15-17 Jul 2013
College Park MD, U.S.A.
*The Annual Meeting of the International Association for Computing and
Philosophy*
*University of Maryland at College Park*
*July 15-17 2013*
*?Minds, Machines and Morals?*
This generation has borne witness to a veritable explosion in the use of
computing technologies in almost every aspect of life. Philosophers,
scientists, and technologists/engineers have an important role to play in
addressing the foundational questions that arise on the inexorable march
toward intelligent machines. This year?s theme is ?Minds, Machines and
Morals.? Questions regarding the status of machines as moral agents and
patients press on us as we envision a future filled with self-driving cars,
robotic surgeons, health-care providers, and online computational
surrogates. According to what principles should they behave, if any? How
much autonomy should they be granted, and how might they interact with
human partners before, during, and after engaging in action accompanied by
moral deliberation? What is the nature of the folk concepts that drive our
ordinary ascriptions of blame and praise? Is it necessary for machines to
be sensitive to the vicissitudes of human moral cognition in context, and
if so, how might these be computationally instantiated in systems built to
work side-by-side with people? Finally, how can traditional moral
philosophy contribute to this emerging picture of human-machine
interaction? We encourage the submission of novel work on these and
related issues. We remain especially interested in the kind of
interdisciplinary investigations that have been typical of our meetings as
we seek to reach out to cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, social
psychologists and experimental philosophers in further developing our
understanding of moral minds and moral machines. Work in other areas
traditionally of interest to the computing and philosophy community is
invited as well.
*Conference Organization and Important Dates*
This year?s meeting will be organized somewhat differently than past
meetings. Rather than having a general call for symposia and an associated
program committee, we have decided to structure the meeting around three
distinct yet related tracks. Each track will be organized and supervised
by a dedicated chairperson who will be responsible for managing the
collection, review and dissemination of referee reports. Track chairs will
assemble their own program committees to assist in the adjudication of
submissions. In a change from previous meetings, all submissions are to be
full papers of approximately 3000 words and may not exceed 4000 words.
Improperly formatted submissions or papers that do not meet submission
guidelines will be subject to exclusion from the review process.
Information regarding formatting and submission, including templates and
other formatting aides can be found in their respective sections on the
conference website. Track descriptions and chairs are listed below:
*Track I: Information and Computing Ethics*
*Chair: Mariarosaria Taddeo, Oxford University*
In contemporary information societies, information technologies have grown
to the point of being indispensable for many of our activities, from
working to entertaining and interacting with others and with the
environment, from learning and education to waging war. The ubiquitous
deployment of such technologies raises important ethical problems
concerning their design and use. The track aims at gathering both papers
discussing conceptual frameworks to address such problems and papers
focusing on the specific ethical issues affecting contemporary information
societies. Main areas of interest are:
- Security and warfare;
- Individual rights;
- Privacy and anonymity;
- Personal identity;
- Social interactions;
- Education;
- Economy;
- Healthcare;
- Technological design.
Link to the track?s individual website to be provided at a later date.
* *
* *
*Track II: Minds and Machines*
* *
*Chair: Marcello Guarini, University of Windsor*
The Society for Machines and Mentality, an IACAP special interest group, is
devoted to advancing the philosophical understanding of issues involving
artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science. The Machines
and Mentality track chairs welcome philosophical papers in one or more of
the following areas:
- Machine Ethics
- Moral Cognition
- Models of mental state ascription
- Nature of concepts
- Philosophy of (or in) AI
- Philosophy of (or in) the Cognitive Sciences or Cognitive Modeling
- Other work at the intersection of (i) philosophy and (ii) AI or the
various cognitive or psychological sciences
Link to the track?s individual website will be provided at a later date.
* *
* *
*Track III: Computing in Philosophy*
*Chair: Cameron Buckner, University of Houston*
This track is devoted to the ways that computers can extend our ability to
acquire, represent, understand, and distribute philosophical knowledge.
These include the application of new methods of proof, representation, and
visualization to traditional philosophical questions, the use of new
formal, online, and distributed forms of research and publication, and the
possibilities digital representations of the discipline afford as a guide
to metaphilosophy. We welcome papers on the way that these new approaches
are transforming philosophy in the following areas:
- Computational metaphysics
- Computational epistemology
- Digital archives and reference works
- Cognition and visualization
- Computing and art
- Computing in the philosophy of information
- Digital pedagogy and computer-enhanced instruction
- Formal argument analysis and theories of reasons
- Social computing and distributed philosophy
- Computational metaphilosophy
Link to the track?s individual website will be provided at a later date.
*Keynote Speakers*
* *
*Shaun Nichols, University of Arizona*
* *
*John Mikhail, Georgetown University*
****
* *
*Winner: Covey Award*
* *
*Winner: Herbert A. Simon Award*
* *
* *
*Important Dates*
- Call for papers distributed: December 10th 2012
- Final submissions entered into Easychair website: March 15th 2013
- Reviews due to track chairs: April 15th 2013
- Notifications sent to authors: May 1 2013
- Standard registration period (TBD)
- Late registration period (TBD)
- Conference: July 15-17 2013
* *
*Submission Website*
Submissions will be handled through the EasyChair submission website.
Details on the use of EasyChair will be provided as this website continues
to be updated.
*Resources for Authors*
IACAP 2013 will rely on electronic submission of papers for review
purposes. Papers must not exceed 4000 words, including all figures, tables,
and references. We will return to the authors any submissions that exceed
this limit or that diverge significantly from the format as specified. The
text of the paper should be formatted in one column, with an overall width
of 6.0 inches (15.24 cm) and length of 8.0 inches (20.32 cm). The left
margin should be 1.25 inches (3.175 cm) and the top margin 1.5 inches (3.81
cm). The right and bottom margins will depend on whether one prints on US
letter or A4 paper.
The paper body should be set in 11 point type with a vertical spacing of 12
points. Please use Times Roman typeface throughout the text. We assume
that authors will have access to LaTeX or Word to format their documents
and can use a Web browser to download style files and upload their papers.
Electronic templates for producing the camera-ready copy are available for
LaTeX and Microsoft Word.
Templates are accessible on the Web at:
http://www.iacap.org/conferences/2013/author-resources/index.html<http://www.iacap.org/conferences/2013/for_authors/index.html>
Authors who have questions about these templates or other formatting
issues should send them to pbellopgd@gmail.com by e-mail.
To ensure the ability to preview and print submissions, authors must
provide their manuscripts in pdf format. Papers prepared in Word should be
saved as pdf files and submitted in this format. To support the review
process, each submission must be accompanied by information about the
paper?s title and abstract, as well as the authors? names and physical
addresses. Authors must enter this information into the submission
website. Submissions may be accompanied by online appendices that contain
data, demonstrations, instructions for obtaining source code, or the source
code itself. We encourage authors to include such appendices when they
submit papers. This material will not count in the submission?s page length.
*Presentation Information and Guidelines*
Each presenter will have 20 minutes for presentation, followed by 10
minutes of discussion. Data projectors will be available ? we ask
presenters to bring any electronic materials (e.g., Powerpoint or the like)
on a USB memory stick, rather than planning on using their own computers.
Presenters are encouraged to use their time to highlight what they believe
to be the most significant / interesting / provocative (etc.) insights /
findings / arguments (etc.) in their papers, with a view towards inspiring
discussion among an interdisciplinary audience ? i.e., one including those
outside the presenters? own primary specializations and disciplines. More
formal reading of papers is certainly in order if that is the presenter?s
preference ? and especially if difficult or complex arguments are to be
presented for careful critique and discussion. But again, we ask presenters
to recognize and seek to foster the strong interdisciplinarity that has
defined the CAP conferences since their inception.
*Venue: University of Maryland, Marriott Inn and Conference Center*
The 2013 meeting will be held starting July 15th and ending July17th at the
Marriott Inn and Conference Center. Room rates are roughly expected to be
$130 USD per night. The hotel website can be found
here<http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/wasum-the-marriott-inn-and-conference-center-university-of-maryland-university-college/>,
complete with links to information about local airports and transportation
options. We will be regularly updating the website with information for
travelers, maps, area guides and information about local attractions.
*Registration*
Rates are TBD (expected to be roughly $200 USD), but will include
continental breakfast, lunch selection, afternoon snack and hot/cold
beverages throughout the day.