Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference
Hong Kong - The event is part of a larger Asia Consciousness Festival that will include workshops, cultural events, and other Conferences on topics such as cognitive informatics, and artificial general intelligence that are scheduled in June.
Researchers and scholars throughout the sciences, humanities and arts are invited to the 15th international interdisciplinary scientific conference on consciousness. The Toward a Science of Consciousness Conference will be held in Hong Kong from June 11th to 14th, 2009. Plan now to attend and join in the dialogue.
Abstracts are due February 15, 2009. Abstracts presented at the conference will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies.
Submissions demonstrating media, technology and art attempting to simulate consciousness are invited for a special session.
The event is part of a larger Asia Consciousness Festival that will include workshops, cultural events, and other Conferences on topics such as cognitive informatics, and artificial general intelligence that are scheduled in June.
To submit an abstract and register for TSC you must create an account at The University of Arizona login page.
2009 Conference Themes
BRAIN
How can the brain produce 'qualia', the raw feel of experience, of conscious awareness? Will neuroscience alter our ideas about the mind, currently rooted in introspection, folk psychology and philosophy?
In the brain, does consciousness require ascending arousal, recurrent feedback, specific regions, or does it move through the brain as a mobile agent, or conscious pilot? At the level of neurons, does consciousness most directly involve axonal firing explosions, dendritic synchrony, gap junctions or finer-scale activities?
Do sensory inputs fully portray conscious perception, or merely modify and update an ongoing worldview playing out in cortex? Are we conscious of sensory inputs outside attention? Do envelopes of synchrony moving through the brain correlate with mind wandering and the stream of consciousness?
MIND
How can we objectively study subjective experience? What is the place of consciousness in the natural order?
What can Eastern traditions contribute to the science of consciousness, and what can the science of consciousness contribute to the understanding of Eastern traditions?
What are the differences between conscious and unconscious processes in the mind?
TECHNOLOGY
How can conscious experiences be communicated through film, video games, music and interactive media? How can our brain-based world-view be most closely duplicated in technology? How can media activate brain pleasure and reward functions?
Can brain mechanisms for conscious and non-conscious decisions help influence media audience choices? Can the brain’s organizational features be applied to business models?
Can computers be conscious? Can artificial intelligence attain the ‘Singularity’?
How directly can medical technologies couple to conscious and non-conscious brain processes?
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Submissions of original papers related to the three themes are invited from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, phenomenology, media, technology, games, computer science, and other related fields.
Abstract submission will be open until February 15, 2009.
Submissions demonstrating media, technology, art and design attempting to simulate consciousness in relation to either 1 or all 3 of the themes are invited for a special session. To find out more, email [email protected]
Media
For Media related enquiries please contact:
Hong Kong
Alex Parkes
Telephone: +852 2766 4171
Email: [email protected]
United States
Arlene Behar-Montefiore
Telephone: +1 520 621 9317
Email: [email protected]
Contact
Conference Secretariat
School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hung Hom, Hong Kong
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +852 2766 4171
