Emotions and Machines

*Apologies for cross-postings. Please forward to those interested.* 1st call for papers:

Conference EMOTIONS & MACHINES Friday 21st August 2009 University of Geneva, Switzerland

Submission deadline: April 30th.

"As machines get to be more and more like men, men will come to be more like machines" Joseph Krutch

The Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva is organising a one day interdisciplinary conference on Emotions and Machines. Submissions are invited of approximately 4500 words, suitable for 45 minute presentations. In exceptional cases, an extended abstract (1000 words) may be accepted in lieu of a complete paper submitted shortly afterwards.

Relevant issues include but are not limited to:

* The possibility of emotional machines * Whether emotions are necessary for true AI. * The ethical implications of emotional machines * The emotions of human-machine interaction. * The extension or embodiment of human emotions by machines * The recognition of emotions by artificial systems. * The aesthetics of the 'uncanny valley' (papers discussing aesthetic issues of emotions and machines are most welcome)

Please note that while we hope to reimburse limited expenses, speakers should NOT expect to have their travel or accomodation expenses paid.

Papers from post-grads are also welcomed (please note as such on submission).

Submissions should be sent to Dr Tom Cochrane thomas.cochrane@unige.ch by 30th April.