AUTOMATA — The Toronto Robot Fair
AUTOMATA starts from the observation that nobody has really asked Torontonians what they think about robots and automation yet.
It is not a push to bring more robots into the city but a plan to help the city talk about automation honestly, see machines up close, and decide together what it wants, before that choice gets made for it by whoever sells the machines. It has three connected parts: the Toronto Robot Fair, a monthly event where people can see and touch real machines explained by the workers who run them; a Literacy Engine offering short honest explainers and take-home demo kits; and a People's Deliberation Layer (the “Living List”), a growing public list of what residents say they never want a machine to do.
This program has not been ratified. Nothing here is a promise, and no real fair has been held.