GPI & IEG Newsletter

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The first issue of the new, joint Newsletter of the GPI (research Group in Philosophy of Information, UH) and IEG (Information Ethics research Group, Oxford) is available online at:

http://philosophyofinformation.net/centre/gpi/newsletter.html

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Mind the app - considerations on the ethical risks of COVID-19 apps

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On the value of taking care of the roses (series: notes to myself)

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They say that what matters sometimes is not the outcome but the process: not the success or failure of an action, but just the action itself.  Maybe. But I always thought it was a bit of sour grapes. Didn’t really want beautiful roses in my garden, kind of line of thinking. The important thing was gardening. Or so you tell yourself, trying to be convincing.  But I recite this loudly a few times and it still sounds quite lame. It's the philosopher's fault, because he asks the unpleasant questions. Would you have done it anyway, even if the roses had no chance? But above all, what if the process itself is also pointless? Perhaps the gardening is a failure too, like the dead roses.  So you pause, on your way to the roses, and think: if the outcome is not what matters, and the process is not what matters, why caring for the roses? Better stop, or kill the realist awareness that shows the worthless nature of the whole enterprise.  Is there anything left, if all is ...
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This year, for the first time in its history, the Loebner Prize competition was held in England, at the University of Reading to be precise. It was organised by Kevin Warwick and Huma Shah. Independently of whether Turing might have been pleased (he was not well treated in this country, recall?), there was a satisfying sense of “coming home” of the Turing Test (henceforth TT ). Expectations were high, and they very highly advertised too. The meeting was perfectly organised. Having been invited to play the role of a judge, together with several other colleagues, including two members of the IEG , Mariarosaria Taddeo and Matteo Turilli ( here are their pictures and Rosaria's interview ) , I enjoyed the opportunity to see from close-up the machinery and the TT . It was intriguing and great fun. Because there were interviews with the BBC and other things going on, and because we were also supposed to take part in the parallel AISB Symposium on the TT , I had time to test only...
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LA-CAP09 - Call for Papers COMPUTING AND PHILOSOPHY: LA-CAP 2009 Mexico City, Mexico, June 22-23, 2009 LA-CAP09 is the first Latin American Conference on Computing and Philosophy will be held on the Campus of the National University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, Mexico. One of the aims of this conference is to build the Latin American section of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (IACAP): see IACAP for further informations. Conference Chair: Francisco Hernández Quiroz (UNAM – México) Juan Manuel Durán (UNC - Argentina) IMPORTANT DATES • March 1, 2009. End of submission of extended abstract. • March 29, 2009. Notification of acceptance. • May 17, 2009. Early registration deadline. • June 22-23, 2009. Conference. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS • Prof. Wilfried Sieg. Carnegie Mellon. USA. • Prof. Víctor Rodríguez. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Argentina We are expecting the confirmation of two more keynote speakers....
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