Assoc. prof. dr. Tomas Vaiseta

Vilnius University, Faculty of History, Department of Modern History, Lithuania

In 2012, he defended his doctoral dissertation in the humanities at Vilnius University, entitled “The Society of Boredom: Late Soviet Lithuania (1964–1984)”. He has been teaching at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University since 2014, and has been an associate professor since 2018. He is engaged in research on the cultural and social history of Lithuania in the second half of the 20th century. As a writer, he has published three books (a collection of short stories and two novels), edits articles and books, in 2015–2018 he served as the editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine “Naujasis Židinys-Aidai”, and hosted the radio show “Pirmas sakinys” on LRT Klasika in 2020-2024.

Enlightenment, Solitude, and Robinson Crusoe: The Future of Reading and Writing from a Historian’s Perspective

This paper is based on the assumption that we are witnessing the end of the Enlightenment. After discussing the phenomena and processes that could support such an idea, the paper will consider what cultural changes, primarily in the culture of reading and writing, this ongoing epochal turning point may bring us. The Enlightenment era was based on, on the one hand, the ideals of universal literacy and, on the other, highly specialized competence. Both ideals may lose their significance in the post-Enlightenment era. The developing tools of artificial intelligence may form a new social type of person – Robinson Crusoe, living on his own island of solitude and doing everything – from taking care of his health to building a house – himself. Reading and writing, like all culture, will also not be able to remain the same on Robinson Crusoe’s island.

Date and time: 2025-12-02, 15:20-15:40 (20 min)

Hall: ALFA