***DEADLINE FOR PAPERS: 1st Feb 2012***

The 4th AISB Symposium on Computing and Philosophy:
Computing, Philosophy and the Question of Bio-Machine Hybrids


July 2nd to 6th, 2012
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
As part of the AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012 in honour of Alan Turing
Organised by
Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB) 
International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP)
 
Website: http://extranet.smuc.ac.uk/events-conferences/AISB-symposium-computing-philosophy/Pages/default.aspx
 
Poster: http://extranet.smuc.ac.uk/events-conferences/AISB-symposium-computing-philosophy/Documents/AISB-Symposium-2012-Poster.pdf
 
 
Symposium Overview
 
Turing’s famous question ‘can machines think?’ raises parallel questions about what it means to 
say of us humans that we think. More broadly, what does it mean to say that we are thinking beings?
In this way we can see that Turing’s question about the potential of machines raises substantial 
questions about the nature of human identity. ‘If’, we might ask, ‘intelligent human behaviour 
could be successfully imitated, then what is there about our flesh and blood embodiment that need 
be regarded as exclusively essential to either intelligence or human identity?’. This and related 
questions come to the fore when we consider the way in which our involvement with and use of 
machines and technologies, as well as their involvement in us, is increasing and evolving. This is 
true of few more than those technologies that have a more intimate and developing role in our lives,
such as implants and prosthetics (e.g. neuroprosthetics).
 
The Symposium will cover key areas relating to developments in implants and prosthetics, including:
How new developments in artificial intelligence (AI) / computational intelligence (CI) look set to 
develop implant technology (e.g. swarm intelligence for the control of smaller and smaller components)
Developments of implants and prosthetics for use in human,  primate and non-primate animals
The nature of human identity and how implants may impact on it (involving both conceptual and 
ethical questions) 
The identification of, and debate surrounding, distinctions drawn between improvement or repair 
(e.g. for medical reasons), and enhancement or “upgrading” (e.g. to improve performance) using 
implants/prosthetics 
What role other emerging, and converging, technologies may have on the development of implants 
(e.g. nanotechnology or biotechnology)
But the story of identity does not end with human implants and neuroprosthetics. In the last 
decade, huge strides have been made in ‘animat’ devices. These are robotic machines with both 
active biological and artificial (e.g. electronic, mechanical or robotic) components. Recently 
one of the organisers of this symposium, Slawomir Nasuto, in partnership with colleagues Victor 
Becerra, Kevin Warwick and Ben Whalley, developed an autonomous robot (an animat) controlled by 
cultures of living neural cells, which in turn were directly coupled to the robot's actuators and 
sensory inputs. This work raises the question of whether such ‘animat’ devices (devices, for 
example, with all the flexibility and insight of intelligent natural systems) are constrained by 
the limits (e.g. those of Turing Machines) identified in classical a priori arguments regarding 
standard ‘computational systems’.Both neuroprosthetic augmentation and animats may be considered 
as biotechnological hybrid systems. Although seemingly starting from very different sentient 
positions, the potential convergence in the relative amount and importance of biological and 
technological components in such systems raises the question of whether such convergence would 
be accompanied by a corresponding convergence of their respective teleological capacities; and
what indeed the limits noted above could be.
 
Suggested topics (in relation to computing and philosophy as pertaining to bio-machine hybrids 
include, but are not limited to):
Cognitive science;
Artificial intelligence; the Turing test; machine understanding; Searle’s Chinese Room argument;
Foundations of computing;
Simulation of behaviour and agency;
Ambient intelligence;
Artificial life; computational biology; 
Implant technology;
Biosemiotics;
Constructivism;
Second order cybernetics;
Enactivism and sensorimotor theories of perception;
Converging technologies (e.g. ICT, Nanotechnology, etc.);
Information / computer / nanotechnology ethics; 
Cognitive / epigenetic robotics.
Symposium Organisers
Prof. Mark Bishop, Department of Computing, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK: email: m.bishop@gold.ac.uk
Dr Yasemin J. Erden, CBET, St Mary's University College, Twickenham, UK: email: yj.erden@smuc.ac.uk
Dr Slawomir J Nasuto, School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading, Reading, UK: email: s.j.nasuto@reading.ac.uk
Dr Kevin Magill, Department of Philosophy, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, UK: email: k.magill@wlv.ac.uk
Questions should be directed in the first instance to: erdenyj@smuc.ac.uk  

Submission and Publication Details 
Submissions must be full papers.
 
Submitted contributions should be sent via EasyChair:  
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=aisb12-cp
 
Text editor templates from a previous convention can be found here.
 
Submitted papers are limited to eight pages.
 
Each paper will receive at least two reviews.
 
Selected papers will be published in the general proceedings of the AISB Convention, with the 
proviso that at least ONE author attends the symposium in order to present the paper and 
participate in general symposium activities.
 
Following the symposium, authors of a selection of the best papers will be invited to submit an 
extended version of the work to a proposed special issue (SI) of the Philosophy and Technology 
journal in 2013. Confirmation of the SI of this journal, and further details about revised 
submissions will be circulated in August 2012.

Important Dates 

Full paper submission deadline: 1 February 2012
 
Notification of acceptance/rejection decisions: 1 March 2012
 
Final versions of accepted papers (Camera ready copy): 30 March 2012
 
Convention: 2-6 July 2012 
Symposium dates: Thursday 5 and Friday 6th July 2012

Additional Information​
Joint AISB / IACAP Congress
 
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.
 
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. All papers other than the invited Plenaries will be given within Symposia.
 
Conference proceedings
 
Please note: there will be a separate proceedings for each symposium, produced before the Congress,
and available to conference delegates. Each delegate at the Congress will receive, on arrival, a 
memory stick containing the proceedings of all symposia.
 
Awards and bursaries
 
In previous years there have been awards for the best student paper, and limited student bursaries.
These details will be circulated as and when they become available.


Programme Committee
Prof Igor Aleksander (Imperial College London, UK)
 
Dr Paul Baxter (Plymouth University, UK)
 
Dr Victor M. Becerra (University of Reading, UK)


Prof Rosalyn W. Berne (University of Virginia, USA)
 
Prof Mark Bishop (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
 
Dr Mark Coeckelbergh (University of Twente, NL)
 
Dr Edoardo Datteri (University of Milano-Bicocca, IT)
 
Dr Yasemin J. Erden (St Mary's University College, UK)
 
Dr Tom Froese (The University of Tokyo, JP)
 
Dr Phil Hutchinson (Manchester Metropolitan University, UK)
 
Dr Stanislao Lauria (Brunel University, UK)
 
Dr Rui Loureiro (Middlesex University, UK)
 
Dr Peter J Lovatt (University of Hertfordshire, UK)
 
Dr Kevin Magill (University of Wolverhampton, UK)
 
Dr Richard J. Mitchell (University of Reading, UK)
 
Dr Slawomir J Nasuto (University of Reading, UK)
 
Prof Ian Sillitoe (The University of Wolverhampton, UK)
 
Dr Porfírio Silva (Institute for Systems and Robotics Lisbon, PT)
 
Dr Mark Sprevak (University of Edinburgh, UK)
 
Prof Steve Torrance (University of Sussex, UK)