on the net, referring this year to “Climate emergency and fake news (hoaxes, fake news)”.

For those interested in participating, just consult the Möbius Prize website at this link.

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