Toward a Science of Consciousness 2009
Announcement and Call for Papers
Investigating Inner Experience
Brain, Mind, Technology
Hong Kong, China, June 11-14, 2009
www.asiaconsciousness.org/TSC
Long a meeting place for Eastern and Western ideas and the media capital of Asia, Hong Kong, China hosts the 15th in a series of Toward a Science of Consciousness conferences held yearly since 1994. The conferences are known for broad, interdisciplinary and multi-faceted approaches to the age-old question of how the brain produces consciousness awareness
Subjective inner experience has long been approached through introspection, mysticism, and meditative contemplation, and revealed through art, mythology and ritual. In the past half century, science has found computation among neurons to explain brain functions, and promoted the possibility of conscious machines. Now, various media technologies attempt to communicate, simulate and re-create inner experience. In a spirit of synergy, the conference is organized along three entwined themes.
BRAIN: Does consciousness require axonal firing explosions, dendritic synchrony, global assemblies, recurrent loops, mobile agents or finer-scale activities inside neurons? What do mechanisms of mind-altering drugs tell us about consciousness? What can brain imaging and electrical recording tell us
about conscious and unconscious processing?
MIND: How can subjective experience be studied objectively? Are Western analytical and Eastern contemplative methods complementary? Do ordinary states of consciousness differ in measurable brain activity from altered and meditative states? What essential features of inner experience
can be best reported and artistically portrayed?
TECHNOLOGY: How can technology best interface with consciousness? Can consciousness exist in technology? Can the science of consciousness help media technology become more attuned to human subjective experience? Can functional brain organization be useful in technology design?
A Plenary Program, Pre-Conference Workshops, social events and side trips will be announced. The conference precedes the IEEE Conference on Cognitive Informatics in Hong Kong (June 15-17), and is affiliated with other events in June, 2009 which are part of an Asia Consciousness Festival (http://www.asia.consciousness.org).
Call for Papers
Submissions of original papers related to the three themes are invited from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, phenomenology, media, technology, games, computer science, and other related fields.
Abstract submission will be open until February 1, 2009. For registration, abstract submission and further information see http://www.asiaconsciousness.org/TSC
Abstract Submissions: https://sbs.arizona.edu/project/consciousness
Submissions demonstrating media, technology and art attempting to simulate consciousness are invited for a special session. Prizes will be awarded for the best demos.
Abstract submitters will be notified regarding abstract assignment within two weeks of submission.
Conference Organizers
Gino Yu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
David Chalmers, Australian National University
Stuart Hameroff, The University of Arizona
Sponsored by Hong Kong Polytechnic University, MERECL
and the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona
Program Committee
David Chalmers – Australian National University
Richard Davidson – University of Wisconsin
Majid Fotuhi – Johns Hopkins University
Baroness Susan Greenfield – Oxford University
Stuart Hameroff – University of Arizona
Allen Houng – National Yang Ming University, Taiwan
Hakwan Lau – Columbia University
Olga Louchakova – Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
Ryojei Nakatsu – National University of Singapore
Matthias Rauterberg – TU Eindhoven
Dean Radin – Institute of Noetic Sciences
Thomas Ray – University of Oklahoma
Pamela Rugledge – Media Psychology Research Center
Marilyn Schlitz – Institute of Noetic Sciences
Dan Siegel – Mindsight Institute
Jeff Warren – Author
Charles Whitehead – University of Westminster, London
Gino Yu – Hong Kong Polytechnic University
