CFP: Artificial Life 2016, Cancun, Mexico

Hopefully we will be able to give the next instalment of this conference series an enactive flavour… there should be quite a few Life and Minders coming to present their work at this event!

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Dear friends and Colleagues,

ALife 2016 will showcase a wide range of topics in Artificial Life, bringing together world-leading researchers to discuss the latest advances in Artificial Life. Topics include (but are not restricted to), Evolutionary Robotics, Synthetic Biology, Evolutionary Dynamics, Computational Biology, Systems Neuroscience, Bioethics, Evolutionary Programming, Genetic Algorithms, Biological Engineering, Dynamic Approaches to Cognition, Artificial Neural Networks, and more.

The ALife 2016 Program Committee invites the submission of papers describing your best work in Artificial Life and related fields. Given the interdisciplinary nature of our field, work in all of the spectrum of sciences and humanities is welcome, considering the main conference themes of simulation and synthesis of living systems.

The submission deadline for extended abstracts and full papers is February 14th, 2016. Each submission to ALife 2016 will be rigorously evaluated in a double blind review process. Full papers will be reviewed for relevance, scientific, engineering, and/or philosophical quality, sound methodology and use of appropriate analysis techniques. Extended abstracts will be reviewed for relevance and quality. Accepted contributions will be published by MIT Press in open online proceedings.

There are two options for submission: either full paper or extended abstract. Note that the format is the same for both options. The only difference resides in the number of pages and type of contents:

– Full papers have an 8-page maximum length and should report on new, unpublished work.
– Extended abstracts are limited to two pages and can report on previously published work, but offer a new perspective on that work.

Important dates:

Submission of papers or abstracts: February 16th, 2016
Notifications: March 25, 2016
Camera-ready versions April 24th, 2016

Please apply here: http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/alifeXV/?page_id=349

Best regards

Dr. Carlos Gershenson

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Symposium on Varieties of Enactivism

Varieties of Enactivism: A Conceptual Geography

A one-day symposium at AISB-50, 1st to 4th April 2014, London, UK

CFP: Consciousness without inner models – a sensorimotor account of what IS going on in our heads

Note: This is the CFP for a symposium at AISB50 (aisb50.org) of which I am on the programme committee. I’ll happily respond to any questions in the comments. Cheers, Andrew.

Consciousness without inner models – a sensorimotor account of what IS going on in our heads

We invite abstracts for talks at a one-day symposium (2 April 2014), taking place as part of the AISB 50th Anniversary conference (Goldsmiths, University of London, 1-4 April 2014).

There has been much criticism over the years of the idea that conscious experience depends on inner representational models of the environment. Enactive accounts (e.g. Thompson 2007) and the sensorimotor account more particularly (O’Regan & Noë 2001; O’Regan 2011) have prominently criticized the reliance on inner models and they have offered an alternative way of thinking about experience. The idea of sensorimotor approaches is that experience involves the perceiver’s attunement to the way in which sensory stimulation depends on action. But how then should we conceive of what happens in the agent’s head to allow for this attunement? In this symposium we focus on two questions. First, how does an enactive sensorimotor theory offer guidance for the interpretation of neurophysiological findings? Second, how are its predictions about neural processes different from the predictions of representationalist accounts?

The first question, concerning the philosophical interpretation of neurophysiological findings, may be addressed by focusing on key processes such as corollary discharge or ‘efference copy’ and notions like ‘expectation error’ and ‘forward models’ in relation to the sensorimotor account or enactive accounts more generally. Here the main question is how to get the brain into view from an enactive/sensorimotor perspective. Where classical approaches speak of neural computation of properties of the environment, or the build-up of representations in the brain, what specific analysis can a sensorimotor account offer in its place? Addressing this question is urgently needed, for there seem to be no accepted alternatives to representational interpretations of the inner processes. Also robotic models of perceptual processes are often interpreted as mimicking the allegedly representational nature of neural processes. A sensorimotor account could help to avoid this bias towards interpretations based on the notion of inner models.

The second question, concerning the predictions following from an enactive/sensorimotor account, requires contrasting the neural processes that are postulated in representational theories, with the processes required by the enactive/sensorimotor account. Which processes postulated by representational accounts are rejected by the sensorimotor account or enactive accounts more generally? For example, why and when can neural ‘binding’ or ‘filling in’ be rejected? And are there processes that are specifically required by sensorimotor theory, which are not required by representational theories? In the part of the symposium addressing these questions we aim to clarify which constraints on inner processes are proposed by the sensorimotor account. If the sensorimotor account is right, these constraints will of course apply to neural processes as well as to robotic models of perception.

Abstracts of 700-1000 words, prepared for blind reviewing, can be submitted to Jan Degenaar at: Degenaar.jan@gmail.com. Please include “Sensorimotor Symposium” in the subject line.

Talks will be 30 minutes including discussion. The submission deadline is 3 January 2014.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent before the end of February.

Confirmed speakers:

• J. Kevin O’Regan (Université Paris Descartes, France)
• Fred Keijzer (University of Groningen, the Netherlands)

More info:

Jan Degenaar – Degenaar.jan@gmail.com

(Laboratoire Psychologie de la Perception, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France)

Symposium website: http://lpp.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/feel/?page_id=129

AISB conference website: http://aisb50.org/

CFP: Alife 14 in New York

ALIFE 14: THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE SYNTHESIS AND SIMULATION OF LIVING SYSTEMS

July 31st – August 2nd, 2014
Javits Center, Manhattan, New York, NY, USA

Sponsored by the International Society for Artificial Life (ISAL)

January 15, 2014 — Workshop/tutorial proposal deadline
February 1, 2014 — Science visualization competition deadline
March 31, 2014 — Paper/abstract submission deadline

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We cordially invite you to submit papers to ALIFE 14: The Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems. Since its inception in 1987, ALIFE has been the leading biyearly international conference in the field of Artificial Life — the highly interdisciplinary research area on artificially constructed living systems, including mathematical, computational, robotic, and biochemical ones. The understanding and application of such generalized forms of life, or “life-as-it-could-be”, have been producing significant contributions to various fields of science and engineering.

The upcoming ALIFE 14 will be held at the Javits Center located in the middle of Manhattan, New York, the world’s largest economic and cultural center. We hope you will find it a perfect place to discuss Artificial Life, the intellectual melting pot that mixes biology, computation, technology, art, philosophy, and more!!

Special issue on Neurophenomenology

This CFP for a special issue in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience might be of interest for the Life and Mind group:

Examining Subjective Experience: Advances in Neurophenomenology