Connectionists: CFP for Integrative Approaches to Machine Consciousness 2006

[Robert Clowes]

1st CFP for: Integrative Approaches to Machine Consciousness April 5th-6th
2006 part of

AISB'06: Adaptation in Artificial and Biological Systems University of
Bristol, Bristol, England In April 2006 there will be a continuation of the
2005 Machine Consciousness Symposium as a part of the AISB'06 convention. 

Submissions
Integrative Approaches to Machine Consciousness.

Abstract Submission by: Jan 21st 2006 

Machine Consciousness (MC) concerns itself with the study and creation of
artefacts which have mental characteristics typically associated with
consciousness such as (self-) awareness, emotion, affect, phenomenal states,
imagination, etc.

Recently, developments in AI and robotics, especially through the prisms of
behavioural and epigenetic robotics, have stressed the embodied, interactive
and developmental nature of intelligent agents which are now regarded by
many as essential to engineering human-level intelligence. Some recent work
has suggested that giving robots imaginative or simulation capabilities
might be a big step towards achieving MC. Other studies have emphasized
'second person' issues such as intersubjectivity and empathy as a substrate
for human consciousness. Alongside this, the infant-caregiver relationship
has been recognised as essential to the development of consciousness in its
specifically human form.

Bringing these issues to centre stage in the study of artificial
consciousness were the focus of last years AISB conference, Next Generation
approaches to Machine Consciousness: Imagination, Development,
Intersubjectivity, and Embodiment. This conference seeks to continue
examination of many of these themes in relation to MC, but with a new focus
on attempts to treat the synthesis or fusion of central components of MC in
integrated models. We would also be interested in models which show or treat
the emergence of processes or systems underlying these core themes.

The website for the earlier conference at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/cogs/mc,
and the online version of the proceedings can be found at and the
http://www.aisb.org.uk/publications/proceedings/aisb05/7_MachConsc_Final.pdf
. An article introducing and contextualising some of this work can also be
found here: ftp://ftp.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/pub/reports/csrp/csrp574.pdf.

Submissions are especially invited on the following topics in their relation
to MC:

• Imagination
• Development
• Emotion
• Enactive / Embodied Approaches
• Heterophenomenology
• Synthetic Phenomenology
• Intersubjectivity
• Narrative
• General aspects (techniques, theories, constraints)

We especially welcome attempts to study the way these different areas might
be related.
Preference will be given to submissions that are:

• Relevant: closely related to the themes of the symposium • Implemented:
based on working robotic or other implemented systems • Novel: not
previously presented elsewhere • Integrative: models that examine the
integration, or synthesis of core aspects of machine consciousness
(especially two or more of the above topics), or their emergence from more
basic cognitive functions.

However, it is not expected that all accepted submissions will meet all four
criteria of preference. 

Submissions should be in the form of papers 6,000 words (6-8 pages) OR
abstracts (around 2 pages) based around more speculative ideas. The latter
will be invited to give shorter presentations based on 4 page papers which
will appear in the final proceedings. We also aim to publish a selection of
the best articles in a special issue of a journal which we are currently
negotiating.

Poster submissions are also welcome.

Formatting
Papers should be PDF format, formatted according to Springer LNCS (see
'Proceedings and Other Multiauthor Volumes') at
http://www.springeronline.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,5-164-2-72376-0,00.h
tml 


Joint organisers: Rob Clowes, Ron Chrisley & Steve Torrance 

Program Committee
Igor Aleksander, Giovanna Colombetti, Rodney Cotterill, Frédéric Kaplan,
Pentti Haikonen, Germund Hesslow, Owen Holland, Takashi Ikegami, Miguel
Salichs, Ricardo Sanz, Murray Shanahan, Jun Tani, Tom Ziemke 

The conference website and submission information can be found at 

http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/research/paics/machineconsciousness/ 

Important Dates
Submission of papers by: Jan 21st 2006
Notification of decision:  Feb 4th 2006 Camera ready copies by: February
20th 2006