Rita M. Lauria, JD, PhD

Lecturer UCSD, Counselor of Law, Metalaw®.US; and Research Associate, Media Interface and Network Design (M.I.N.D.) Labs, an international consortium of networked researchers who probe the development, design, and effects of advanced communication media. Rita’s work falls within the area of embodied computing, where she focuses on Presence and works towards building a conceptual framework for the understanding of Virtuality. She is interested in the quality of consciousness, or characteristics of mind, in relation to electric sensibility. The goal of intelligence augmentation drives Rita’s interests as she focuses upon the paradigm shift occurring as a result of the pervasive use of metamedia that generate vitrtualities. Pragmatically, her work explores psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic considerations for the design and use of interactive, computational media. Rita’s work incorporates her experience living and working with indigenous peoples. She served as Advisor for Communications to the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, Communications, and Infrastructure of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). There she established the Communications Division to oversee radio frequency spectrum management, among other functions. From the perspective of a practitioner who has had direct experience with the diffusive and transformative nature of technological change, her research and work continues to look at how changes in technology drive social and cultural change by driving changes in the nature of commerce, and therefore in social needs and expectations. Her early, foundational reference work The Law and Regulation of International Space Communication looked specifically at changes in communications among transitional societies as they came into the information age and the impact such change had upon international policy and regulatory regimes.