Int’l Symposium on “Enhancing Human Experience via Emerging Technologies”, a CNRS project named “EpistHOMME+”

28 March 2012, Laval FRANCE

Young and old alike believe that the human experience could gain something if better informed about up-coming technologies. Learning about them at an early stage helps in making key decisions about one’s personal future. Although the approach is somewhat individual and devoted to those concerned, collectively oriented health and entertainment will gain from observing individual practices in the matter. Government policy incorporating emergent technology progress through monitoring will renew itself in a relevant way. However, in the name of progress people are increasingly willing to accept risk; the possible downfall of this movement is its ability to promote taking risks. But then again, could we or would we want to stop it? If we are to enhance the human experience, the pros and cons of each situation must be considered. Modifying or augmenting humans surely raises a certain number of issues. What are they? What aspect of life should one proceed to enhance? Which sectors or issues should become priority elements? Which academic disciplines are involved and why? What limits technological change? Does one have an acceptance threshold? If so, how would one express it? What are the long term implications of enhancement? Establishing a topology of possible applications and their contexts would be desirable for this symposium on enhancing members of our society.

The following non-exhaustive list may be used to provoke thought on this topic: Keywords & Topics:

Definitions of enhancement ▪ Robot companions for citizens ▪ Jungling multiple identities ▪ Advanced interfaces for increasing social presence ▪ Augmented health ▪ Epistemology of tech. innovation ▪ Care-giving robots ▪ Psychological analysis of acceptance ▪ Augmented Well-being ▪ Ubiquitous internet or computing ▪ Social roles in emerging tech. contexts ▪ Holistic, pragmatic and systemic approaches to resolving well-being difficulties ▪ Augmented Context-Awareness ▪ Communication enabling and enhancing tech. ▪ Incommunicability ▪ Human factors psychology and needs assessment ▪ Mind/body problem ▪ New worlds and belief revision ▪ Moral and ethical dimensions of enhancement ▪ Hybrid engineering ▪ Progress and technological obsolescence ▪ Co-constructed experiences ▪ Interventionism or Science policy issues ▪ The notions of Self or Identity in human experience ▪ Public information points and communication devices ▪ Technological Singularity success or failure ▪ Roles of otherhood in one’s experiences ▪ Cognitive enhancement ▪ Theoretical controversies ▪ Emergent intentional states ▪ The intersection of the Arts, design and technology ▪ Transhumanistic stances ▪ Augmented emotion ▪ etc.

Chair: Colin T. SCHMIDT, Le Mans University & Arts et Metiers ParisTech Lab, Laval FRANCE

Keynote Speakers:
KEVIN WARWICK (Confirmed.) Professor of Cybernetics, Reading University (UK)
AUBRY DE GREY. (Expected) Biomedical Gerontologist SENS Foundation (UK)
JAMES MOOR. (TBConfd.) Professor of Ethics and Philosophy, Dartmouth College (USA)

Program Committee (to be completed)

• Jean-Claude ANDRE. Scientific Adviser to the CNRS (Risk Assessment and Nanotechnologies) & Institute of Engineering and Systems Sciences for forecasting, Socially Responsible Research (FR)
• Jean-Michel BESNIER. CNRS Research Director in Philosophy, Centre for Applied Epistemology (CREA) Ecole Polytechnique & University of Paris 4 (FR)
• Paul BOURGINE. CNRS Research Director in Complex Systems, Centre for Applied Epistemology (CREA) Ecole Polytechnique Paris (FR)
• Nicole D’ALMEIDA. Professor of Social Informatics and Philosophy, CELSA University of Paris 4 (FR)
• Aubry DE GREY. Biomedical Gerontologist and Chief Science Officer, SENS Foundation & Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, advisor to Humanity+, Maximum Life, Alcor and the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (USA, UK)
• Lorenzo MAGNANI. Professor and Director, Computational Philosophy Lab, Pavia University & Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou (P.R.China, IT)
• James MOOR. Professor of Ethics, Dartmouth College NH USA, Barwise Prize 2006, Editor-in-chief of Minds and Machines, (USA)
• Vincent MULLER. Professor of Philosophy, American College of Thessaloniki & FHI University of Oxford (GR, UK)
• Serge PROULX. Professor of Social Informatics, UQAM Montréal & Télécom ParisTech (CA, FR)
• Marc ROUX. President of the French Society for Transhumanism (‘L’Association Française Transhumaniste : Technoprog)

DEADLINE to submit a paper: January 23rd, 2012
Submission website: www.laval-virtual.org

• Submission deadline: 23 January 2012
• Notification to Authors: 7 February 2012
• Final Camera-Ready Submission: Until 29 February 2012
• The authors of the best publications will be invited to submit a paper in the international journal IJODIR

Admission to this scientific event at Laval Theatre, FRANCE
70 euro (1 day)
or 160 euro (3 days all symposiums) (with speaker code)

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