MindFest 2025: Sentience, Autonomy and the Future of Digital Agency

(Note: We invite submissions for in person talks and posters only.  Please submit your abstract and institution/contact information to [email protected] by Feb. 10 and indicate if you would be able to present a poster if your paper can't be accommodated as a talk in the program.) 

MindFest 2025: Sentience, Autonomy and the Future of Digital Agency

March 12–13, 2025 | The Center for the Future Mind | Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL

We are excited to announce MindFest 2025, a groundbreaking conference dedicated to exploring the nature of mind—natural, artificial, and hybrid—and the future of intelligent systems. Held at the Center for the Future Mind, just minutes from Boca Raton’s stunning beaches, MindFest offers an inspiring environment for two days of philosophical inquiry and interdisciplinary dialogue.

This year’s theme, “AI Agents: Sentience, Autonomy, and the Future of Human-AI Interaction,” focuses on the rise of large language model (LLM)-based agents. These tailored systems are increasingly capable of exhibiting intelligent behavior across diverse domains, from workplace productivity to entertainment, and even autonomy in complex environments. The film Her famously depicted Samantha, a highly personalized AI agent tailored to the needs and personality of her user, Theodore. Today’s AI agents—while far less sophisticated—invite urgent philosophical questions about the nature of agency, autonomy, the future of work, disinformation, and the future of mind.

What does it mean for an AI system to act as an agent or to exhibit autonomy? Can these systems possess emergent features, such as sentience, greater intelligence or selfhood? And how should we address the epistemological challenges they pose, particularly when deploying them in critical contexts like warfare, healthcare, and governance?

Join us for cutting-edge discussions with thought leaders including Kristin Andrews, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Robin Hanson, Zoltan Istvan, Susan Schneider, Mark Bailey, Tam Hunt, Jonathan Schooler, Julia Mossbridge, James Hughes, and more.

Call for Papers

We invite submissions of abstracts and full papers on topics such as:

• What defines sentience, mindedness, selfhood or consciousness in biological, artificial, and hybrid systems?

• How do autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents challenge our understanding of work, agency, and AI safety? Could these systems ever ‘feel’ or possess ‘selves’? 

• What are the implications of interacting AI agents in the larger AI ecosystem, such as implications for epistemology, the study of emergence, superintelligence and AI alignment?

• How might such AI systems inform and reshape theories of the extended mind and collective intelligence?

• Do transhumanist visions of personalized AI agents hold up, and how might they evolve in light of current technologies

Contributors from philosophy, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and related disciplines are encouraged to submit.