Science and Religion Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness

Cambridge Muslim College is pleased to announce the 2018 Religion & Science conference supported by the John Templeton Foundation. The conference provides an excellent opportunity to present current research and new scientific perspectives, alongside theological and philosophical views on two broadly related areas: the rapidly developing field of Artificial Intelligence, and the physics and science of consciousness. 

The conference will be held over two days: 

Day one of the conference will focus on Artificial Intelligence. There has recently been a
resurgence of interest in AI, yielding notable developments in numerous subfields including machine learning, natural language processing, and machine vision. Papers are invited to explore the connections between new theories of intelligence and cognition with philosophical, theological and religious perspectives. Islamic theological perspectives on the nature, role and function of the human intellect in relation to contemporary models of intelligence being developed through research in Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and cognitive sciences are particularly welcome.

Day two of the conference will focus on the question of consciousness. It is aimed at
presenting new emerging concepts from a broad range of sciences on the nature of
consciousness and why we have subjective experience and self-awareness. Ideas from physics, including proposals based on quantum theory, as well as Islamic theological and philosophical perspectives on consciousness including scriptural arguments are particularly welcome.