CFP: Do Humans Also Dream of Electric Sheeps? Technoscientific, Cultural, and Cognitive Challenges of AI

Do Humans Also Dream of Electric Sheeps?
Technoscientific, Cultural, and Cognitive Challenges of AI

International Conference – Rome, February 27-28, 2026
Organized by:

• University of Rome Tor Vergata
  
  

• Res Viva – Interuniversity Research Center on the Epistemology and History of Life Sciences
  
  

• Italian Society for the History of Science (SISS)
  
  

• With the support of CNR – Institute for the History of Philosophical and Scientific Thought in Modern Age (ISPF), Naples
  
  

Conference Theme

The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence is reshaping the boundaries between the living and the artificial, the natural and the technological. The conference Do Humans Also Dream of Electric Sheeps? Technoscientific, Cultural, and Cognitive Challenges of AI aims to explore this shifting terrain by bringing together diverseperspectives across disciplines.

We seek to examine AI not only as a technological innovation but also as a cultural, epistemological, and cognitive phenomenon. By looking at AI through the lenses of philosophy, history of science, science and technology studies (STS), psychology, cognitive science, and related fields, the conference aims to open a dialogue that bridges the humanities and the natural sciences.

In particular, we invite papers that:

• Address the epistemological foundations of Artificial Intelligence and its claim to simulate or replicate human cognition and life processes.
  
  

• Explore historical trajectories linking AI to earlier scientific and technological visions of the machine, the organism, and their interplay.
  
  

• Investigate cultural narratives, imaginaries, and metaphors of AI as a “technological living being.”
  
  

• Analyze practices of simulation, modeling, and embodiment across biological and artificial systems.
  
  

• Discuss the psychological and social dynamics of human–machine interaction, from everyday life to professional domains.
  
  

• Reflect on ethical, political, and environmental implications of algorithmic governance and the expanding role of AI in society.
  
  

Submissions are particularly encouraged from:

• Philosophers and historians of science, especially those working on epistemology, theories of information, cognition, or the history of cybernetics and AI.
  
  

• STS scholars, focusing on the socio-technical imaginaries, governance, and practices surrounding AI.
  
  

• Humanities and social science scholars engaging with the cultural, literary, artistic, and anthropological dimensions of AI.
  
  

• Researchers from STEM disciplines interested in the interdisciplinary implications of their work on AI, cognition, and life sciences.
  
  

The conference welcomes both theoretical contributions and case-based analyses, as well as interdisciplinary collaborations that highlight the complexity of Artificial Intelligence as a phenomenon at the crossroads of life, mind, and machine.

Main Topics

We invite contributions engaging with the following thematic areas (though not limited to them):

• The naturalization of AI: epistemological and theoretical challenges
  
  

• Biological and artificial models of embodied cognition
  
  

• Epistemologies of simulation and Artificial Intelligence
  
  

• Socio-cultural narratives of the technological living
  
  

• Psychosocial phenomena in human–machine interaction
  
  

• Algorithmic governance and its environmental and ethical implications
  
  

Submission Guidelines

• Abstract length: max. 500 words (plus a short biographical note, 150 words)
  
  

• Language: English
  
  

• Deadline for submission:20 November 2025
  
  

• Notification of acceptance:8 December 2025
  
  

Abstracts should be submitted in PDF format to: [email protected]  . In addition to standard paper presentations, the conference will also feature a poster session. When submitting, please indicate whether you would like your proposal to be considered for a poster presentation instead of (or in addition to) a talk.

Venue

University of Rome Tor Vergata – Rome, Italy, 27-28 February, 2026

Scientific Committee

• Carmela Morabito (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Director of Res Viva)

• Silvia Caianiello (National Research Council of Italy)

• Barbara Continenza (Member of the Scientific Committee of Res Viva) 

• David Ceccarelli (University of Roma Tre)

• Mattia Della Rocca (University of Rome Tor Vergata)

Organizing Committee

Giorgia Sardi, Martina Massimi, Alberto Bitti.

Contact

For further information, please write to: [email protected]
Updates will be available on the official website of Res Viva.