[alife] CFP: The Semiosis of Cognition: Insights from Natural and Artificial Systems

[Rocha, Luis M.]

Calls for Papers (special): International Journal of Signs and Semiotic Systems (IJSSS)
Special Issue On: The Semiosis of Cognition: Insights from Natural and Artificial Systems
Submission Due Date
12/31/2013

Guest Editors
João Sequeira and Isabel Ferreira

http://www.igi-global.com/calls-for-papers-special/international-journal-signs-semiotic-systems/41024 

Introduction
Cognition is here conceived as an embodied, embedded and always situated phenomenon not only emergent in organisms, such as mammals, but rather the capability of every living or artificial system to enrol with its environment in an essential dialectic relationship. This means it involves a cognitive entity endowed with a particular physical architecture interacting with the specific world it is immersed in, producing a semiosis that, according to the observer, defines events anchored in space/time structuring and giving substance to the entity's developmental and evolutive narrative. The challenges imposed by the need to create artificial systems, namely robots, capable of engaging in a semiotic interplay with their environments are at the core of this special issue.

Objective
The objective of this special issue is to provide a comprehensive and integrated approach that by placing the concept of semiosis at the core of the phenomenon of cognition allows the convergence of research concerning natural and artificial systems using distinct frameworks and technologies. By placing at the core of the phenomenon of cognition the role played by semiosis in the cohesion and sustainability of the microcosms defined by cognitive entities and their constructed worlds, the present issue takes an interdisciplinary stance. This covers insights from the natural and artificial worlds focusing (1) on how the organism's life parameters determine and regulate the semiotic interplay; (2) on the modeling of these parameters and their implementation and simulation in Artificial Life or emulation in robot embodiments; and (3) on the complex nature of the semiotic process sustaining human cognition where physical, social, cultural and linguistic variants interact and meaning becomes a complex-structured entity. This section will focus on the technological advances motivated by the need to create robots capable of fully enrolling in a semiotic interplay in human centered environments.

Recommended Topics
Topics to be discussed in this special issue include (but are not limited to) the following:
Artificial Life paradigms for modeling biological systems
Artificial Life systems: tools and methodologies
Embodied robots in human centered environments
Human/robot interaction technologies as elements constraining the production of semiosis
Insights into the mechanisms of biological (self-)organization
Movement as a significant element
The quest for naturalness in verbal and non-verbal expression
The role of empathy and affect in human/robot interaction


Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers for this special theme issue on The Semiosis of Cognition - Insights from Natural and Artificial Systems on or before December 31, 2013. All submissions must be original and may not be under review by another publication. INTERESTED AUTHORS SHOULD CONSULT THE JOURNAL'S GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSIONS at http://www.igi-global.com/Files/AuthorEditor/guidelinessubmission.pdf. All submitted papers will be reviewed on a double-blind, peer review basis. Papers must follow APA style for reference citations.

All submissions and inquiries should be directed to the attention of:
João Sequeira and Isabel Ferreira 
Guest Editors 
E-mails: joao.silva.sequeira at ist.utl.pt; aldinhasferreira at gmail.com

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Luis Mateus Rocha, Professor of Informatics and Cognitive Science
Center for Complex Networks and Systems Research
School of Informatics & Computing
Indiana University, 919 E. 10th St
Bloomington IN, 47408, USA
http://informatics.indiana.edu/rocha

and

FLAD Computational Biology Collaboratorium, Director
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal
http://www.igc.gulbenkian.pt/research/unit/76 
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The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit. (Igor Stravinsky)
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