The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), the Japanese-German Center Berlin  (JDZB) and Waseda University published a call for papers for the Japanese-German conference: “Artificial Intelligence and the Human – Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Science and Fiction” (Berlin, June 17-18, 2021).

Papers are invited on the following topics (among others):

1. Which meanings and functions are ascribed to AI technologies and robots?
2. How is science informed by popular discursive images of AI?
3. Which cultural differences are there concerning the relationship between the natural and the artificial? What are the particular traditions of how to represent the human and its technological surrogates?
4. What can the different cultural and conceptual histories tell us about our present and future with artificial intelligence?

Besides papers on these more general topics, we also invite case studies on innovative technologies and their fictional precursors as well as on the social, ethical or political contexts in which they are applied. All contributions are expected to address the comparative perspective on East Asian and Euro-American discourses.

Submission process

1. Extended abstracts of approximately 4,000 to 6,000 characters in length (excl. references) should be submitted no later than 10 February 2021 to ai21@hiig.de
2. Speakers will be notified by 15 March 2021. 

Conference and publication of selected papers in an edited volume 

1. The conference will take place on Thursday 17 and Friday 18 June 2021 in Berlin. 
2. Invitations for the submission of selected full manuscripts sent out in July 2021.
3. Full manuscripts of between 30.000 to 50.000 characters (excluding references) to be submitted by September 2021.
4. Comprehensive review returned to authors in December 2021; final papers due in February 2022.  
5. The edited volume will be published in early 2022. 

More details are here (both in English and in Japanese).

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