From: raul.arrabales@gmail.com   
      
   CALL FOR PAPERS - SPECIAL ISSUE OF JAGI ON MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS   
      
   We'd like to call your attention to the forthcoming Special Issue of   
   the Journal of Artificial General Intelligence, on the subject of   
   Machine Consciousness.   
      
   The purpose of this Special Issue is to explore topics at the   
   intersection of consciousness studies and Artificial General   
   Intelligence (AGI). Among the many important questions lying in this   
   intersection, are the following:   
      
   - What do contemporary theories of consciousness say about the   
   possibility and nature of consciousness that may be possible in   
   intelligent robots and software programs?   
      
   - Assuming machine consciousness is achievable, what are likely to be   
   the similarities and differences between machine consciousness and   
   human consciousness?   
      
   - What can one say about the relationship between degree of   
   consciousness and degree of intelligence, across the scope of   
   potential intelligent systems including humans, robots, and software   
   programs?   
      
   - How important is embodiment for the development of machine   
   consciousness? How should "embodiment" be defined in this context?   
      
   - What are some contemporary robotics or AGI architectures that have   
   the potential to lead to significant degrees of machine consciousness?   
   Why do they seem to have this potential?   
      
   - Is consciousness (or advanced forms of consciousness) something that   
   must emerge within a robotics or AGI system via the system's   
   interaction with its environment, rather than being explicitly   
   programmed in? If so, what are the conditions for its emergence?   
      
   - What implications do the social, collective aspects of consciousness   
   have for the possibility and nature of machine consciousness?   
      
   For this Special Issue, we are particularly (but not exclusively!)   
   interested in submissions from AGI researchers who have things to say   
   about the machine consciousness aspects of their AGI designs or   
   theories; or consciousness researchers who have specific ideas about   
   the relevance of their consciousness theories to particular AGI   
   architectures.   
      
   The focus and contents of this Special Issue are influenced by the   
   International Workshop on Machine Consciousness, which was held in   
   Hong Kong in June 2009. The workshop featured talks by AI and machine   
   consciousness researchers on their work, as well as extensive   
   discussion. More information about the workshop is available here:   
      
   http://novamente.net/machinecs/index.html   
      
   The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010.  We look forward to   
   receiving your papers ;-)   
      
    More information:   
    http://novamente.net/machinecs/JAGI_Special_Issue_Machine_Consc   
   ousness_CFP.pdf   
      
   Thanks,   
   Ben Goertzel, Novamente LLC   
   Raul Arrabales, University Carlos III of Madrid   
   Wlodek Duch, Nicolaus Copernicus University   
      
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