Call For Papers

There is an increasing interest in investigating the possibility of equipping machines with consciousness mechanisms. The rationale behind it may be just a further attempt to mimic biological minds but can be also a search for better performing architectures for machines. Whatever the reason one of the main problem is the still evolving understanding of biological consciousness.

The scientific study of consciousness has already provided some plausible models of this elusive phenomena. In some cases the postulated models stress its evolutionary functional value. This has led to an increasing interest from engineering, represented in the emergent community of machine consciousness, in the implementation of this functionality in machines, so as to provide them with enhanced cognitive capabilities for improved performance. However, a deeper theoretical comprehensive theory is needed in order to properly transfer the biologically inspired architectures into robust, functional implementations.

The following are some possible topics:

• Are there formal ways of discovering consciousness in a system?
  Formal methods for detecting/measuring consciousness.
• Can machine consciousness be studied without considering phenomenal states?
• What makes an information/content/process qualifiable as "conscious"?
• Which computational theories specifically advance the understanding of consciousness?
• What is the role of knowledge and meaning in consciousness?
• Relations between understanding and phenomenology.
• Theoretical models and implementations of Machine Consciousness.
• Which theoretical and practical tools are more appropriate for the construction of conscious machines?
• Applications of machine consciousness in technical systems.
• Consciousness and meta-x (reasoning, management, representation).