Andrew Barton 'Banjo' Paterson (1864-1941) was fascinated by the latest technologies of his time, such as the phonograph, the steam-powered artesian borer and the car. He published The Cast-Iron Canvasser after seeing a live demonstration of Thomas Edison's perfected phonograph, and after reading about Edison's world-famous talking dolls that spoke through miniaturised phonographs.

The Cast-Iron Canvasser relates the darkly humorous adventures of an automaton travelling book seller sent to the sleepy town of Ninemile by the publishers Sloper and Dodge to substitute for their human book canvassers who have been violently attacked by the countryfolk.

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About the speakers

Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell

Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell was appointed the 13th Vice-Chancellor of ANU in January 2024. She completed her tertiary education in the United States where she studied cultural anthropology. Bell spent nearly 20 years in Silicon Valley working for technology company Intel. She is best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technology development and for being an important voice in the global debates around artificial intelligence and human society. She is widely published, holds 13 patents and has held a number of appointments, including a Non-Executive Director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Board and is currently a Member of the Prime Minister’s National Science and Technology Council. Genevieve has been recognised across three Australian learned Academies and is an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Chris Danta

Chris Danta, FAHA, is professor of literature in the School of Cybernetics at the ANU and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2021-25). His research operates at the intersection of literary theory, philosophy, science and theology. He is interested in how literary writers rethink what it means to be human by drawing on other knowledge systems such as religion and science. He is the author of two books, Animal Fables after Darwin (2018) and Literature Suspends Death (2011) and is currently working on a third, based on his Future Fellowship, titled Future Fables: Literature, Evolution and Artificial Intelligence. In 2024, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.