Special Issue "Selected Papers from Symposium on Natural/Unconventional Computing and Its Philosophical Significance"

Guest Editor
Dr. Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Computer Science Laboratory, Mälardalen University, Sweden
Website: http://www.idt.mdh.se/~gdc
E-Mail: gordana.dodig-crnkovic@mdh.se
Phone: + 46 21 15 17 25
Fax: + 46 21 10 31 10
Interests: philosophy of information and computing

Guest Editor
Dr. Raffaela Giovagnoli
Pontifical Lateran University, Vatican City
Website: http://www.stoqatpul.org
E-Mail: raffa.giovagnoli@tiscali.it
Interests: analytic philosophy (Frege and speech acts theory); normative pragmatics (Brandom, Habermas)

Summary:
The symposium addresses, but is not limited to, the following topics, grouped in two tracks:

(I) NATURAL COMPUTING/UNCONVENTIONAL COMPUTING
This track will address the emerging paradigm of natural computing, and its philosophical consequences with different aspects including (but not limited to):
- Theoretical and philosophical view of natural computing/unconventional computing with its philosophical significance (such as understanding of computational processes in nature and in human mind).
- Differences between conventional and unconventional computing.
- Digital vs analog & discrete vs continuous computing
- Recent advances in natural computation (as computation found in nature, including organic computing; computation performed by natural materials and computation inspired by nature)
- Computation and its interpretation in a broader context of possible frameworks for modeling and implementing computation.
It is important to bring philosophical reflection into the discussion of all the above topics.

(II) REPRESENTATION AND COMPUTATIONALISM
This track highlights the relevance of the relationship between human representation and machine representation to bring out the main issues concerning the contrast between symbolic representation/processing on the one hand and nature-inspired, non-symbolic forms of computation on the other-with a special focus on connectionism. We also welcome work on hybrids of symbolic and non-symbolic representations. Particular movements that papers may wish to address are:
- 'Embedded, Embodied, Enactive' approach to cognitive science (from Varela et al)
- 'Dynamic Systems' approach (from, say, Port and Van Gelder);
- Other representational possibilities that are clearly available: no representations or minimal representations;
- Process/procedural representations (e.g. from Kevin O'Regan).

Link to the Symposium:

https://sites.google.com/site/naturalcomputingaisbiacap2012 and http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/~gdc/work/CFP-NC-2011-11-14.htm

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Entropy is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs).