Onlife

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE (UK) MA BY RESEARCH IN PHILOSOPHY IN CONJUNCTION WITH A RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP 2008/09 Programme The Department of Philosophy at the University of Hertfordshire is inviting applications for a one-year position for the Master by Research in Philosophy for the academic year 2008-09. The successful candidate will pursue research in the area of information/computer ethics, under the supervision of Professor Luciano Floridi, and will be eligible for a research assistantship, in order to work on the international Project “Information and communication technologies, inter-firm networking and innovativeness", funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. This will require spending three months in Lisbon during the academic year 2008-09. The Research Assistantship will be awarded (for one year) and governed by the rules of FCT ( http://www.fct.mctes.pt/pt/apoios/formacao/ambitoprojectos ) and the School of Ec...

It seems fashionable these days to talk of a digital ontology. Fashionable, but mistaken. Kant had already shown that any attempt to interpret the intrinsic nature of the world as either discrete (digital) or continuous (analogue) is meaningless. He was right. In an article, just accepted for publication in Synthese , I argue against digital ontology. I do so in order to make room for an informational ontology (see the post below, Wednesday, February 20, 2008). If you are curious, you can read the preprint online . And here is the abstract: The paper argues that digital ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is digital, and the universe is a computational system equivalent to a Turing Machine) should be carefully distinguished from informational ontology (the ultimate nature of reality is structural), in order to abandon the former and retain only the latter as a promising line of research. Digital vs. analogue is a Boolean dichotomy typical of our computational paradigm, but digit...

The APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Computers organizes a special issue on 'The Ontological Status of Web-Based Objects'. Contributions of up to 3,000 words should be emailed to the editor, Prof. Peter Boltuc pbolt1@uis.edu , by July 01/2008.

Roskilde University is the host of the annual Roskilde Science Sunrise Conference. The Science Sunrise initiative has been installed to provide an international forum for discussing important new scientific developments and the broader societal, cultural, political, ethical and other challenges such developments may bring about. The First Roskilde Science Sunrise Conference 2008 Surviving Ourselves: The Human Condition August 13-15, 2008, Roskilde University, Denmark How are we to act and interact in the century ahead? Shaping the future and grappling with its complexities is a challenge to ourselves and at the same time a matter of surviving ourselves since history seems to teach us that we are as much problem makers as problem solvers. What might be the impact on the human condition of two major scientific breakthroughs about to be announced: (1) the laboratory creation of primitive life, and (2) the possibility of genetic recreation of dead DNA ("awakening the dead")? By b...

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

What is the ultimate nature of reality? In an article just published in Synthese , I argue in favour of an informational ontology. With a slogan: "To be is to be information". Well,, it's a bit more complicated than that, so, if you are curious, you can read the preprint online . And here is the abstract: This is the revised version of an invited keynote lecture delivered at the 1st Australian Computing and Philosophy Conference (CAP@AU; the Australian National University in Canberra, 31 October – 2 November, 2003). The paper is divided into two parts. The first part defends an informational approach to structural realism. It does so in three steps. First, it is shown that, within the debate about structural realism (SR), epistemic (ESR) and ontic (OSR) structural realism are reconcilable. It follows that a version of OSR is defensible from a structuralist-friendly position. Second, it is argued that a version of OSR is also plausible, because not all relata (structured e...

A two-day intensive training course in biomedical ontology will be held in Buffalo on 12-13 April, 2008 under the auspices of the National Center for Biomedical Ontology. The course will provide an introductory survey of methods and an overview of current developments and best practices in ontology in the life sciences. No prior knowledge of ontology is presupposed. Further details are available here: http://ontology.buffalo.edu/08/TrainingCourse/index.htm