IACAP 2013 Election

Paying members of IACAP  will shortly receive ballots for voting in the 2013 IACAP election. The nominees are as follows. The link to the e-ballots will contain a unique identifier and sent to paying members by email.

President:

Vincent C. Müller:

http://www.sophia.de

Vincent C. Müller’s research focuses on the nature and future of computational systems, particularly on the prospects of artificial intelligence. He is the coordinator of the European Network for Cognitive Systems, Robotics and Interaction (2009-2014) with over 800 members, funded by the European Union through two FP7 projects with 3.9 mil. € (www.eucognition.org). In this role, he also organises two large conferences each year. Separately, he organizes a series of conferences on the ‘Theory and Philosophy of AI’ (www.pt-ai.org). The 2013 event had over 100 paper submissions and will feature prominent speakers (Daniel Dennett, Stuart Russell, etc.).

Müller has published a number of articles on the philosophy of computing, the philosophy of AI and cognitive science, the philosophy of language, and related areas. He has edited several volumes on the theory of cognitive systems and artificial intelligence (more are forthcoming) and is preparing a monograph on the fundamental problems of AI and. He studied philosophy with cognitive science, linguistics and history at the universities of Marburg, Hamburg, London and Oxford. Müller will host the 2014 IACAP conference in Thessaloniki, July 2-4.

Mariarosaria Taddeo:
http://taddeo.philosophyofinformation.net

I am Research Fellow in Cyber Security and Ethics at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick and Research Associate at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford. From 2010 to 2012, I was Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, where I worked on the analysis of the ethical implications of cyber warfare. In 2009, I obtained a European PhD from the University of Padua and the University of Oxford, with a thesis entitled “The Ethics and Epistemology of Trust in Artificial Distributed Systems”.

I have been a member of IACAP since 2006, serving as membership and promotions coordinator from 2010 to 2013, as of last March I also serve as pro tempore treasurer. Over the past years, IACAP showed to be a solid association with a growing number of members. If I will be elected president, I will work to consolidate the results achieved so far by the executive board. I will also work to foster collaborations between senior and junior members of the association and to ensure a competitive and high-quality level of the annual meetings. I will pursue and promote opportunities for the circulation and publication of the research developed by IACAP members, such as special issues, conference proceedings and edited volumes. At the same time, I will seek collaborations with other leading associations in the fields of philosophy of computing, philosophy of AI and information and computer ethics, so to attract the interest of a greater number of scholars.

Director, Society for Machines and Mentality

Paul Bello
http://www.pbello.com

My interests lie at the interface of philosophy of mind, computation, and social cognition. I’m particularly fascinated by the human capacity to detach from the real world in order to consider the past, possible futures, pretenses, hypotheticals, counterfactual alternatives, and the contents of other minds. Most of my research is focused on building computational accounts of mental-state ascription that are consistent with developmental, behavioral, and neuropsychological data. I also spend considerable time applying these models to related topics in higher-level cognition; most especially to cognitive models of human moral judgment.

I received my bachelors of science in Computer and Systems Engineering with a dual major in Philosophy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1999. I stayed on at RPI and completed my M.S. in Computer Science in 2001, and received the Ph.D. in Cognitive Science in 2005 under the supervision of Selmer Bringsjord. In the fall of 2002, I was hired as a research computer scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate in Rome, NY. While at Rome, I worked on projects involving nonmonotonic reasoning about obligations, and My interests lie at the interface of philosophy of mind, computation, and social cognition. I’m particularly fascinated by the human capacity to detach from the real world in order to consider the past, possible futures, pretenses, hypotheticals, counterfactual alternatives, and the contents of other minds. Most of my research is focused on building computational accounts of mental-state ascription that are consistent with developmental, behavioral, and neuropsychological data. I also spend considerable time applying these models to related topics in higher-level cognition; most especially to cognitive models of human moral judgment.

Vincent C. Müller
http://www.sophia.de

Vincent C. Müller’s research focuses on the nature and future of computational systems, particularly on the prospects of artificial intelligence. He is the coordinator of the European Network for Cognitive Systems, Robotics and Interaction (2009-2014) with over 800 members, funded by the European Union through two FP7 projects with 3.9 mil. € (www.eucognition.org). In this role, he also organises two large conferences each year. Separately, he organizes a series of conferences on the ‘Theory and Philosophy of AI’ (www.pt-ai.org). The 2013 event had over 100 paper submissions and will feature prominent speakers (Daniel Dennett, Stuart Russell, etc.).

Müller has published a number of articles on the philosophy of computing, the philosophy of AI and cognitive science, the philosophy of language, and related areas. He has edited several volumes on the theory of cognitive systems and artificial intelligence (more are forthcoming) and is preparing a monograph on the fundamental problems of AI and. He studied philosophy with cognitive science, linguistics and history at the universities of Marburg, Hamburg, London and Oxford. Müller will host the 2014 IACAP conference in Thessaloniki, July 2-4.

Member at Large:

Paul Bello
http://www.pbello.com

My interests lie at the interface of philosophy of mind, computation, and social cognition. I’m particularly fascinated by the human capacity to detach from the real world in order to consider the past, possible futures, pretenses, hypotheticals, counterfactual alternatives, and the contents of other minds. Most of my research is focused on building computational accounts of mental-state ascription that are consistent with developmental, behavioral, and neuropsychological data. I also spend considerable time applying these models to related topics in higher-level cognition; most especially to cognitive models of human moral judgment.

I received my bachelors of science in Computer and Systems Engineering with a dual major in Philosophy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1999. I stayed on at RPI and completed my M.S. in Computer Science in 2001, and received the Ph.D. in Cognitive Science in 2005 under the supervision of Selmer Bringsjord. In the fall of 2002, I was hired as a research computer scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate in Rome, NY. While at Rome, I worked on projects involving nonmonotonic reasoning about obligations, and My interests lie at the interface of philosophy of mind, computation, and social cognition. I’m particularly fascinated by the human capacity to detach from the real world in order to consider the past, possible futures, pretenses, hypotheticals, counterfactual alternatives, and the contents of other minds. Most of my research is focused on building computational accounts of mental-state ascription that are consistent with developmental, behavioral, and neuropsychological data. I also spend considerable time applying these models to related topics in higher-level cognition; most especially to cognitive models of human moral judgment.

Vincent C. Müller
http://www.sophia.de

Vincent C. Müller’s research focuses on the nature and future of computational systems, particularly on the prospects of artificial intelligence. He is the coordinator of the European Network for Cognitive Systems, Robotics and Interaction (2009-2014) with over 800 members, funded by the European Union through two FP7 projects with 3.9 mil. € (www.eucognition.org). In this role, he also organises two large conferences each year. Separately, he organizes a series of conferences on the ‘Theory and Philosophy of AI’ (www.pt-ai.org). The 2013 event had over 100 paper submissions and will feature prominent speakers (Daniel Dennett, Stuart Russell, etc.).

Müller has published a number of articles on the philosophy of computing, the philosophy of AI and cognitive science, the philosophy of language, and related areas. He has edited several volumes on the theory of cognitive systems and artificial intelligence (more are forthcoming) and is preparing a monograph on the fundamental problems of AI and. He studied philosophy with cognitive science, linguistics and history at the universities of Marburg, Hamburg, London and Oxford. Müller will host the 2014 IACAP conference in Thessaloniki, July 2-4.

Johnny Hartz Søraker
http://soraker.com

Dr. Johnny Hartz Søraker is Assistant Professor of Philosophy of technology at the Department of Philosophy, University of Twente, where he also did his PhD  on the epistemology, ontology and ethics of virtual worlds. The dissertation also focusses on the potential impact of technology on personal well-being, a topic that has since become his main research interest. Although inspired by all kinds of philosophy, the main research interests lie in the intersections between Information Technology, on the one hand, and both theoretical and practical philosophy, on the other. Søraker often grounds his work in psychological research, especially work in the field of Positive Psychology, and he is working on developing this toward a comprehensive methodology (tentatively entitled ‘Prudential-Empirical Ethics of Technology (PEET)’).

Søraker has published and lectured extensively on issues such as the ethical, societal and psychological effects of technology (especially related to the notion of well-being), Internet governance, history of philosophy and psychology,  professional ethics in  several disciplines, and the moral status of information. He is also the host and producer of SuchThatCast – Philosophers’ Podcast, a series of audio interviews dedicated to getting to know some of the most influential philosophers (broadly speaking) of today (including several central philosophers of technology). Søraker has previously served as IACAP’s technical manager, and organized the European CAP conferences in 2006 and 2007.

Treasurer:

Mark Waser (no other nominees — acclaimed).

Membership and Promotions Co-ordinator:

Derek Jones  (no other nominees — acclaimed)

Technical Director:

Don Berkich (appointed)