Can Computers Have Emotions?

The Debate Panel

Chair:
Tim O’Shea, Vice-Chancellor & Principal, University of Edinburgh

Members:

Dylan Evans
Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Autonomous Systems
University of the West of England
Photo of Dylan Evans

Dylan Evans is the author of several popular science books, including Emotion: The Science of Sentiment and Placebo: The Belief Effect. After receiving his PhD in Philosophy from the London School of Economics, he did postdoctoral research in philosophy at King’s College London and in robotics at the University of Bath before moving to the University of the West of England. He writes regularly for Guardian and the Evening Standard. In 2001 he was voted one of the twenty best young writers in Britain by the Independent on Sunday, and was recently described by the Guardian as ‘Alain de Botton in a lab coat’.

Dylan's position statement summarised in an article (pdf format).

Andy Clark
Professor of Philosophy
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Studies
University of Edinburgh
Photo of Andy Clark

He has just joined the University from Indiana University, Bloomington, and USA. He has written extensively on Artificial Neural Networks, Robotics and Artificial Life. His is the author of Microcognition: Philosophy, Cognitive Science and Parallel Distributed Processing Associative Engines and Being There: Putting Brain, Body and World Together Again and Natural Born Cyborgs?

See Andy's position statement.

Aaron Sloman
Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science
School of Computer Science
The University of Birmingham
Photo of Aaron Sloman

Aaron Sloman was born in Southern Rhodesia and studied Maths and Physics at Cape Town University and went on to Oxford to study mathematics, but eventually found philosophy more tempting than mathematics. Started teaching Philosophy in the early days of his career but whilst in Edinburgh as a Senior Visiting Fellow, he was converted to "AI as the best way to do philosophy." Was the Head of School of Computer Science at Birmingham University and since 1994 has been a research professor, working on architectures for human-like agents, a toolkit for exploring agent architectures, motivation, emotion, consciousness and related problems.

See Aaron's position statement.

Adam Zeman
Consultant Neurologist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences
The University of Edinburgh Photo of Adam Zeman

Adam trained in Medicine as a post-graduate student at Oxford University Medical Scool, after a first degree in Philosophy and Psychology. His general medical training was in Oxford, Bath, London and Sheffield. In 1989 he returned to Oxford as a Neurology Registrar, moving on to research and clinical posts at The National Hopital for Neurology in Queen Square. He was the first Senior Registrar to rotate between Adenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge and The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He moved to Edinburgh in 1996, where he is currently a Consultant Neurologist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. Between February 2003 and August 2004 he was supported by a Health Foundation Mid-career Award, enabling an extended period of advanced training, service development and research with the aim of ‘building bridges between neurology, psychology and psychiatry’. His specialised clinical work and research are in cognitive and behavioural neurology, including neurological disorders of sleep. His research interests include amnesia associated with epilepsy (in particular transient epileptic amnesia, accelerated forgetting and focal retrograde amnesia), the cognitive and neuropsychiatric consequences of cerebellar disease and disorders of visual imagery. He has an active background interest in the science and philosophy of consciousness. He has published a wide-ranging review of the field in Brain (2001;124:1263-1289 ) and an accessible introduction to the subject last year, intended for a general readership , Consciousness: a user’s guide, Yale University Press, 2003.

See Adam's position statement.

Jon Oberlander
Reader in Cognitive Science
The University of Edinburgh
Photo of Jon Oberlander

Jon Oberlander (J.Oberlander@ed.ac.uk) received his PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of Edinburgh in 1987. He was awarded an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship in 1993, and became a Lecturer in the School of Informatics in 1998. He is now a Reader in Cognitive Science. His research covers both automatic discourse generation, and diagrammatic reasoning and communication. He has a particular interest in individual differences in communicative strategies, and technologies for catering for them.

See Jon's position statement.  

Can Computers Have Emotions

Hot Seat Debate

The Panel
Key Questions &
Possible Answers

Here comes the science bit
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science
Cognitive Science
Philosophy
Neuroscience

With many thanks to contributing Universities
University of Edinburgh
University of Birmingham
University of West of England

The debate took place
at 6.45 pm, 17 November 2004
Lecture Theatre F21
7 George Square


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