Hype is a future-oriented, overpromissory sociotechnical phenomenon that plays a central role in the governance of emerging technologies. It consists of hyperbolic discourses designed to inspire confidence and persuade stakeholders of the desirability, inevitability, and urgency of technological innovation. Hype is not merely communicative excess; it is a constitutive force in techno-financial capitalism, functioning as a manufactured event that captures attention, compresses decision-making timeframes, and fuels speculative investment.

A hallmark of hype is the creation of perceived windows of opportunity that appear to be rapidly closing, generating fear of missing out and accelerating commitment before critical evaluation is possible. These dynamics contribute to what has been described as the accelerated chronopolitics of innovation, where short-term speculation dominates and longer-term considerations are sidelined.

While often short-lived and susceptible to disillusionment, hype follows a recognizable trajectory of rising expectations, peak visibility, and subsequent decline. Hype is not peripheral to technological development; it is an intrinsic force in technological emergence. It functions by instrumentalising uncertainty, projecting imagined futures as inevitable outcomes, and orchestrating collective visions through promotional discourse.

Crucially, hype is performative: it not only reflects but shapes reality. By amplifying potential benefits and downplaying limitations, it legitimises ventures, coordinates actors, and structures expectations across diverse sociotechnical fields.

Often driven by charismatic figures and supported by sensationalist media, hype generates affective intensities—excitement, desire, and hope at its peak, followed by fear, frustration, and disillusionment when promises are unmet. These emotional cycles are not collateral effects but integral to how hype operates as a mode of technopolitical governance. It mobilises resources, legitimises agendas, and produces a sense of inevitability around particular technological trajectories, ultimately shaping what futures are imagined, funded, and pursued.

Taking this into consideration, this interactive session aims at debating about the role and manifestations of hype in technology governance – the interests, attention dynamics, financial flows, infrastructural consequences, power inertias and forms of influence and exclusion that it entails. We welcome actors working in the tech industry, activists, policy makers, artists, hackers and scholars to share their experiences and case studies to understand this urgent, overlooked topic in a historical moment where political, technological and financial power are inherently linked to hype dynamics.

Please note that this session room has limited capacity, and attendance will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis