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
  
  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
  
  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
  
   STEPHEN WOLFRAM

    Founder and CEO
    Wolfram Research, Inc.
    Champaign, IL, USA

    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