A Wider Scope of Inquiry

When I was a programmer, and even when I was a teacher of programming, I would wonder about where data structures and algorithms came from, and to what extent people use pass-by-value, pass-by-reference, and pass-by-name for communication in daily life, and whether we use those techniques for activities besides communication, and whether the universe somehow uses those techniques, and about many other speculative questions. Now those questions attract me to the philosophy of computer science. But the phenomena yielded by computing don’t seem to be commonly studied as philosophical subjects. Most inquiry is embedded in, and therefore directed by, the computational model, applying symbols, inductive definitions, and set-theoretic operations to philosophical questions about computing. I propose turning this inside out, identifying the significant artifacts of computer science and giving them philosophical treatment in their own right, outside of the digital realm.

In this spirit, I offered a contribution during the HaPoC symposium at IACAP 2014, applying questions of ontology to the algorithm. What else is possible? See a few ideas at the blog “Teaching the Philosophy of Computer Science,” at http://teachingphilofcs.blogspot.com/, particularly the most recent entry, for June 27, 2014.

Formal models and explanations are important. They give us incomparable insight, foundation, and inspiration. The other approach suggested here should be regarded as complementary. And there must be work out there already that falls into this category, of which I am simply ignorant; members who are conversant with such work are invited to note it here.

2nd CfP: Sixth Workshop on the Philosophy of Information

Submissions are invited for the Sixth Workshop on the Philosophy of Information, which will take place at Duke University, 15th–16th of May 2014.

Deadline: 1st of March

The topic for this year will be Information Access, very broadly construed. This includes social, legal, epistemological, logical and normative issues that are related to the availability, accessibility and control of information, as well as the implications of these considerations to other philosophical problems. Submissions in all areas related to the philosophy of information will, however, be considered.

The workshop consists of a main track and two special panels.

As part of the main track of the workshop, at least 10 slots of 45 minutes are available for contributed talks. Abstracts of 500-1000 words should be submitted no later than the 1st of March to Orlin Vakarelov at o.vakarelov@duke.edu.

Submissions will be evaluated by the programme committee (see below), and acceptance notifications will be issued by the 15th of March 2014.

The special panels are devoted to the topics of Information and Law, and on Information and Policy.

Vienna Summer of Logic

**Vienna Summer of Logic Announcement**

In the summer of 2014, Vienna will host the largest event in the history of
logic. The Vienna Summer of Logic (VSL) will consist of twelve large
conferences and numerous workshops, attracting an expected number of 2500
researchers from all over the world.

The conferences and workshops will deal with the main theme, logic, from
three important aspects: logic in computer science, mathematical logic and
logic in artificial intelligence.

This unique event will be organized by the Kurt Goedel Society at Vienna
University of Technology from July 9 to 24, 2014 (see website for more
details: http://vsl2014.at)

*Keynote Speakers*
The VSL keynote speakers are Franz Baader (Technische Universitaet Dresden),
Edmund Clarke (Carnegie Mellon University), Christos Papadimitriou (University
of California, Berkeley) and Alex Wilkie (University of Manchester).
Dana Scott (Carnegie Mellon University) will speak in the opening session.

*Logic in Computer Science / Federated Logic Conference (FLoC)*
– 26th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification (CAV)
– 27th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF)
– 30th International Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP)
– 7th International Joint Conference on Automated Reasoning (IJCAR)
– 5th Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP)
– Joint meeting of the 23rd EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science Logic
(CSL) and the 29th ACM/IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (LICS)
– 25th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (RTA)
joint with the 12th International Conference on Typed Lambda Calculi and
Applications (TLCA)
– 17th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability
Testing (SAT)
– FLoC Workshops
– FLoC Olympic Games (System Competitions)

*Mathematical Logic*
– Logic Colloquium 2014
– Logic, Algebra and Truth Degrees 2014
– The Infinity Workshop
– Kurt Goedel Fellowship Competition

*Logic in Artificial Intelligence*
– 14th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and
Reasoning (KR)
– 27th International Workshop on Description Logics (DL)
– 15th International Workshop on Non-Monotonic Reasoning (NMR)
– International Workshop on Knowledge Representation for Health Care 2014
(KR4HC)

*Kurt Goedel Research Prize Fellowship Competition*
At the Vienna Summer of Logic, the Kurt Goedel Society will award three
fellowship prizes endowed with 100.000 Euro each to the winners of the Kurt
Goedel Research Prize Fellowship Competition “Logical Mind: Connecting
Foundations and Technology.”

*FLoC Olympic Games – Citius, Maius, Potentius*
The Federated Logic Conference (FLoC) 2014 will host the 1st FLoC Olympic
Games. Intended as a new FLoC tradition, the Games will bring together a
multitude of established solver competitions by different research
communities.
In addition to the competitions, the Olympic Games will facilitate the
exchange
of expertise between communities, and increase the visibility and impact of
state-of-the-art solver technology. The winners in the competition categories
will be awarded Kurt Goedel medals at the FLoC Olympic Games award ceremonies.

For more information: http://vsl2014.at

CfP: Women, Gender and Information and Communication Technologies

Call for Contributions

International Symposium: Women, Gender and Information and Communication Technologies, Paris, 15-16 May 2014

Organized by LabEx EHNE (Écrire une histoire nouvelle de l’Europe – Writing a New History of Europe),

Although pioneering studies have contributed in the last few years to highlighting numerous aspects of the gendered construction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), via analyses concerning women telephone operators, female radio listeners, or even the ENIAC Girls, the place of women and of gender in the history of information and communication technologies remains to be reflected upon and written, whether it is the role and the representation of the two sexes regarding research, conception, utilisation or consumption.

It is hoped that these two days will compare European perspectives on the historical relations that women have maintained with information and communication technologies, since the telegraph. The study days invite transnational and interdisciplinary analyses across the long term, drawing as much upon the history of computer science and ICT as upon the history of work, organisations, consumption, education, media, and gender studies.

In touching upon imaginations, values, figures, models and practices that cut across the history of the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, the TV, the internet and digital devices, we hope to explore in particular the manner in which the history of information and communication technologies can enrich gender studies, and conversely the way in which the latter can shed light on studies related to ITC. The aim is to do so via numerous angles of approach (not exclusive of other approaches):

– Female actors of ICT: individual and collective historical figures, inventors, programmers, researchers, professional users, consumers etc.

– The gendered representations of the public actors of ICT and their evolution (discourses, advertising, teaching and education, imagination etc).

– The stakeholders implicated at the heart of ICT, affected by the problematic of gender (European associations, national or transnational collectives etc).

– ITCs as producers of new spaces for the expression of gender.

– The specificity or not of European research in the gendered approach of ITCs in relation to the work carried out in North America.

Papers should be twenty minutes in length and can be delivered in French or English. The organising committee would be particularly interested in proposals integrating a diachronic dimension and those explicitly touching upon a European dimension. Proposals of post-graduate students or early-career researchers are welcome.

Submission

Proposals should be sent to fgtic@iscc.cnrs.fr

They should be one page long, contain a bibliography and if possible a proposed plan. Authors can include a summary of their publications/research and a brief biography in their initial e-mail.

Deadlines

• Deadline for submission of proposals: March 1st 2014

• Notification of acceptance: March 15th 2014

• International Symposium: May 15th and 16th 2014

This information is available on http://genreurope.hypotheses.org/

Organizers

Delphine Diaz (IRICE, Université Paris-Sorbonne, LabEx EHNE)

Valérie Schafer (ISCC, CNRS)

Régis Schlagdenhauffen (LISE, CNAM/CNRS, LabEx EHNE)

Benjamin Thierry (IRICE, Université Paris-Sorbonne)

Program Committee

Gerard Alberts (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Alec Badenoch (Department of Media and Cultural Studies, Utrecht University)

Isabelle Berrebi-Hoffmann (LISE, CNAM/CNRS)

Niels Brügger (The Centre for Internet Studies, Aarhus University)

Frédéric Clavert (Université Paris-Sorbonne, IRICE, LabEx EHNE)

Delphine Gardey (Faculté des Sciences de la Société, Université de Genève)

Pascal Griset (Université Paris-Sorbonne, CRHI-IRICE/ISCC, LabEx EHNE)

Sandra Laugier (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, IUF)

Christophe Lécuyer (Université Pierre et Marie Curie)

Ilana Löwy (Cermes, CNRS, EHESS, Inserm, Paris 5)

Cécile Méadel (CSI, MINES Paris Tech)

Ruth Oldenziel (Eindhoven University of Technology, Senior Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center, Munich)

Jean-Claude Ruano-Borbalan (HT2S, CNAM)

Fabrice Virgili (IRICE, CNRS, LabEx EHNE)

Conference Secretary

Arielle Haakenstad (Université Paris-Sorbonne, IRICE/ISCC, LabEx EHNE)

A Women in Computing Group at MDX University

Dr. Kelly Androutsopoulos (http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/people/kelly-androutsopoulos/) is the promoter of a Women in Computing Group at Middlesex University London, UK. The purpose of this group is to bring together Middlesex-affiliated women who are studying or interested in Computing and to share common interests, concerns and ambitions. Even for those not based in London (or — for that matter — also for men) this is a way to approach the issues related to women in computing and have a stream of related information. The group has a Google+ community, everyone can request to join

https://plus.google.com/communities/100642120779359541285

CTFM 2014

The fourth conference in the series COMPUTABILITY THEORY AND FOUNDATIONS OF MATHEMATICS will take place at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, February 17 – 20, 2014.

The theme of the CTFM conference series is the interplay between computability theory and logical foundations of mathematics. The scope includes topics such as Computability Theory, Reverse Mathematics, Nonstandard Analysis, Proof Theory, Constructive Mathematics, Theory of Randomness, and Computational Complexity. CTFM 2014 will feature special sessions on Reverse Mathematics, Algorithmic Randomness, and Recursion Theory.

For more information, see http://www.jaist.ac.jp/CTFM/CTFM2014/.

CfP: IACAP14

The 2014 annual Meeting of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy http://www.iacap.org/ will be held at the Anatolia College/ACT (Thessaloniki, Greece) on July 2-4, 2014

This year’s meeting of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy will be held at Anatolia College/ACT in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Topics of interest:
• Artificial Intelligence
• Artificial Life
• Cognitive Science, Computation & Cognition
• Computational Modeling in Science and Social Science
• Computer-Mediated Communication
• Distance Education and Electronic Pedagogy
• Ethical Problems and Societal Impact of Computation and Information
• History of Computing
• Information Culture and Society
• Logic
• Metaphysics of Computing
• Philosophy of Information
• Philosophy of Information Technology
• Robotics
• Virtual Reality
… and related issues

FORMAT
For abstracts, we request anonymous submission of 600-1000 words (plus references) in plain text or PDF, plus a short abstract of up to 120 words. All submissions will be reviewed double-blind by at least two members of the programme committee. All submissions of paper abstracts – whether to the main track or to symposia – are made centrally on the same site and all reviewing takes place on that site.

For symposia, please provide a brief motivation (ca. 300 words), a list of envisaged speakers, and indication of time needed (full day, half day, etc.). The submission procedure and reviewing for symposia will be taken care of by their organisers – but within the structure provided by IACAP and the submission system for this conference.

DATES
Submission of symposium proposals: 1. February 2014
Submissions of abstracts: 1 March 2014
Notification of acceptance or rejection: 28 February for symposia, 31 March for papers.

Submission on EasyChair at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iacap2014

More details on http://www.pt-ai.org/iacap/2014/online-submission