The first Computing and Philosophy (CAP) conference staged outside the USA or Europe will be held at the Australian National University (ANU) from Friday 31 October to Sunday 2 November. 

The conference is being organised by Australian ethics research group, the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), which is a collaboration between Charles Sturt University (CSU), the University of Melbourne and ANU.

The line-up of internationally recognised speakers includes Frank Jackson, Professor of Philosophy Research at the ANU School of Social Sciences, Dr Luciano Floridi, member of the Faculty of Philosophy, of the Sub-faculty of Computation, and of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, Dr Robert Cavalier, Centre for the Advancement of Applied Ethics in the Department of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University and Professor Donald Gotterbarn of the Department of Computer and Information Science Department, East Tennessee State University. 

CAP conferences began in the USA in 1986, with the aim of enabling philosophers interested in computing to discuss the impact of computers on their field. 

“This is one of the purposes of the upcoming conference but it is also is an attempt to bring together computer professionals interested in philosophy. Both disciplines are concerned with strict logical reasoning, and the presentations at CAP will reflect this,” said Dr John Weckert, CSU conference co-ordinator.

Topics covered by the Canberra conference include the philosophical underpinnings of various aspects of computing, the relationship between computers and human beings, ethical problems in computing, computer software for teaching ethics and logic, teaching computer ethics more generally, the digital divide, and the impact of computers on the philosophy of language teaching.  

The Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and undertakes research on key ethical problems facing Australia today.