2-6 July 2012
Birmingham, U.K.
CALL for PROPOSALS for SYMPOSIA
to occur as the main content of the
AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012
in honour of Alan Turing
July 2nd to 6th, 2012
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
http://events.cs.bham.ac.uk/turing12/
or via
http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb12/
(second link to be created later)
organized by the
Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour
(AISB)
[http://www.aisb.org.uk/]
and the
International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP)
[http://www.ia-cap.org/]
Preamble
AISB and IACAP are delighted to be joining forces to run the above Congress
in 2012. The Congress serves both as the year's AISB Convention and the
year's IACAP conference. The Congress has been inspired by a desire to
honour Alan Turing and by the broad and deep significance of Turing's work
to AI, to the philosophical ramifications of computing, and to philosophy
and computing more generally. The Congress is one of the events forming the
Alan Turing Year (http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/).
The intent of the Congress is to stimulate a particularly rich interchange
between AI and Philosophy on any areas of mutual interest, whether directly
addressing Turing's own research output or not.
The Congress will consist mainly of a number of collocated Symposia on
specific research areas, interspersed with Congress-wide refreshment breaks,
social events and invited Plenary Talks. This format borrows from the normal
AISB Convention practice and the theme-session structure used in IACAP
conferences. All papers other than the invited Plenaries will be given
within Symposia. This format is perfect for encouraging new dialogue and
collaboration both within and between research areas.
Symposia are expected normally to last for one day or two days, but somewhat
shorter or longer possibilities can be considered. They will\ probably each
involve between ten and fifty participants but there are no particular
limits. Symposia can include any type of event of academic benefit: talks,
panels, discussions, demonstrations, outreach sessions, etc.
Each Symposium will be organized by its own programme committee. The
committee proposes the Symposium, defines the area(s) for it, works out a
structure for it, issues calls for abstracts/papers etc., manages the
process of selecting submitted papers for inclusion, and compiles an
electronic file on which the symposium proceedings will be based (locally
produced, and not precluding publication of papers elsewhere).
The Congress organizers are in charge of everything else: overall schedule,
plenary talks, registration, creation of the individual symposium
proceedings in print, creation of an overall electronic
proceedings for the Conference, etc.
Some Research Themes
Proposals for Symposia are welcomed in all areas of AI and cognitive science
(as at normal AISB Conventions) and all areas of philosophy related to
computing (as at normal IACAP conferences).
We have identified some research areas as being especially appropriate for
the Congress. These are as follows, BUT ARE IN NO WAY EXCLUSIVE:
- the fundamental nature and limits of computation
- computational theory of mind
- the nature and possibility of AI
- testing for intelligence (natural or artificial)
- consciousness (natural or artificial)
- creativity (artistic and otherwise), aesthetics, etc.
- people's attitudes towards and relationships with intelligent machines
- ethics of AI and computing in general, and how AI may ultimately affect
ethics
- the philosophical nature & ramifications (e.g., for notions of person,
self, agenthood, social cognition) of both intelligent software agents in
cyberspace and people's virtual identities.
Proposals for symposia touching on these themes will be especially welcome,
but we will also very much welcome proposals in other areas relevant to AISB
and/or IACAP. In particular, WE WELCOME SEQUELS to PREVIOUS AISB SYMPOSIA or
IACAP THEME SESSIONS.
Symposium Proposal Procedure
Proposers are welcome to submit more than one proposal, or to be involved in
some other way in more than one.
Proposers need not already be members of either Society and will not be
required to become members. They will of course be encouraged to join!
The deadline for Symposium proposals is 1 September 2011
Submissions should consist of:
1. a title
2. a description of between 300 and 1000 words of the research areas of
the Symposium, the relevance of the Symposium to the Congress, and the
nature of the academic events within the Symposium (talks, posters, panels,
demonstrations, etc.); with special mention of any aspects of the Symposium
that bring together AI and Philosophy in an unusual way;
3. whether the Syposium is intended as a sequel to a symposium or theme
session at a previous AISB or IACAP conference - and if so a clear
indication of which symposium/session and when;
4. an indication of whether submissions will be by abstract, extended
abstract or full paper;
5. your preferences about the intended length of the Symposium as a
number of days (preferably one day or two, but otherwise anything from half
a day to three days), together with a brief justification;
6. a description (up to 500 words) of any experience you have in
organization of academic research meetings (NB: it is not a requirement that
you have such experience);
7. names and workplaces of any invited speakers that you may have in mind
for the symposium
NB: It is not a requirement to have invited speakers, and indeed it is
unlikely that the Congress will be able to fund such speakers except in
special cases. Therefore you would probably have to seek alternative sources
of funding for them. However, it would be useful for the Congress chairs and
proposal-selection group to know about possible invited speakers.)
1. your names and full contact details, together with, if possible, names
and workplaces of the members of a preliminary, partial programme committee.
Submitting The Proposal
Please visit http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=turing2012 in the
role of an author and press the button "New Submission".
In the part that asks for the "paper", upload parts A-H above as a single
document - a plain-text (.txt) file or a PDF file.
The title should also be copied into the Title box.
Apart from a Title and Keywords, an Abstract is required. We are using this
for special purposes, so your abstract NEED NOT summarize the proposal.
Rather, please use the space (preferably no more than 50 words) to specify
the following:
- any additional keywords (e.g., you may wish to mention themes from the
list above)
- your preference as to the length of the Symposium (even though this is
also in the main document).
Invited Plenary Speakers
Four invited Plenary speakers have so far been secured, namely:
COLIN ALLEN
Provost Professor of Cognitive Science and of History & Philosophy of
Science
Department of Philosophy and Philosophy of Science
Indiana University,
Bloomington, IN, USA
http://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/people/allen.shtml
<http://www.indiana.edu/~hpscdept/people/allen.shtml>
LUCIANO FLORIDI
Research Chair in Philosophy of Information, UNESCO Chair of Information
and Computer Ethics
University of Hertfordshire, UK, and Director, Information Ethics
research Group and Fellow of St Cross
College University of Oxford, UK
http://www.philosophyofinformation.net/Introduction.html
<http://www.philosophyofinformation.net/Introduction.html>
AARON SLOMAN
Honorary Professor
School of Computer Science
University of Birmingham, UK
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/about/people/showperson.php?person_id=11
<http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/about/people/showperson.php?person_id=11>
<http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/about/people/showperson.php?person_id=11> STEPHEN
WOLFRAM
Founder and CEO
Wolfram Research, Inc.
Champaign, IL, USA
http://www.stephenwolfram.com/
<http://www.stephenwolfram.com/>
Congress Chairs
Overall Chairs:
Anthony Beavers
Philosophy and Cognitive Science
The University of Evansville
1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, Indiana 47722 USA
+1 812-488-2682
afbeavers@gmail.com
(Tony is the President of IACAP)
John Barnden
School of Computer Science
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, B15 2TT
+44 (0)121-414-3816
J.A.Barnden@cs.bham.ac.uk
(John is currently Vice-Chair of AISB, and was Chair from 2003 to 2010)
Local Chair:
Dr Manfred Kerber
School of Computer Science
University of Birmingham
Birmingham, B15 2LY
M.Kerber@cs.bham.ac.uk
Proposal Consideration Process, etc.
The proposals will be considered by the committees of both societies, with
committee members who have conflicts of interest excluded from discussions
as appropriate.
- The consideration may involve calling for clarification from the
proposers.
- If similar or closely related proposals are made, we may suggest
amalgamation of proposed symposia, or at least careful coordination between
their organizers.
- We may suggest (or in the final instance require) changes to the length
of symposia.
We expect to have selected the successful proposals by 15th September.
We will be requiring the proposers of the successful proposals to put out a
first call for abstracts/papers by 15th October, with a view to:
- submissions being in by 1 February 2012
- inclusion decisions made by 1 March 2012
- final abstract/paper versions for inclusion in proceedings delivered by
30 March 2012.
(These dates are provisional and may be adjusted.)
--
Anthony F. Beavers, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Director of Cognitive Science and the Digital Humanities Laboratory
The University of Evansville
http://faculty.evansville.edu/tb2/
President, International Association for Computing and Philosophy
http://ia-cap.org