Political, Ethical, and Metaphysical Considerations Regarding Affective Computing and Face-Recognition

Cognitive scientists and psychologists have come to agree upon the major role emotions play in cognition, including orientation in space, decision-making, planning, and human-machine-interaction. While the subsequent redefinition of intelligence triggered an unprecedented amount of creativity in artificial intelligence design and research, it also calls for careful and critical moral assessment of the practical application of these technologies. Mining the emotional continuum for the sake of extracting facial expression information, exposes human vulnerability in daily communication in an unprecedented way. Temporal continuity (video sequences) has to be taken into account for attaining face recognition via morphable faces. Deep fake technology in conjunction with robotics and artificial intelligence lends itself to a variety of applications ranging from affective computing and care for humans with special needs to strategic utilization in the context of domestic intelligence gathering or in the context of reaching military objectives. Philosophical dialogue about these considerations and related topics is invited. Possible topics may include but are not limited to:

• Strong AI and emotions: Questioning affective computing
• Biometric 3D versus 2D facial recognition: The moral and legal significance of brightness distribution patterns
• Transitioning the eigenface algorithm from military research to commercial usage of it
• Political conceptualization of the future on the basis of algorithm messaging
• The relation between time consciousness and GIF animation

Authors are invited to integrate into their paper suitable passages from Karl Jaspers' writings; for example, his view on constructive cognition (in his Philosophical Logic), his discussions on rationality, truth, radical irrationality, and technological advancements (found in On Truth, or in The Atom Bomb and the Future of Mankind).

Presentations are limited to a maximum of 10 minutes followed by a 20 minutes discussion with each one of the panel members, for a total time period of 30 minutes per presenter. The emphasis is on dialogue; the event will be videotaped and an edited version of the recording will be posted online. Please note that as a presenter you are expected also to engage with the other panelists on the topics of their presentations. To this end, early drafts of the presentations will be made available to the panelists ten days prior to the meeting.