CFP: AI & Society - "learning to be human"

AI&Society (https://link.springer.com/journal/146)

An issue on the theme of the 2018 World Congress of Philosophy

“Learning to be human”

We invite contributions for a collection of original articles, research reports, reviews and prospectives around the general theme of the 2018 World Congress of Philosophy, “Learning to be Human.”

The World Congress of Philosophy is organized every five years by the International Federation of Philosophical Societies. From August 13th to August 20th, the 2018 24th World Congress in Beijing explores those defining dimensions of the human and opens inquiry into the challenges facing humanity. The aim is to address emerging global issues through fruitful interactions with other disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences in a global forum, bringing together thinkers across cultures with critical reflection on philosophy and its function in the contemporary world.

What does it mean to be human, and how do intelligent technologies affect our answers to this question? Possible topics extend to but in no way are limited to the following:

·      What is it to be human in an era of ubiquitous intelligent technologies?

·      Do intelligent machine technologies make us better people?

·      In what ways do technologies extend or augment the human condition?

·      In what ways are technologies more than extensions of human agency, but are rather substitutes for, replacements for, or even active denials of human agency?

·      In what ways do big data and ubiquitous surveillance reveal what it means to be human, where otherwise this is hidden without it?

·      In what ways do these technologies fail to reveal what it means to be human, or perhaps cover over or distort what it means to be human?

·      How do advances in artificial intelligence and information communication technologies empowered by huge data culled from ubiquitous social media and real-time surveillance shape and reshape our expectations of what it means to be human?

·      How do/will technologies shape who and what we become through our integration with and increasing dependence on them?

·      “Learning to be human” – does this imply that we have forgotten, or that we never really knew until revealed through artificial intelligence and other technologies?

·      Looking ahead, are we in danger of forgetting what it means to be human, as we immerse ourselves ever more deeply in virtual and augmented realities which may be governed by principles potentially alien from those of our natural evolution?

·      What does ongoing work in autonomous and semi-autonomous systems show us about what it means to be an ostensibly free human being?

·      What are the prospects for artificial agents which approach the human condition?

·      How have ICTs shaped what it means to be human as innately social beings? Is there evidence of new social virtues arising in the context of social media?

·      How is “learning to be human” an aspect of normal human and historical development, and how has this process been transformed through ongoing developments in information technologies now culminating in artificial intelligence?

Contributions may come from Congress papers and presentations, or may be composed with the guiding theme in mind. Direct inquiries to Jeff White at [email protected]