The Battle for Our Attention: Empirical, Philosophical and Legal Questions

Join Northeastern Law’s Center for Law, Information and Creativity for a timely conversation at the intersection of law, technology and human cognition. The Battle for Our Attention: Empirical, Philosophical and Legal Questions brings together leading scholars and experts to tackle the growing crisis of technologically-mediated attention disorders. Across panels on the political economy of attention, the challenges of empirically studying human attention in the digital age, the law and ethics of attention protection and the sociology of content communities, participants will explore the business models, legal frameworks and societal impacts of digital engagement. This symposium will critically examine whether privacy, antitrust and consumer protection laws can mitigate the harms of attention extraction and whether the First Amendment accommodates regulation in this space.

Speakers:

Alvaro Bedoya
Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission (virtual panel)

Yochai Benkler
Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, Harvard University

Richard Daynard
University Distinguished Professor of Law, Northeastern University

Michael Scott Esterman
Associate Professor in Psychiatry, Boston University

Elena Glassman
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University

Woodrow Hartzog
Professor of Law, Boston University

David Lazer
Professor of Political Science and Computer Sciences, Northeastern University

Leah Plunkett
Executive Director of Harvard School Online and Associate Dean of LXI

Nick Seaver
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Tufts University

Zephyr Teachout
Professor of Law, Fordham University

Bridget Todd
Fellow at Berkman Klein Center

Rebecca Tushnet
Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Marshall Van Alstyne
Professor in Information Systems, Boston University

Emily West
Professor of Communication, UMass

Christo Wilson
Professor of Computer Science, Northeastern

Hosted by:
Northeastern University School of Law

Organizers:
Elettra Bietti
Assistant Professor of Law and Computer Science, Northeastern University

Aileen Nielsen
Visiting Assistant Professor, Harvard Law School

Laura Aade
Doctoral Researcher, University of Luxembourg; Affiliate, Stanford University

Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be provided.