معرفی
Johan Fredrikzon is a researcher at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. During the 2024–25 academic year, he is a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Previously, he served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley (2022–2024) and as a research affiliate at Yale University (2018–2019). He is also an editor at Sensorium, a peer-reviewed journal based at Linköping University.
Education:
- Ph.D. in History of Ideas, Stockholm University (2021)
- M.Sc. in Computer Science, Stockholm University (2013)
Research Interests:
Johan Fredrikzon’s research focuses on loss, disappearance, errors, waste, and decay as they intersect with labor, knowledge, risk, and creativity. His current project, funded by the Swedish Research Council, examines the history of artificial intelligence through the lens of human mistakes (1940–1990), exploring how the concept of error has shaped definitions of intelligence in both humans and machines. His work spans Cold War studies, digital art, material culture, media philosophy, visual culture, and the history of death and dying.
Publications & Themes:
His recent publications reflect a deep engagement with media theory, memory studies, and the cultural history of technology. Themes include the role of exhibitions as media, the material conditions of forgetting, and the philosophical implications of nuclear radiation as existential risk. These works collectively trace how technological and cultural narratives shape human understanding of mortality, memory, and intelligence.
Teaching & Editorial Work:
He teaches undergraduate courses in the history of Western thought from the Pre-Socratics to Postcolonial theory, and has extensively taught on the histories of digital technology, technological critique, futurology, and death in the nuclear age. As an editor at Sensorium, he contributes to scholarly discourse on media, art, and literature.
Current & Future Projects:
Under contract with Fri Tanke, a leading Nordic publisher, Fredrikzon is writing a history of artificial intelligence aimed at a general audience, tracing the evolution of AI thought and its societal implications.
