The purpose of the Society for Machines and Mentality is to advance philosophical understanding of issues involving artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science.
The purpose of the Society for Machines and Mentality is to advance philosophical understanding of issues involving artificial intelligence, philosophy, and cognitive science.
The journal Minds and Machines invites submissions for a special issue on the topic of transhumanism, cognitive enhancement, cyborgization, uploading and artificial intelligence.
Contact the guest editors with any questions at james.hughes@trincoll.edu
Transhumanists believe that we can and should use technology to overcome the limitations of the human brain and body. For example, transhumanists advocate using technology to radically increase our lifespan, intelligence, happiness, and virtue. In relation to the themes of the journal of Minds and Machines transhumanists advocate cognitive enhancement along three vectors.
One vector is cognitive enhancement using pharmaceuticals, genetic therapies and tissue engineering. Direct modification of the organic brain will allow human beings to increase our intelligence, expand our memory, sharpen our capacity for concentration, and eliminate cognitive and psychological disabilities.
A second vector is through 'cyborgization'—the incorporation of devices, nanorobots and computers into the body. This trajectory may permit the augmentation of the senses with artificial hearing and sight superior to organic ears and eyes, the direct augmentation of cognition with brain prostheses, and connecting the brain wirelessly to the Internet. These technologies will likely converge with the growth of virtual worlds and augmented reality, blurring divisions between the "virtual" and the "real."
The third vector of human enhancement is through the creation of 'mind-children,' computers and robots with, at least, human-level cognition, emotions and abilities. These machine minds may be created either through efforts to create artificial life and general intelligence, and/or by uploading human minds into machines. Once created these machine minds may be far more capable and powerful than organic humans.
This special issue of Mind and Machines will explore the philosophical problems and implications of the transhumanist project in regards to these processes, cognitive enhancement, cyborgization and the creation of mind children. How far can these processes go, and how far should they go?
We anticipate that this issue will contain around 10 papers and, as a working guide, the papers should be between 4000 and 12,000 words in length.
Formatting guidelines are available here: http://www.springer.com/computer/artificial/journal/11023
Manuscripts must be submitted electronically and in the Microsoft Word (not LaTex) format to james.hughes@trincoll.edu (not to the Springer site), properly formatted, by January 15, 2009. Review process
Each submission will ideally receive two reviews. Completed review forms will be forwarded to the corresponding authors. Please suggest up to three external reviewers to facilitate the review process.
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