Philosophy of information

Interview on The Fourth Revolution

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:07:00 +0000

I just received the podcast of an interview I had with Nigel Warburton, you can listen to it by clicking on the title of this blog or visiting www.philosophybites.com "Luciano Floridi on The Fourth Revolution". It is also available from iTunes.

The supernova effect of Michael Jackson's death

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:15:00 +0000

The death of a star may create a supernova explosion. A massive shock wave radiates throughout the whole star, which heats up and then explodes. This flash is as bright as a whole galaxy and leaves behind a rapidly spinning neutron star.

The death of Michael Jackson caused a similar supernova effect on the web this week. Initially, when news of his sudden death spread, people at Google thought they were under a cyber attack. You can see why from the graph in this blog.

Millions of people who searched for the star's name on Google News were greeted with an error page: "your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application". Or the impact of a dead star.

Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy 2009

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:24:00 +0000

CALL FOR PAPERS

Asia-Pacific Computing and Philosophy 2009 will be held on October 1st-2nd, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. The conference will be hosted at the University of Tokyo's Sanjo Conference Hall. Keynotes speeches will be given by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro (Osaka University) and Professor Shinsuke Shimojo (Caltech). This year AP-CAP 2009 will be held in conjunction with the Devices that Alter Perception workshop, which will form a special track.

The conference invites papers from philosophy, computer science, robotics, and media arts. Practitioners of these and related fields like artificial intelligence, ethics, human-computer interaction, and society-technology studies will debate and demonstrate new research. The conference will foster a scholarly dialogue between designers and

critics of computing systems.

TIMELINE

• July 15th, 2009: Deadline for abstract submission
• August 15th, 2009: Abstract acceptance notification
• September 1st, 2009: Early registration deadline
• September 15th, 2009: Camera-ready papers due
• September 21st, Papers available online
• October 1st-2nd, 2009: AP-CAP 2009 Conference

The call for papers, information for attendees, Word and LaTeX templates, online paper submission form and registration are all hosted at:

http://ia-cap.org/ap-cap09/

Philosophy of Technology - An Introduction

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:47:00 +0000

A good book, with plenty of information, but...

The writing is not as good as the contents: typos, cut&paste repetitions, redundant bits of information and some awkward sentences make the reader wish the text had been properly copy-edited by the publisher, especially given the fact that this is the second edition. And the philosophy is a bit too light: plenty of notes on a variety of topics, but the material could have been marshalled with a stronger hand.

On the whole, worth reading together with Ferre's textbook.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPUTER GAMES

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:32:00 +0000

THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPUTER GAMES
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN OSLO 2009
August 13-15, 2009

Keynote speakers: Kendall Walton, author of "Mimesis as Make-Believe: On the Foundations of the Representational Arts" (Harvard University Press, 1990), Miguel Sicart, author of "The Ethics of Computer Games" (The MIT Press, 2009) and Grant Tavinor, author of "The Art of Video Games" (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming in October 2009).

CALL FOR PAPERS

We hereby invite scholars in any field who take a professional interest in the phenomenon of computer games to submit papers to the international conference "The Philosophy of Computer Games 2009", to be held in Oslo, Norway, on August 13-15, 2009.

Accepted papers will have a clear focus on philosophy and philosophical issues in relation to computer games. They will also attempt to use specific examples rather than merely invoke "computer games" in general terms. We invite submissions focusing on, but not limited to, the following three headings:

Fictionality and Interaction

Computer games are often conceived as a setting for fictional narratives, facts, objects and events, although the interactive setting is thought to give fictionality a special character and to be intertwined with non-fictional aspects in various ways. We invite papers on relevant discussions of fictionality, narrative, fictional objects, simulation, virtuality, and kindred cognitive notions like make-believe, pretense, and imagination.

Defining Computer Games

Is it possible to point to some defining characteristic(s) of computer games? We are especially interested in discussions of formal definitions of computer games in terms of characteristics such as rules, play, representation, computation, affordances, interaction, negotiable consequences, and so on. We welcome both constructive and critical discussions, as long as they are directed at clearly articulated proposals.

Ethical and Political Issues

What are the ethical responsibilities of game-makers in relation to individual gamers and society in general? What role, if any, can games serve as a critical cultural corrective in relation to traditional forms of media and communicative practices, for example in economy and politics? Also, what is the nature of the ethical norms that apply within the gaming context, and what are the factors that allow or delimit philosophical justifications of their application there or elsewhere?

Your abstract should not exceed 1000 words. If your submission falls under one of the three headings, please indicate which one. Send your abstract to submissions@gamephilosophy.org. All submitted abstracts will be subject to double blind peer review, and the program committee will

make a final selection of papers for the conference on the basis of this. Full manuscripts must be submitted by August 8, and will be made available on the conference website.

Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2009.
Notification of accepted submissions will be sent out by June 10, 2009.

Olav Asheim
Miguel Sicart
Frans Mäyrä
Patrick Coppock
Sten Ludvigsen
Ole Ertløv Hansen
Stephan Güntzel
Runje Klevjer
John Richard Sageng
Ragnhild Tronstad

The conference is a collaboration between the following institutions:

• Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas at the University of Oslo, Norway
• Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo, Norway
• Digital Games Research Center, University of Potsdam, Germany
• Department of Social, Cognitive and Quantitative Science at the University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, Italy
• Nordic Game Research Network
• Intermedia, University of Oslo, Norway
• Games Research Lab, University of Tampere, Finland
• Center for Computer Games Research at the IT-University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• Philosophical Project Centre (FPS), Oslo, Norway
• Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, Norway

Two books for Oxford University Press

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Sun, 24 May 2009 10:31:00 +0000

I have now completed the two projects for Oxford University Press.

One is a small book, entitled Information, written for OUP popular series Very Short Introductions.

The other is the book I had been writing for ten year: The Philosophy of Information. It will also be published by OUP.

Next project: the other book that complements PoI: Information Ethics. Hopefully it will not take me another decade.

Associate Professor in history and philosophy of mathematics and computer science

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:15:00 +0000

The Department of Science Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark (http://www.ivs.au.dk) invites applications for a permanent position as Associate Professor beginning January 1, 2010.

The Department of Science Studies forms part of the Faculty of Science, and is responsible for research and education in history and philosophy of science.

The Department seeks a historian or philosopher of mathematics and/or computer science with significant publications and research interest within the fields of history and philosophy of mathematics and computer science broadly conceived.

The requirements for a successful application are an strong record of research and teaching within history and/or philosophy of mathematics and computer science, and the ability to teach in English or Danish. Experience with academic administration and fund raising is desirable.

Duties will include instruction at the undergraduate and postgraduate level within the fields of history and philosophy of mathematics and computer science, preferably including mandatory courses in philosophy of mathematics and computer science for undergraduate students in mathematics and computer science. The Department offers courses in philosophy of science for all science programmes. All courses are based on extensive use of historical and contemporary cases, and faculty members from the Department collaborate on developing the course format.
The new Associate Professor is expected to participate actively in the strategic development of the departments research focus on studies of contemporary science. The Department is interested in developing new teaching initiatives in science studies.

The successful candidate will be expected to participate in all aspects of the Department’s activities and to be present on a daily basis.

Applications must be in English and include a curriculum vitae, a complete list of publications, a statement of future research plans and information about research activities, teaching qualifications and management experience, all in 4 copies (see http://www.nat.au.dk/default.asp?id=7842&la=UK for the recommended level of detail). If the applicant wants other material to be considered in the evaluation (publications and other documentation of research and teaching qualifications, as well as management experience) such material must be clearly specified and must either be enclosed in hardcopy (3 copies) or must be available electronically.

The Faculty refers to the Ministerial Order No. 92 of 15.02.2008 (http://science.au.dk/default.asp?id=7839&la=UK) on the appointment of teaching and research staff at the universities under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Salary depends on seniority as agreed between the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Confederation of Professional Unions.

Applications should be addressed to The Faculty of Science, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade, Building 1520, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark, and marked 212/5-292.

The deadline for receipt of all applications is July 1, 2009, at 12,00 noon.

For more information please contact the head of the department Keld Nielsen, Department of Science Studies, Building 1110, CF Moellers Alle, DK-8000 Aarhus C., Denmark; phone +45 8942 3540; e-mail: keld.nielsen@ivs.au.dk, or vice head of department Hanne Andersen, phone +45 8942 3514; e-mail: hanne.andersen@ivs.au.dk

Aarhus University offers a good and inspiring education and research environment for 35,000 students and 8,500 members of staff, who produce academic results of a high international standard. The budgeted turnover for 2009 amounts to EUR 700 million. The university’s strategy and development contract are available at www.au.dk.

*************************
Henrik Kragh Sørensen
Associate professor, PhD
Department of Science Studies
University of Aarhus, Denmark

The Fourth Revolution

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:13:00 +0000

A one screen summary, just click on the title.
The text, based on my writings, is courtesy of Paul B. Davis.

Philosophy of Technology

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:11:00 +0000

A very nice book, which I had meant to read since a long time ago. Slightly oldish, it is clear, well written, balanced, accessible and reasonable.

The reasonableness is not to be underestimated. There are plenty of crazy, insane, mad, or otherwise ready for the asylum authors out there who will take the "technological discourse" as an excuse to vent platitudes, dispense oracular wisdom, and mumble non-sensical claims. If it were for them, not only we would still be living in the caves, which might still be an uncomfortably acceptable option, but we would still be listening to the local sibyls and magicians, and this is certainly not an improvement.

Against Readings

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Sun, 17 May 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Inspiring, and it does indeed apply very well to philosophy (as it was suggested by Steve Clark on philos-l): "This is a paper by Mark Edmunson in the Chronicle of Higher Education. It's about literary texts, but with some clear relevance to philosophical texts as well."

One may have reservations: what happens to literature (or indeed philosophy), once you're no longer young? Becoming who you are is an endless work in progress, but the point of the article seems to be that there is a stage when most of this work in progress is actually done and that then is when literature/philosophy can play a role. It seems like a Gaussian: texts begin by being irrelevant and end by being irrelevant, peaking in your youth. This is notthe case, or the common practice of re-reading would be meaningless.

And why listening to the professors, when you can read the masters? It is not true that they own the keys to the warehouse.

AHRC-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:13:00 +0000

AHRC-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of Philosophy
School of Humanities
University of Hertfordshire
• Salary: UH6
• Grade: £24,877-£29,704
• Ref Number: EN8899

We invite applications for the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy, to work on the project “The Construction of Personal Identities Online”.

The position is full-time, fixed term (18 months). The project is funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The principal investigator is Professor Luciano Floridi.

The aim of the project is to investigate the construction of personal identities (PI) when they are digitally mediated, that is, when individuals are embedded in virtual environments that provide unprecedented affordances and different constraints for PI development, as well as innovative opportunities of interactions with other agents, both human and artificial.

For further information about the project, please visit http://www.philosophyofinformation.net/grants/pio/index.html.

You will be based in the Philosophy Department and collaborate full time to the project. You will hold a doctorate or should do so by the starting date, in a relevant discipline such as Philosophy (preferably) or Computer Science. You will have a proven research record in philosophy, preferably some expertise in philosophy of mind or philosophy of AI, very strong IT skills, and an ability to work across disciplines.

For further information about the job description and how to apply, please visit
http://web-apps.herts.ac.uk/uhweb/apps/hr/job-advert.cfm?category=research&type=JD&jobid=EN8899

To apply, please complete an application form, submit your CV and a sample of recent work (preferably a published article).

You should arrange for references from two academic referees and the sample of recent work to be sent to l.floridi@herts.ac.uk

For further information please contact Luciano Floridi

preferably by emailing l.floridi@herts.ac.uk

or by sending ordinary mail to:

Professor Luciano Floridi
Research Chair in Philosophy of Information,
Department of Philosophy
School of Humanities
University of Hertfordshire
Hatfield
Hertfordshire
AL10 9AB
UK

Cyberwar

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:34:00 +0000

The story goes that when the Roman horsemen first saw Pyrrhus’ twenty war elephants, at the battle of Heraclea (280 BC), they were so terrorised by these strange creatures, which they have never seen before, that they galloped away and the Roman legions lost the battle. Today, the new elephants are electronic.

The phenomenon might have just begun to emerge in the public debate but, in post-informational societies, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are increasingly shaping armed conflicts. In terms of conventional military operations, ICTs have revolutionized communications, making possible complex new modes of field operations. Of course, ICTs have also made possible the swift analysis of vast amounts of data, enabling the military, intelligence and law enforcement communities to take action in ever more timely and targeted ways. But even more significantly, battles are nowadays fought by highly mobile forces, armed with real-time ICT devices, satellites, battlefield sensors and so forth, as well as thousands of robots. And the growing dependence of societies and their militaries on advanced ICTs has led to strategic cyber-attacks, designed to cause costly and crippling disruptions. Armies of human soldiers may not be needed. Cyber-attacks can be undertaken by nations or networks, or even by very small groups or individuals. ICTs have made asymmetric conflicts easier, and shifted the battleground more than an inch into the infosphere.

The scale of such transformations is staggering. For example, at the beginning of the war in Iraq, U.S. forces had no robotic systems on the ground. However, by 2004, they already deployed 150 robots, in 2005 these were 2,400; and by the end of 2008, about 12,000 robots of nearly two dozen varieties were operating on the ground (source: The New Atlantis, Winter 2009). And on April 26, 2007, Estonia experienced the first case of denial-of-service attack. This is a systematic attempt to make computer resources unavailable, at least temporarily, by forcing vital sites or services to reset or consume their resources or by disrupting their communications so that they can no longer function properly.

ICT-mediated modes of conflict pose a variety of ethical problems, for war-fighting militaries in the field, for intelligence gathering services, for policy makers and for ethicists. They tend to erase the threshold between reality and simulation, between life and play, and between conventional conflicts, insurgences or terrorist actions. A troubling perspective is that ICTs might make unconventional conflicts more acceptable ethically, by stressing the less deadly outcome of military operations in cyberspace. This might of course be utterly illusory: messing with ICT-infrastructures of hospitals and airports may easily cause the loss of human lives, even if in a less visible and obvious way than bombs do. Yet the impression remains that we might be allegedly moving towards a more precise, surgical, bloodless way of handling our disagreements.

Clearly, ICTs have caused radical changes both in how societies may come into conflict and how they may manage it. At the same time, there is a policy and a conceptual vacuum. For example, “America's Department of Defence wants to replace a third of its armed vehicles and weaponry with robots by 2015” (source: The Economist, 7 June, 2007), but it still lacks an ethical code for the deployment of these new, semi-autonomous weapons. This is a global issue. The 2002 Prague Summit marked NATO’s first attempt to address cyber-defence activities. Five years later, in 2007, there were already “42 countries working on military robotics, from Iran and China to Belarus and Pakistan” (source: The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2009), but not even a draft of an international agreement regarding their ethical deployment. There has been very little descriptive and conceptual analysis of such a crucial area in applied ethics, and no attempt to assess the effectiveness of the initial measures that have been taken to deal with the increasing application of ICTs in armed conflicts.

The issue could not be more pressing and there is a much-felt and quickly escalating need to share information and coordinate ethical theorising. The goals should be sharing information and views about the current state of the ethics of e-warfare, developing a comprehensive framework for a clear interpretation of the new aspects of e-war, building a critical consensus about the ethical deployment of e-weapons, and laying down the foundation for an ethical approach to e-warfare.

At a time when there is an exponential growth in R&D concerning ICT-based weapons and strategies, philosophers and ethicists could provide timely advice, by collaborating on the identification, discussion and resolution of the unprecedented ethical difficulties characterizing cyberwar. This is far from being premature. During the civil war, in the battle of Thapsus (46 BC), Julius Caesar’s fifth legion was armed with axes and was ordered to strike at the elephant’s legs of the enemy. The legion withstood the charge, and the elephant became its symbol. Interestingly, nobody at the time could even imagine that there might be an ethical problem in treating animals so cruelly. We should think ahead, because history likes to repeat itself.

The Philosophy of Information, its Nature, and Future Developments

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:11:00 +0000

The Information Society An International Journal, Volume 25 Issue 3 2009 has just published a special issue on the philosophy of information. Here is the tale of contents:

INTRODUCTION
	The Information Society and Its Philosophy: Introduction to the Special Issue on “The Philosophy of Information, Its Nature, and Future Developments” 153 – 158 Author: Luciano Floridi DOI: 10.1080/01972240902848583
ARTICLES
	Floridi's Philosophy of Information and Information Ethics: Current Perspectives, Future Directions 159 – 168 Author: Charles Ess DOI: 10.1080/01972240902848708
	From the Philosophy of Information to the Philosophy of Information Culture 169 – 174 Authors: Adam Briggle; Carl Mitcham DOI: 10.1080/01972240902848765
	Epistemic Values and Information Management 175 – 189 Authors: Don Fallis; Dennis Whitcomb DOI: 10.1080/01972240902848831
	Developing the Information and Knowledge Agenda in Information Systems: Insights From Philosophy 190 – 197 Authors: Leslie Willcocks; Edgar A. Whitley DOI: 10.1080/01972240902848880

Against Digital Ontology

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:08:00 +0000

Against Digital Ontology, Synthese, 2009, 168.1, (2009), 151-178.

Abstract

The paper argues that digital ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is digital, and the universe is a computational system equivalent to a Turing Machine) should be carefully distinguished from informational ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is structural), in order to abandon the former and retain only the latter as a promising line of research. Digital vs. analogue is a Boolean dichotomy typical of our computational paradigm, but digital and analogue are only “modes of presentation” of Being (to paraphrase Kant), that is, ways in which reality is experienced or conceptualised by an epistemic agent at a given level of abstraction. A preferable alternative is provided by an informational approach to structural realism, according to which knowledge of the world is knowledge of its structures. The most reasonable ontological commitment turns out to be in favour of an interpretation of reality as the totality of structures dynamically interacting with each other.

The paper is the first part (the pars destruens) of a two-part piece of research. The pars construens, entitled “A Defence of Informational Structural Realism”, is developed in a separate article, also published in this journal.

InterFace 2009:1st National Symposium for Humanities and Technology

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:02:00 +0000

First Call for Papers

InterFace is a new type of annual event. Part conference, part workshop, part networking opportunity, it will bring together postdocs, early career academics and postgraduate researchers from the fields of Information Technology and the Humanities in order to foster cutting-edge collaboration. As well as having a focus on Digital Humanities, it will also be an important forum for Humanities contributions to Computer Science. The event will furthermore provide a permanent web presence for communication between delegates both during, and following, the conference.

Delegate numbers are limited to 80 (half representing each sector) and all participants will be expected to present a poster or a ‘lightning talk’ (a two minute presentation) as a stimulus for discussion and networking sessions. Delegates can also expect to receive illuminating keynote talks from world-leading experts, presentations on successful interdisciplinary projects, ‘Insider’s Guides’ and workshops. The registration fee for the two-day event is £30. For a full overview of the event, please visit the website.

Paper Submissions:

If you are interested in attending, please submit an original paper, of 1500 words or less, describing an idea or concept you wish to present. Please indicate whether you would prefer to produce a poster or perform a 2-minute lightning talk. Papers must be produced as a PDF or in Microsoft Word (.doc) format and submitted through our EasyChair page:

- Register for an easy chair account:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/account_apply.cgi
- Log in: https://www.easychair.org/?conf=interface09
- Click New Submission at the top of the page and fill in the form.
Make sure you:
- Select your preference of lightning talk or poster.
- Select whether you are representing humanities or technology.
- Attach and upload your paper.
If you encounter any problems, please e-mail submissions@interface09.org.uk
A number of travel bursaries may be available to successful applicants
- if you would like to be considered for one, please email bursaries@interface09.org.uk and provide grounds for consideration.

Papers should focus on potential (and realistic) areas for collaboration between the Technology and Humanities Sectors, either by addressing particular problems, new developments, or both. Prior work may be presented where relevant but the nature of the paper must be forward-looking. As such, the scope is extremely broad but topics might include:

Technology
* 3D immersive environments
* Pervasive technologies
* Online collaboration
* Natural language processing
* Sensor networks
* The Semantic Web
* Agent based modelling
* Web Science
Humanities
* Spatial cognition
* Text editing and analysis
* New Media
* Linguistics
* Applied sociodynamics & social network analysis
* Archaeological reconstruction
* Information Ethics
* Dynamic logics
* Electronic corpora

Due to the limited number of places, papers will be subject to review by committee in order to maintain quality and a balanced programme. Applicants will be notified by email as to their acceptance. Accepted papers will be published online one week in advance of the conference.

Important Dates:
* Paper Submission Deadline: 1 May 2009
* Acceptances Announced: 18 May 2009
* Conference: 9th-10th July 2009
Confirmed Speakers
Keynote:
* Dame Wendy Hall, University of Southampton,
President of the Association of Computing Machinery
Insider’s Guides:
* Stephen Brown, De Montfort University
Knowledge Media Design
* Ed Parsons
Geospatial Technologist, Google
* Sarah Porter
Head of Innovation, JISC
Project Showcase:
* Mary Orr & Mark Weal, University of Southampton
Digital Flaubert
* Adrian Bell, University of Reading
The Soldier in Later Medieval England
* Kathy Buckner, Napier University
TBC
Workshops:
1) Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)
Arianna Ciula, European Science Foundation & Sebastian Rahtz, Oxford University
2) Visualisation
Facilitator TBC
3) Data Management
Facilitator TBC
4) New Media
Claire Ainsworth & John Copley, University of Southampton
For further information, please visit the conference website or e-mail admin@interface09.org.uk.

The 2009 North American Conference on Computing and Philosophy

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:12:00 +0000

NA-CAP@IU 2009: Networks and Their Philosophical Implications

June 14th - 16th

At Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana

In recent years, across several different academic disciplines, including biology, computer science, cognitive science, informatics, philosophy and psychology, a shift in the study of complex systems is readily visible. This shift away from a focus on the individual components of a system to the interrelations between them has provided the groundwork for what might broadly be called a "network" perspective, as it has become increasingly clear that simple components can produce astoundingly complex and varied behavior when they work in consort. Evidence for this observation is seen everywhere from biological neural networks, stigmergic systems, and animal behavior to networked computing, social networking, and dynamic systems. This conference will explore the philosophical implications of this network perspective as it applies to the broader scope of topics studied by our association.

Conference highlights include keynote lectures from William Bechtel (University of California, San Diego) and Olaf Sporns (Indiana University), both of whom will speak about new research in biological networks. The conference will additionally feature panel sessions on Logic Pedagogy and Networks and Social Network Effects. The IACAP is also pleased to acknowledge this year's recipient of the Goldberg Graduate Award, Matteo Turilli (University of Oxford) for his paper, "Translating Ethical Requirements into Software Specifications," which he will be presenting at this conference.

Individual conference sessions will be dedicated to:
o Biological and Artificial Networks
o Computation and Representation
o Modeling, Epistemology and Cooperation
o Networks, Networked Computing and Robotics
o Bayesian and Semantic Networks
o Group Cognition, eTrust and Network Neutrality
o Social Networks, Privacy and the Self
Details are available on our Program page.

The International Association for Computing and Philosophy would like to acknowledge the generosity of the Department of Philosophy and the Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University, and the support of the university generally, not only for their financial contributions, but more importantly for their cooperation in helping with the arrangements, their intellectual openness to the study of computing and philosophy, and the willingness of their graduate students and faculty to participate in our conference.

________________________________________

Program Director: Tony Beavers, University of Evansville

Assistant Program Director: Mara Harrell, Carnegie Mellon University

Conference Host: Colin Allen, Indiana University

Logic Pedagogy and Networks Program Chair: Marvin Croy, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Social Networking Program Chair: Dylan Wittkower, Coastal Carolina University

NA-CAP Director: Selmer Bringsjord, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

NA-CAP Steering Committee:
Don Berkich, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi
David Stern, University of Iowa
Mara Harrell, Carnegie Mellon University
IACAP President: Luciano Floridi, University of Hertfordshire & University of Oxford

This conference is one of several regional conferences associated with the International Association for Computing and Philosophy. To learn more about the IACAP, including its other conferences and membership details, visit the organization's website at http://ia-cap.org.

Society for Machines and Mentality becomes IACAP SIG

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:38:00 +0000

The two Executive Committees of the International Association for Computing And Philosophy (IACAP) and of the Society for Machines and Mentality (SFMM) have agreed to transform SFMM into a IACAP Special Interest Group (SIG).

Among the many advantages brought about by the creation of the new SFMM-SIG are: enhanced synergies between the two groups in organising activities and events (e.g. APA meetings) and attracting high-quality research; economic savings; and the transformation of Springer’s Minds and Machines into IACAP official journal.

Old Applications

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:15:00 +0000

Sometimes the old road should have never been left for the new one. Take the new skype (version 4.x): a disaster, a video-related bug (my guess, it was a problem for version 2.x as well) slowly eats up all your memory until the computer crashes. Second opinion? It's also big and ugly. So better go back to the old 3.8x. You can find it here http://www.oldapps.com/skype.php

Web 2.0 vs. the Semantic Web: A Philosophical Assessment

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:34:00 +0000

Episteme, volume 6, 2009, Pages 25-37
DOI 10.3366/E174236000800052X

Preprint available here.

The paper develops some of the conclusions, reached in Floridi (2007), concerning the future developments of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on our lives.

The two main theses supported in that article were that, as the information society develops, the threshold between online and offline is becoming increasingly blurred, and that once there won't be any significant difference, we shall gradually re-conceptualise ourselves not as cyborgs but rather as inforgs, i.e. socially connected, informational organisms.

In this paper, I look at the development of the so-called Semantic Web and Web 2.0 from this perspective and try to forecast their future. Regarding the Semantic Web, I argue that it is a clear and well-defined project, which, despite some authoritative views to the contrary, is not a promising reality and will probably fail in the same way AI has failed in the past. Regarding Web 2.0, I argue that, although it is a rather ill-defined project, which lacks a clear explanation of its nature and scope, it does have the potentiality of becoming a success (and indeed it is already, as part of the new phenomenon of Cloud Computing) because it leverages the only semantic engines available so far in nature, us.

I conclude by suggesting what other changes might be expected in the future of our digital environment.

APA Barwise Prize

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:55:00 +0000

On Monday, I was waiting for my opponent to show up for a university squash match, but since he was a bit late I thought I could check my email. You cannot imagine my surprise, delight, confusion and useful energy (to which I owe a 3-0) when I read that the American Philosophical Association had select me to receive the Barwise Prize “for significant and sustained contributions to areas relevant to philosophy and computing [...] in recognition of his research on the philosophy of information”.

I will receive the award during the APA’s Eastern Meeting in NY in December 2009, when I will deliver the Barwise Lecture.

Amazing.

Previous winners are:
2007, David Chalmers (Australian National University);
2006, James H. Moor (Dartmouth College);
2005, Hubert Dreyfus (UC Berkeley);
2004, Deborah Johnson (University of Virginia);
2003, Daniel Dennett (Tufts University);
2002, Patrick Suppes (Stanford University).

Humbling.

The Construction of Personal Identities Online

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:53:00 +0000

Funded with £165,521 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), this research, entitled ‘The Construction of Personal Identities Online’, will explore how people reinvent themselves in virtual environments.

Information and communication technologies are building a new habitat (infosphere) in which people spend an increasing amount of time and how individuals construct and maintain their personal identities online (PIOs) is a problem of growing and pressing importance. Today, PIOs can be created and developed, as an ongoing work-in-progress, to provide experiential enrichment, expand, improve or even help to repair relationships with others and with the world, or enable imaginative projections (the "being in someone else's shoes" experience), thus fostering tolerance.

However, PIOs can also be mis-constructed, stolen, "abused", or lead to psychologically or morally unhealthy lives, causing a loss of engagement with the actual world and real people. The construction of PIOs affects how individuals understand themselves and the groups, societies and cultures to which they belong, both online and offline. PIOs increasingly contribute to individuals' self-esteem, influence their life-styles, and affect their values, moral behaviours and ethical expectations. Virtual environments are therefore transforming the nature of personal identity.

“Who are you online?” is a question with enormous practical implications, and yet, crucially, individuals as well as groups seem to lack a clear, conceptual understanding of who they are in the infosphere and what it means to be an ethically responsible informational agent online. The AHRC project will fill this serious gap in our understanding. It will last two years.

The research will be partly descriptive, in order to analyse what a PIO consists in, and partly prescriptive, in order to establish what a PIO ought to be. It will also rely on a new and unconventional methodology, by replacing thought experiments with experiments in silico (simulations) in Second Life.

The first stage of the research (semesters 1 and 2), will critically compare and evaluate current philosophical approaches to personal identity (PI) by analysing how far they may be extended to explain not only PI but also PIO, and then assessing the merits and shortcomings of their answers to the new questions posed by PIO. The hypotheses to be tested are that classic approaches to PI can contribute to our philosophical understanding of the new phenomenon of the construction of PIO; that, however, none of them will turn out to be fully satisfactory by itself, when exported from offline to online environments; and that this shortcoming can help us both to refine our understanding of PI and to develop a new approach to PIO.

Following the results obtained in the first stage, during the second stage (semesters 3 and 4) the research will address the questions raised by PIO, in order to complement the already available approaches to PI. The hypotheses to be tested are that the construction of PIO provides evidence in favour of a dynamic, interactive and distributed (that is, socially- or network-dependent) interpretation of PI, as a relational rather than a substantive property; that this new, interactive approach will resemble the capacity approach but in a system- rather than a single, agent-oriented way; and that this approach can successfully compete with the others in explaining PI while overcoming their limits when it comes to PIO.

Research results will be disseminated through scientific articles, reports and workshops.

The AHRC requests that "Acknowledgement of support from the AHRC accompanied by the AHRC logo must be included in any publications, publicity or marketing material – including printed material such as books, exhibition guides, press releases or electronic communications such as a website. In the case of broadcast coverage (radio or television) of research that AHRC has funded, acknowledgement should also be given where possible." and that the following description should be made available: “Each year the AHRC provides funding from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from archaeology and English literature to design and dance. Only applications of the highest quality and excellence are funded and the range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. For further information on the AHRC, please see our website www.ahrc.ac.uk ”

Postdoctoral Research Position in Ontology

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:50:00 +0000

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology seeks applicants for a post-doctoral research position to work on projects relating to applications of ontology in medicine and biology. The successful candidate will work with ontology researchers in the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences in Buffalo, New York. He or she will have expertise in at least two of the following areas: ontology, logic, philosophy of science, bioinformatics, biology, medicine, computer science. Further details are available from Barry Smith or under posting number 0900040 at http://ubjobs.buffalo.edu.

THE INFLUENCERS

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:45:00 +0000

Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG and Bani present:

THE INFLUENCERS
Festival of media action and radical entertainment

February 5-6-7 2009
Center of Contemporary Culture Barcelona, Spain
http://www.theinfluencers.org

featuring: BLU, Improv Everywhere, Julius Von Bismarck, Survival Research Labs, Swoon, Wolfgang Staehle, Wu Ming, Ztohoven

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Influencers!
Curated by Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG and Bani, The Influencers is a cult festival exploring unconventional weapons of mass communication. Over the past six years The Influencers has been defined as a gallery of unclassifiable projects, an investigation on guerrilla communication, a demonstration of present-day science fiction, a talk show you won't see on TV. The Influencers is a three intense days event spent interweaving tales of subversion, manipulation and the transformation of live elements of contemporary
culture.

See you all in Barcelona!

More Info: Cristina Diaz
cristina @ theinfluencers.org / +34 637 444 511

Philosophy of Virtuality: Deliberation, Trust, Offence and Virtues

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:45:00 +0000

Trondheim, NTNU, Dragvoll - March 9-13, 2009

Lecturers (course)
Prof. Charles Ess, Drury University, USA
Prof. John Weckert, Charles Sturt University, Australia
Associate professor May Thorseth, NTNU, Norway
PhD Research fellow Johnny Hartz Søraker, Twente University, Netherlands

Further contributors to workshop part (which is part of the course)
Dr. Annamaria Carusi, Oxford University, UK
Prof. Dag Elgesem, University of Bergen, Norway
(One or two more contributors)

There will be a combination of plenary lectures, presentations and discussions of essay proposals.

Course description

Virtuality will be scrutinized from different perspectives in this combined course and workshop. We believe that virtuality is philosophically and ethically relevant to a range of different aspects of life in a world where most people make use of modern information and communication technologies - most obviously, the Internet, but certainly also Internet-enabled mobile devices. And, as online communications become increasingly interwoven in our lives in the developed world, the 1990s’ distinction between offline and online becomes increasingly limited in contemporary analyses of the Internet and its various interactions with our lives.

Some questions: How might virtual worlds contribute to deliberation online?. How do we draw the line between offenses in online and offline worlds? How is it possible to establish online trust? How do we resolve the ethical challenges evoked by new communication technologies - especially as these challenges intersect with diverse cultural values? Emotivist and rationalist accounts of virtual worlds will be considered. Virtue ethics approach to new technologies will also be discussed.

Credit points
7.5 credits will be given for completed course (requires writing and submitting one essay by the end of the course).

Adressees
PhD candidates, graduate students (course, workshop) and scholars (workshop)

Reading list
More information soon.

Lectures (course)
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: More details soon

2 double lectures each day (1 lecture = 90 minutes, including a 15 minutes break in the middle). In addition, there will be presentations and discussions of essay proposals.

Overview of lectures to be announced.

Thursday, Friday (course + workshop):

3 – 4 single lectures á 45 minutes each day and a concluding plenary session on Friday.

Registration or questions
Please send an email to may.thorseth@hf.ntnu.no. Upon registration, please provide the following information: Your full name, position/institutional belonging, and postal address.

Latin American Conference on Computing and Philosophy

luciano.floridi@philosophy.ox.ac.uk (Luciano Floridi) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:36:00 +0000

LA-CAP09 - Call for Papers
COMPUTING AND PHILOSOPHY: LA-CAP 2009
Mexico City, Mexico, June 22-23, 2009

LA-CAP09 is the first Latin American Conference on Computing and Philosophy will be held on the Campus of the National University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, Mexico. One of the aims of this conference is to build the Latin American section of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP): see IACAP for further informations.

Conference Chair: Francisco Hernández Quiroz (UNAM – México)
Juan Manuel Durán (UNC - Argentina)

IMPORTANT DATES

• March 1, 2009. End of submission of extended abstract.
• March 29, 2009. Notification of acceptance.
• May 17, 2009. Early registration deadline.
• June 22-23, 2009. Conference.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

• Prof. Wilfried Sieg. Carnegie Mellon. USA.
• Prof. Víctor Rodríguez. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Argentina

We are expecting the confirmation of two more keynote speakers. They will be announced in the website.

PROGRAM
The International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP) exists to promote scholarly dialogue and research on all aspects of the computational and informational turn, and on the use of information and communication technologies in the service of philosophy. Besides to serve as a regional forum for interested researches in the area, LA-CAP 2009 intends to lay the foundations for a Latin American affiliate of IACAP.

As the first meeting in the area, we would like to keep a scope as wide as possible within the common ground of Computing and Philosophy. We invite papers that address all topics related to computing and philosophy, including cross- and interdisciplinary work that explores the computational turn in new ways. Possible (but not exclusive) research areas are:

- Artificial Intelligence / Cognitive Science
- Artificial Life / Computer Modeling in Biology / Biological Information / Biocomputation
- Information and Computer Ethics / Ethical and Political Dimensions of ICTs in Globalization
- Culture and Society
- Logics
- Metaphysics (Distributed Processing, Emergent Properties, Formal Ontology, etc.)
- Philosophy of Computer Science
- Philosophy of Information and Information Technology
- IT and Gender Research, Feminist Technoscience Studies
- Robotics
- Virtual Reality
- Computational Linguistics
- Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Problem of Consciousness and Cognition
- Computer-based Learning and Teaching Strategies and Resources & The Impact of Distance Learning on the Teaching of Philosophy and Computing
- Computer-Mediated Communication
- Distance Education and Electronic Pedagogy
- Online Resources for Philosophy
- New Models of Logic Software
- Electronic Publishing
- Computer Simulations

SUBMISSION OF PAPERS

Authors should submit an electronic version of an extended abstract (total word count approximately 1000). The file should also contain a 300 word abstract that will be used for the conference web site/booklet. To submit papers visit the submission page at the website. Please keep in mind that the IACAP discourages participants from reading their papers to the audience. (Many presenters prepare slides using some software package. However, these need not be submitted with your original paper.)

The IACAP discourages "show-and-tell" demonstrations, but welcomes submissions that show a new and interesting application of computers to philosophy. Submissions in this category should consist of a 1,500-word abstract outlining what is innovative about the application and the questions pertinent to philosophy that your demonstration will raise.

For panels, please submit a 1,000-word summary of the panel as a whole, along with 300 to 500-word abstracts for each of its various components.

The conference will be accepting electronic submissions appropriately prepared for blind review on or before March 1st, 2009. Additional details will be posted to the conference website (click on the title of this blog).

This conference is one of several regional conferences associated with the International Association for Computing and Philosophy. To learn more about the IACAP, including its other conferences and membership details, visit the organization's website at http://ia-cap.org

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

As announced previously, LA-CAP will take place next June 22-23, 2009 at Mexico City. The conference CFP and related information can be found at http://ia-cap.org/la-cap09.

We would also like to call your attention to the fact that members of IACAP will enjoy a discounted conference fee. IACAP has recently moved to a fixed-date membership system, however - with December 1 of the current year as the deadline for membership through November 30, 2009.

Accordingly, if you plan to attend LA-CAP and would like to take advantage of the conference discount for IACAP members, we encourage you to join IACAP prior to the December 1, 2008, deadline.

Membership is currently set as:

Students: $10.00

Ordinary: $30.00

Supporting: $50.00 or more

You can register your membership online, click here.