SPT Newsletter
Volume 31, Number 2 – Summer 2007
Contents:
1. SPT 2007 Conference
2. Call for proposals 2009 SPT conference
3. Calls for papers
4. Conferences, Workshops, and
Lectures
5. Recent Publications of Interest
6. Philosophy of Technology Around the World
7. Membership and Dues
8. SPT Officers
SPT 2007
Conference
SPT 2007
Biennial Meeting
8-11 July,
2007
Preparations
for the summer 2007 Biennial meeting are in high gear! The meeting will open with a reception on Sunday
evening July 8th at the
The hotel
is holding a block of rooms for us at a special rate of ($109 + tax) also until
8 June. You may make your reservations
by phone or online. If you phone, (843)
722-0600 or in the
To make reservations at the
1. go to: http://www.francismarioncharleston.com/
2. click on "Reservations"
3. enter the dates of your stay (conference is
4. IMPORTANT: in the Group Code Field type "Philosophy"
5. click on the "Check Availability" button
6. rest is self-explanatory!
Note: The group code must be entered to qualify for special room rates (before
8 June).
We
currently have a program of some 95 papers featuring speakers from 17 different
countries. Our theme this year is Globalization
and Technology, and a large number of the papers address this theme in many
different ways. At the same time,
subjects which have traditionally been presented at SPT are also well
represented: from applied ethics, the epistemology of engineering and
technology, the phenomenology of technology and technology and politics. There will certainly be something for
everyone at this conference!
If you
have specific questions or run into any problems accessing the website, please
contact either Ann Johnson, conference chair at annj@sc.edu. We hope to see you in
Call for proposals 2009 SPT conference
The next biennial SPT conference after the upcoming
meeting in
The board will also consider seriously
proposals for organizing the next 2009 SPT conference in Aisa or
Peter Kroes,
President SPT
Calls for Papers
ScienceFutures: THE SWISS STS MEETING 2008
February 6-9, 2008, ETH Zurich and University of Zurich, Switzerland
A joint event of the Centre for the
History of Knowledge (ETH Zurich and University of Zurich) and The Swiss
Association for the Studies of Science, Technology and Society (STS-CH)
Organizers:
Kijan Espahangizi, Michael Hagner, Martina Merz, Barbara Orland, Marianne
Sommer, Daniel Speich, Jakob Tanner
The Swiss STS Meeting 2008 is the fourth academic event of its kind, tailored
to the interests of junior scholars, in particular Ph.D. students, in science
and technology studies.
The topic ScienceFutures aims at the role of science and technology in the
social shaping of utopias, visions and temporal expectations. While in early
modern thought utopia was the site of happiness removed in space, it
increasingly became a good place in the future in the modern belief in
technical and scientific progress. However, in the aftermath of the traumatic
outgrowths of totalitarianism, the utility of prospective thinking remained
fundamentally questionable. Where do we stand today? In how far are 'a
flattening of the world' and a 'democratization of science' creating
unprecedented possibilities and problems?
Thinking the unfamiliar, not to mention to communicate and realize the unknown,
is laden with difficulties. The necessity of translation is associated with
questions regarding the formal and representational. How do the scientists and
engineers, the science fiction writers, and cultural theorists deal with these
problems? How do they convey the strange, the other, and still make sense? What
kinds of aesthetics and which rationalities are at work in these epistemologies
of the future?
The meeting encourages scholars to engage with science futures, including social,
cultural, political, and economic implications in a cross-disciplinary as well
as syn- and diachronic fashion.
Session and Abstract Submission
The conference invites submissions for organized sessions or individual
papers that approach the topic of ScienceFutures. It will be possible to submit
session and individual abstracts electronically on the conference website at http://www.zgw.ethz.ch/sts.html, which is under
construction. Sessions will be 105 minutes and should not exceed three
presentations of maximum twenty minutes each. If five or six speakers address
similar topics, two sessions may be submitted. The deadline for submissions is
Enquiries may be addressed to sts08@wiss.gess.ethz.ch
Conferences, Workshops, and Lectures
ECAP’07: European Computing and Philosophy Conference
The fifth
European Conference on Computing and Philosophy (ECAP) will be held on the
campus of the
keynote speakers
Jeroen
van den Hoven (Delft University of Technology, the
Giovanni
Boniolo (
Mark
Bedau (
panels
The
Future of Artificial Intelligence.
IT,
Cultural Diversity and Technoscience.
research tracks
·
Philosophy
of Computer Science, Chairs: Amnon Eden, Raymond Turner
·
Computer-based
Learning and Teaching Strategies and Resources & The Impact of Distance
Learning on the Teaching of Philosophy and Computing, Chairs: Gordana
Dodig-Crnkovic, Jules Pieters
·
Philosophy
of Information and Information Technology, Chair: Patrick Allo
·
Ontology, Chair:
Lars-Göran Johansson
·
Computational
and Post-Computational Approaches to the Mind, Chair: Susan Stuart
·
Information
and Computing Ethics, Chair: Alison Adam
·
Intersections, Chair:
Chris Dobbyn (
·
IT and
Globalization, Chairs: May Thorseth, Johnny Søraker
·
IT,
Cultural Diversity and Technoscience Studies, Chairs: Christina Björkman and
Jutta Weber
·
Philosophy
and Ethics of Robotics, Chair: Gianmarco Veruggio
A full
description of the tracks and tentative program can be found at the
website: http://www.utwente.nl/ecap07/programme/
registration
Registration
fee (After May 1): € 210,-
On-site registration (After June 10): €240
Please
use the registration form on our Website: http://www.utwente.nl/ecap07/registration/
Program
Chair: Philip Brey
Local
organization: Johnny Hartz Søraker and Katinka Waelbers, ECAP07@gw.utwente.nl
E-CAP
conferences are organized under the supervision of the International
Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP). Website: http://ia-cap.org/.
More information: www.utwente.nl/ecap07
MINDS, BODIES, MACHINES CONFERENCE
This
interdisciplinary conference, convened by Birkbeck’s Centre for
Nineteenth-Century Studies,
University of London, in partnership with the Department of English, University of Melbourne, and software developers Constraint Technologies International (CTI), will take place on 6-7 July 2007 at
Birkbeck College, Malet Street, Bloomsbury.
The
two-day conference will explore the relationship between minds, bodies and
machines in the long nineteenth century. Recent research on the
Enlightenment’s frontier technologies has established that era’s preoccupation
with developing machinery that could simulate the cognitive and physiological
processes of human beings. According to some critics, however, these
Promethean ambitions were shelved during the nineteenth century, when the
android as artefact was relocated to the realm of the imagination, where it
became a threatening figure. According to this reading, the android as
scientific project and a figure of possibility only re-emerges in our own era.
The aim of this conference is to test this claim by exploring the continuities
and discontinuities in the imagining of the human/machine interface in the
nineteenth and twenty-first centuries.
The
conference organisers – Hilary Fraser (Birkbeck), Deirdre Coleman (Melbourne) and
Paul Hyland (CTI) – invite proposals for papers that examine the intersection
of minds, bodies and machines during the long nineteenth century. Topics
include: the virtual and the real; technologies of the sublime; evolution and
machines; techniques of communication; technologies of travel; medical
technology; miniaturisation; self-reproduction; and spiritualism.
The
conference programme will include plenary addresses, seminars and
workshops. Confirmed speakers include: Dr Caroline Arscott, Professor Jay Clayton, Professor Steven Connor, Professor Iain McCalman, Professor Peter Otto, Professor Kevin Warwick and Dr Elizabeth Wilson. A selection of papers arising from this
conference will be published in the online journal 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century.
More information:
http://www.mindsbodiesmachines.org/conferences.html
CEPE 2007
Seventh
International Computer Ethics Conference
July 12-14 2007,
The 2007
Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE) conference is the seventh
in a series of international conferences that date back to 1997. The 2007
conference will be held over three days on the University of San Diego campus
in beautiful southern California. The theme for the 2007 event is not limited
and thus open to all aspects of computer and information technology ethics.
More information: http://cepe2007.sandiego.edu
THE FUTURE OF IDENTITY IN THE INFORMATION
SOCIETY
Third International Summer School, organized
by IFIP WG 9.2, 9.6/11.7, 11.6, in cooperation with FIDIS Network of Excellence
The
increasing diversity of Information Communication Technologies and their
equally diverse range of uses in personal, professional and official capacities
raise challenging questions of identity in a variety of contexts. Each
communication exchange contains an identifier which may, or may not, be
intended by the parties involved. What constitutes an identity, how do new
technologies affect identity, how do we manage identities in a globally
networked information society?
The theme
of this Summer School will be on Identity Management in relation to current and
future technologies in a variety of contexts. IFIP takes a holistic approach to
technology. FIDIS supports interdisciplinary exchange. So participants’
contributions combining technical, social, ethical or legal perspectives are
welcome. Topics of interest include:
All
sessions will start with an introduction by an invited speaker, followed by
parallel workshops in the morning and afternoon. The workshops will consist of short
presentations based on the contributions that have been submitted by the
participants, followed by active discussion. The aim of the Summer School is to
encourage a stimulating discourse between all participants – be they new
researchers or experienced academics.
More information:
http://www.cs.kau.se/IFIP-summerschool
CONTENTIOUS “PROGRESS” IN SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
8th ESA Conference, SSTNET,
Fuelled by
public and private investments in research and development, the speed of
innovation has accelerated and also the pressure has increased to market
innovations as early as possible. The ambivalent implications of this kind of
“progress” have become a public issue. Risks inherent in scientific and
technological innovations but also the vulnerability of modern society through
potential misuse of high-tech achievements in areas such as ICT, biotechnology,
nanotechnology, or energy machinery are on the agenda. Many risks have a global
dimension. They affect also those who do not participate in the high-tech
innovation journey. This is why assessing science and technology is no longer
or can no longer be a technocratic exercise of circles of experts. Questions of
governance of modern science and technology but also moral and ethical issues
related to innovation and “progress” have moved to the center of public debate.
This debate is driven mainly by civil society organizations which, however,
often have to struggle gaining public attention.
More
about SSTNET on the network’s website at http://sstnet.iscte.pt/SST-Site.htm