SPT Newsletter
Volume 30, Number 1 – Winter 2006
Contents:
1. Message from the President
2. SPT 2007 Conference
3. News from the APA divisions
4. Conferences, Workshops, and Lectures
5. Calls for Papers
6. Recent Publications of Interest
7. Philosophy of Technology Around the World
8. Membership and Dues
9. SPT Officers
Message
from the President
Let me begin with expressing my hope that all
of you who have attended the Delft SPT meeting have enjoyed your stay at
In the meantime, the board of the SPT has reached
a decision on the venue of the 2007 SPT conference. We received two bids, one
from
2007
More details about the conference will follow
in due course. I wish the organizers of the conference much success in their
preparations for this conference.
The elections for the new president elect of
the SPT and the open place at the executive board are on its way. The
nomination committee hopes to organize the elections as soon as possible.
Finally, as was proposed at the meeting of the executive board at
Finally, if there is any news relevant to the
members of our society, about conferences, books, publications etc., please
don’t hesitate to contact Peter-Paul Verbeek who is in charge of the Newsletter
of the society.
Peter Kroes
SPT 2007
Conference
The 2007 SPT conference will be held in
News from
the APA divisions
Special
Session by the SPT at the APA central division meeting, Saturday April 29,
Chicago
The philosophy and ethics of socio-technical systems
In the last decades engineers and design methodologists
have increasingly come to recognize what philosophers are arguing for some time
now, that technology does not merely concern the technical artifacts engineers
design and manufacture, but that it affects and shapes social relations as
well. Initially, with the advent of ergonomics and the wide dissemination of
use of computers, engineers became systematically involved in designing
interfaces, pushing their involvement with artifacts one step further to
include also the interactions between these artifacts and human agents.
Currently, having become aware of the vulnerability of large infrastructural
systems for cascading failures and terrorist attacks, engineers are enlarging
their professional scope by another step, such that it comes to include the
interaction and social organization of human agents that operate artifacts.
These amalgams of artifacts, the agents involved and the rules under which they
operate are called socio-technical systems, and this special session focuses on
the socio-technical turn in engineering.
The session will consist in an introductory
part in which authors comment upon the socio-technical turn. This turn seems to
complicate philosophical and ethical considerations of engineering and
technology: since socio-technical systems are large-scale systems that contain
many subsystems, each consisting of heterogeneous elements, epistemic,
ontological and ethical considerations linked to the design, implementation,
management and use of such systems will become similarly complicated. Yet there
may also be advantages, one being that it becomes instantly clear that
engineering has social effects and is thus susceptible to ethical
considerations. The second part is reserved for general discussion.
Contributions by:
- Noam Cook,
- Peter Kroes,
- Heinz C. Luegenbiehl, Rose-Hulman Institute
of Technology
- Kathryn A. Neeley,
Conferences,
Workshops, and Lectures
Methodologies
for morally evaluating technology development
Theme
of workshop
The field of computer ethics and IT ethics
has welcomed different methodologies over the past decennia. We take
methodologies to be moral frameworks that aim to structure, conceptualise, and
solve ethical issues. In this workshop we will assess a number of moral
frameworks which have been proposed in relation to technology development. A
prospective perspective on development includes an evaluation of future
appliances, uses and impacts. Assessing technology development seems to be
complicated by factors of uncertainty and control, because the range of
relevant and possible detrimental aspects is not really foreseeable. Moreover, moral
pluralism poses further difficulties for prospective analyses. How do these
different frameworks allow for some prospective analysis while taking into
account the aforementioned problems? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
These questions will be the starting point for a two-day workshop in
Keynotes
Jim Moor,
Batya Friedman,
Peter-Paul Verbeek,
Participation
If you are interested in attending this workshop or would like to receive more
information, contact Paul Sollie, Ethics Institute, Utrecht University,
Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands, p.sollie@ethics.uu.nl.
More information: http://www.ethicsoftechnology.com
Van Riessen Memorial Lecture by
April
21,
In memory of professor Hendrik Van Riessen,
the Centrum voor Reformatorische Wijsbegeerte (Center for Reformational
Philosophy) organizes the Van Riessen Memorial Lecture. The first Van Riessen
Memorial Lecture will be given by Carl Mitcham, a prominent philosopher of
technology, author of the influential and widely acclaimed book Thinking through Technology. It will
take place at the 21th of April at Delft University of Technology.
Carl Mitcham is invited to give this lecture
with reason. He can be seen as one of the leading American philosophers of
technology of this time. Mitcham has made a great contribution to the
philosophy of technology as an author, lecturer, editor, researcher and
director of several institutes. His book Thinking
through Technology: The Path between Engineering and Philosophy is known as
authoritative in the philosophy of technology and is seen as the most extended
and complete overview of the philosophy of technology. Since 1999, Mitcham is
professor of Liberal Arts and International Studies at the Colorado School of
Mines, Colorado (
With this lecture, Van Riessen (1911-2000)
will be commemorated for the first time, for his role for the philosophy of
technology. He was the first affiliate professor of Reformational Philosophy in
The Van Riessen Memorial Lecture is organised
by the Centrum voor Reformatorische
Wijsbegeerte. This foundation puts effort into the promotion for the
position and the strengthening of reformational philosophy, both nationally and
internationally.
The Van Riessen Memorial Lecture
21th of April from 15.00 until 17.00
Technische Universiteit
An introduction will be given by prof.dr.ir.
E. Schuurman
Free
entrance
ICTTA'06 - 2nd
International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies: from Theory
to Applications
The IEEE International Conference on Information
& Communication Technologies: from Theory to Applications - ICTTA’06 -
will be held from
Ethical Aspects of Risk
14-16 June 2006,
Technology has advanced human well being in a myriad of respects, such as energy, communication and abilities to travel. Still, every technology also has negative side-effects, such as risks from accidents and pollution. A standard way to judge the acceptability of a specific technology is cost-benefit analysis. However, next to the balance between the benefits and risks of a technology the following considerations seem to be important: the distribution of costs and benefits, whether a risk is voluntarily taken, whether there are available alternatives etc. How to judge whether a risk is acceptable is a pressing ethical question that deserves thorough investigation. There is a vast amount of sociological and psychological research on acceptable risks, but surprisingly, there is only very little research from moral philosophy on risks. This conference aims to fill this gap by bringing together moral philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and engineers to reflect on the ethical issues concerning ‘acceptable risk’.
The following questions will be the focus of the conference:
- What are morally legitimate considerations in judging the acceptability of risks? Is cost-benefit analysis the best way or do we need additional considerations?
- What role should emotions play in judging the acceptability of risks? Are they irrational and distorting or are they a necessary precondition for practically rational judgments?
- What role should the public play in judging the acceptability of risks (e.g. informed consent procedures analogous to medical ethics)?
- Is the precautionary principle a fruitful tool in dealing with risks?
Keynote speakers:
Ruth Chadwick,
Carl Cranor,
Douglas MacLean,
Paul Slovic, Decision Research,
Organization:
Sabine Roeser and Lotte Asveld (Philosophy Department, Delft University of
Technology)
conference management: Henneke Piekhaar
More
information: http://www.ethicsrisk.tbm.tudelft.nl
Computing And Philosophy - IV European
Meeting
E-CAP 2006@NTNU Norway Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Dragvoll Campus, Trondheim, Norway, June
22-24, 2006
From Thursday 22 to Saturday 24 June 2006 the Fourth International European
Conference on COMPUTING AND PHILOSOPHY will be held on the Dragvoll Campus of
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. E-CAP is
the European conference on Computing and Philosophy, the European affiliate of
the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP).
program
Continuing the foci of the E-CAP conferences (beginning in Glasgow, 2002),
ECAP'06 will deal with all aspects of the computational turn that has emerged over
the past several decades, and continues to expand and develop as a result of
the multiple interactions between philosophy and computing.
conference Co-Chairs:
Charles Ess (Drury University / NTNU): <cmess@drury.edu>
May Thorseth (NTNU): <may.thorseth@hf.ntnu.no>
keynote speakers:
Dr. Lucas Introna, Centre for the Study of Technology & Organisation,
Lancaster University, UK <http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/profiles/119/>
Dr. Raymond Turner, Department of Computer Science, University of Essex,
UK <http://cswww.essex.ac.uk/staff/turnr/>
Dr. Vincent Hendricks, Department of Philosophy and Science Studies, Roskilde
University, Denmark <http://akira.ruc.dk/~vincent/>
relevant research areas
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. Hence, the following is intended to be suggestive, but not
exclusive:
§ Philosophy of Computer Science
§ Ontology (Distributed Processing, Emergent Properties, Formal Ontology, Network Structures, etc)
§ Computational Linguistics
§ Global Information Infrastructures (technological architectures, web design and accessibility issues, converging information technologies etc)
§ Philosophy of Information and Information Technology (Including: Information as structure; Semantic information)
§ 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
§ IT and Gender Research, Feminist Technoscience Studies
§ Information and Computing Ethics
§ Biological Information, Artificial Life, Biocomputation
§ New Models of Logic Software
§ Intersections - e.g., work at the crossroads of logic, epistemology, philosophy of science and ICT/Computing, such as Philosophy of AI
§ Ethical and Political Dimensions of ICTs in Globalization
registration
Registration will take place through the conference website.
The registration fee includes the conference reception, conference lunches and
coffee and tea breaks, and one ticket to the conference banquet.
See <www.iacap.org> for further information.
Calls for
Papers
INTERNET
CONVERGENCES
Association
of Internet Researchers
Pre-Conference Workshops:
The Internet works as an arena of convergence.
Physically dispersed and marginalized people (re)find themselves online for the
sake of sustaining and extending community. International and interdisciplinary
teams now collaborate in new ways. Diverse cultures engage one another via CMC.
These technologies relocate and refocus capital, labor and immigration, and
they open up new possibilities for political potentially democratizing, forms
of discourse. Moreover, these technologies themselves converge in multiple
ways, e.g. in Internet-enabled mobile phones, in Internet-based telephony, and
in computers themselves as "digital appliances" that conjoin
communication and multiple media forms. These technologies also facilitate
fragmentations with greater disparities between the information-haves and
have-nots, between winners and losers in the shifting labor and capital
markets, and between individuals and communities. Additionally these
technologies facilitate information filtering that reinforces, rather than
dialogically challenges,'narrow and extreme views.
Our conference theme invites papers and presentations based on empirical
research, theoretical analysis and everything in between that explore the
multiple ways the Internet acts in both converging and fragmenting ways -
physical, cultural, technological, political, social - on local, regional, and
global scales. Without limiting possible proposals, topics of interest include:
- Theoretical and practical models of the Internet
- Internet convergence, divergence and fragmentation
- Networked flows of information, capital, labor, etc.
- Migrations and diasporas online
- Identity, community and global communication
- Regulation and control (national and global)
- Internet-based development and other economic issues
- Digital art and aesthetics
- Games and gaming on the Internet
- The Net generation
- E-Sectors, e.g. e-health, e-education, e-business
We call for papers, panel proposals, and presentations from any discipline,
methodology, and community that address the theme of Internet Convergence. We
particularly call for innovative, exciting, and unexpected takes on and
interrogations of the conference theme. However, we always welcome submissions
on any topics that address social, cultural, political, economic, and/or
aesthetic aspects of the Internet and related Internet technologies. We are
equally interested in interdisciplinary proposals as well as proposals from
within specific disciplines.
submissions
We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions. We welcome
proposals for traditional academic conference papers, but we also encourage
proposals for creative or aesthetic presentations that are distinct from a
traditional written 'paper'. We welcome proposals for roundtable sessions that
will focus on discussion and interaction among conference delegates, and we
also welcome organized panel proposals that present a coherent group of papers
on a single theme.
This year AoIR will also be using an
alternative presentation format in which a dozen or so participants who wish to
present a very short overview of their work to stimulate debate will gather
together in a plenary session involving short presentations (no more than 5
minutes) and extended discussion. All papers and presentations in this session
will be reviewed in the normal manner. Further information will be available
via the conference submission website.
Detailed information about submission and review is available at the conference
submission website http://conferences.aoir.org. All proposals must be submitted
electronically through this site.
graduate students
Graduate students are strongly encouraged to submit proposals. Any student
paper is eligible for consideration for the AoIR graduate student award.
Students wishing to be a candidate for the Student Award must also send a final
paper by 31 July 2006.
pre-conference workshops
Prior to the conference, there will be a limited number of pre-conference
workshops which will provide participants with in-depth, hands-on and/or
creative opportunities. We invite proposals for these pre-conference workshops.
Local presenters are encouraged to propose workshops that will invite visiting
researchers into their labs or studios or locales. Proposals should be no more
than 1000 words, and should clearly outline the purpose, methodology,
structure, costs, equipment and minimal attendance required, as well as
explaining its relevance to the conference as a whole. Proposals will be
accepted if they demonstrate that the workshop will add significantly to the
overall program in terms of thematic depth, hands on experience, or local
opportunities for scholarly or artistic connections. These proposals and all
inquires regarding pre-conference proposals should be submitted as soon as
possible to the Conference Chair and no later than 31 March 2006.
Workshop submission deadline: 31 March 2006
Abstract Deadline:
Paper Deadline:
contact information
Program Chair: Dr Fay Sudweeks,
Conference Chair: Dr Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
a.bruns at qut.edu.au
President of AoIR: Dr Matthew Allen, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
m.allen at curtin.edu.au
Association Website: http://www.aoir.org
Conference Website: http://conferences.aoir.org
Recent publications of
interest
Encyclopedia
of Science, Technology, and Ethics
Edited
by Carl Mitcham
A four-volume "Encyclopedia of Science,
Technology, and Ethics" (ESTE) has recently been published (
Thinking
About Technology
Joseph
Pitt
For those who are interested, Joseph Pitt's Thinking About Technology is now
available at the following site gratis: http://www.phil.vt.edu/HTML/people/pittjoseph.htm
Thinking
about Android Epistemology
Edited by Kenneth M. Ford, Clark Glymour
and Patrick J. Hayes
For millennia, "from Aristotle to almost yesterday," the great
problems of philosophy have all been about people: questions of epistemology
and philosophy of mind have concerned human capacities and limitations. Still,
say the editors of Thinking about Android
Epistemology, there should be theories about other sorts of minds, other
ways that physical systems can be organized to produce knowledge and
competence. The emergence of artificial intelligence in mid-twentieth century
provided a way to study the powers and limits of systems that learn, to
theorize and to make theories sufficiently concrete so that their properties
and consequences can be demonstrated. In this updated version of the 1995 MIT
Press book Android Epistemology, computer scientists and philosophers--among
them Herbert Simon, Daniel Dennett, and Paul Churchland--offer a gentle,
unsystematic introduction to alternative systems of cognition. They look at
android epistemology from both theoretical and practical points of view,
offering not only speculative proposals but applications--ideas for using
computational systems to expand human capacities. The accessible and
entertaining essays include a comparison of 2001's HAL and today's computers, a
conversation among aliens who have a low opinion of human cognition, an
argument for the creativity of robots, and a short story illustrating the power
of algorithms for learning causal relations.
Contributors: Neil Agnew, Margaret
Boden, Paul Churchland, Daniel Dennett, Ken M. Ford, Clark Glymour, Pat Hayes,
Henry Kyburg, Doug Lenat, Marvin Minsky, Joseph Nadeau, Anatol Rappoport,
Herbert Simon, Lynn Andrea Stein, Susan Sterrett
Kenneth M. Ford is Founder and Director of the Florida Institute for Human and
Machine Cognition (IHMC) in Pensacola.
Clark Glymour is Senior Research Scientist at IHMC and Alumni University
Professor of Philosophy at
Patrick J. Hayes is a Senior Research Scientist at IHMC.
The Nanotechnology-Biology Interface: Exploring Models
for Oversight
Center
for Science, Technology & Public Policy, Humphrey Institute,
The Center for Science, Technology &
Public Policy at the Humphrey Institute of the
Philosophy of Technology
Around the World
nanoScience & technology research at the University of South Carolina
Chris
toumey, USC Nanocenter,
Sumwalt 103, University of South Carolina
The
We define nanoliteracy as an intellectual culture in which:
[A] people who are interested in nanotechnology are reasonably informed about
it (including scientific, humanist and policy features, and the spectrum of
views on those topics), and are comfortable discussing it; and,
[B] members of the community are able to pursue their own interests in nanotech
by learning more from various sources; and,
[C] members of the community are confident that they can use their knowledge
and understandings to participate in shaping nanotechnology policy, even if
they do not possess expert scientific credentials; and,
[D] considerations of the public good are integrated into discussions and
decisions about technical change, so that the technology is not isolated from
society.
If a university community truly possessed
such a nanoliteracy, then all could participate constructively in discussions
and decisions about nanotechnology policy.
Humanists and social scientists, for example, would have realistic
expectations of what nanotech will deliver – and what it will not – while
scientists and engineers would understand other people’s concerns about how
nanotech will change our lives.
Background to nSTS at USC
Some USC faculty in the humanities and social sciences were seriously interested in nanotechnology by the time the National Nanotechnology Initiative crystallized in 2000. When the University created its NanoCenter in 2001 with the help of generou