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INSTRUMENTS OF MIND
6th - 9th August, 2001
University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Hosted by
The Empirical Modelling Laboratory, Department of Computer Science,
University of Warwick
URL: http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~wmb/ctwebsite/index.htm
Cognitive Technology is concerned with the interaction between two worlds:
that of the mind and that of the machine.
In science and engineering, this interaction is often explored by posing the
question: how can technology be best tailored to human cognition? But as the
history of technological developments has consistently shown, cognition is
also fashioned by technology. Technologies as diverse as writing,
electricity generation and the silicon chip all illustrate the profound and
dynamic impact of technology upon ourselves and our conceptions of the
world. The instruments afforded by these technologies continue to evolve and
to shape the minds that first conceived them.
The technologies of the third millennium promise mind-machine interactions
of unprecedented intimacy and subtlety. These interactions embrace radically
new kinds of experience that force us to re-examine fundamental concepts of
embodiment and consciousness which frame our understanding of the
relationship between minds and machines. The implications of these
interactions will hinge on the ways in which humans make meanings out of
these new experiences. This conference will address this issue using the
diverse perspectives afforded by a wide range of disciplines, and evidence
drawn from both contemporary developments and the history of technology. Its
aim is to deepen our insight into the potential influence of current and
future technologies over people and society.
The conference will focus on the core question of how technology contributes
to the making of meaning. 'The making of meaning' is to be broadly
interpreted as referring to all the activities by which significance is
attached to the actions of people and machines engaging with a technology.
For a new technology, meaning is in the first instance associated with
intended and preconceived applications. The contribution of technology to
the making of meaning through these processes has been analysed in many
ways: in the design and creation of technologies and artefacts themselves;
in the psychological, sociological and historical analysis of their
individual and corporate use; and in the philosophical implications for our
modes of thought and ways of communicating.
A proper understanding of the processes of mutual co-evolution and
adaptation which shape our interaction with the technology of the computer
age will ultimately require a holistic rather than a reductionist approach.
Given our current understanding of these matters, an integrative and
holistic account is inevitably a long term ambition, but it is an ambition
which must not be forgotten. With this in mind, the organisers invite papers
which address the core question of how technology affects the making of
meaning from the following perspectives. Papers which take both an empirical
approach and a more analytical or philosophical approach are welcome. For
further information on relevant topics in the areas of "The Personal and the
Experiential", "The Social", "The History of Technology", "Education and
Individual Development", "Creating, Designing and Engineering", please
consult the conference's Webpage at
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~wmb/ctwebsite/index.htm
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