Victorio, es posible que la informacisn adjunta sea de interis para los suscriptores de Notiamca. Es informacisn que estimo muy valiosa respecto de la Bienal Argentino-Checa "Golems Electrsnicos" que se llevara a cabo en Praga en julio prsximo; serma muy ztil si se pudiera difundir en ambientes cientmficos (tanto de ciencias exactas y naturales como de ciencias sociales y humanas), tecnolsgicos y artmsticos. El "E-Golems Workshop" puede permitir una integracisn de trabajos - y personas - provenientes de las ciencias, la tecnologma y las artes. No es comzn un esfuerzo orientado en este sentido, y contamos con la colaboracisn del Embajador Argentino en la Repzblica Checa, Juan E. Fleming, que esta trabajando intensa y exitosamente al respecto. Aprovecho para desearles a todos muy felices fiestas y mis mejores deseos para 2005. Muy cordialmente, Pablo Jacovkis ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Czech - Argentine Biennale "e - Golems" First Workshop "Interdisciplinary aspects of Human-Machine Co-existence and Co-operation"
Accompanying event to the World IFAC Congress Prague, July 2-5, 2005 "It was with great interest that I became acquainted with the conceptual framework of the "Golem 2002" project, inspired by the ancient, polysemous, multi-layered, constantly re-interpreted Golem tradition - the tradition most frequently connected with Prague, its cultural and religious plurality and its somewhat hazy spirituality. For a long time, abundant interpretations and associations linked to the character of Golem have inspired authors and artists to ever new and updated reflections. Golem is something (or somebody) still incomplete, being perpetually reborn and recreated, in the tradition associated - not accidentally - with the Prague of the time of Emperor Rudolph II and rabbi Loew; with the Prague of alchemy, mystery; the Prague of scholars, charlatans and spiritual teachers.... Still today, the Golem tradition has much to say. Relativism in assessing values once considered indisputable, easy substitution of the good and the evil, God's servant and his adversary, the world as the object of human wilfulness, command and power, the world as the object of care and concern about its future, the world at a fateful crossroads - all these generally perceived coordinates of our complex times can be articulated against the backdrop of the Golem tradition with great pertinence. The proof comes also in the works of prominent writers such as Gustav Meyrink, Karel Capek, Angelo M. Ripellino or Jorge Luis Borges, whose poem El Golem has now been translated into Czech...." Signed: Vaclav Havel (October 2002, for 'Golem 2002 - 5763') ---000--- The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University in Prague, together with the Czech Technical University in Prague and the Jewish Museum in Prague, jointly with the University of Buenos Aires and its Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, the Argentine Secretariat for Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, the National Council for Scientific and Technological Research and the International Foundation Jorge Luis Borges, as well as scientists and intellectuals from both countries, in meetings held in 2002 and 2003 in Prague and Buenos Aires, developed the conceptual framework for a Biennale addressed to the scientific and technological developments in the field of computer science and technologies, their impact on the individual and society and the cultural environment, artistic as well as social and economic resulting thereof. The Biennale is also supported, within their respective fields of competence, by the Ministries of Culture and of Education of the Czech Republic and by the Secretary for Culture and the Ministry of Education of the Argentine. The inspiration for such Biennale was drawn from the poem on the Golem and Rabbi Loew in Prague by Jorge Luis Borges and the present day metaphorical value of the Golem as robot, artificial intelligence, cybernetics, virtual reality, nano-technologies and the Internet, proved instrumental to such framework. In the case of robotics, it links with the homunculus conceived by the Czech writer Karel Capek in his play "R.U.R." (1921), in which he coined the noun "robot". The name "e-Golems" of the Biennale stands for "electronic Golems". During the preparations, it was thought appropriate to implement the Biennale's conceptual framework progressively, profiting from the hosting in Prague of the 16th World IFAC - International Federation for Automatic Control - Congress (July 4th to the 8th), by convening the first international "e-Golems" Biennale workshop from July 3rd to 5th with the official opening and conclusion being July the 2nd and the 5th. The content of this First Argentine - Czech Biennale workshop is aimed at ideas and considerations which reflect a certain transformation or parallel between the ancient vision of the Golem as an anthropomorphic artificial being and today's visions of information science and artificial intelligence. The intent of this event is to widely discuss this issue on the level of philosophical considerations, models of behavior and learning, psychological aspects of the man-machine cooperation, visions of information networks as "living" organisms with the learning capabilities, self-reflection and self-organization, distributed methods of perception, decision making and actions, perspectives and progress carried out in the field of non-traditional computing systems (based e.g. on quantitative approaches or analogies to the nature), principles of adaptation with exploration of genetic, DNA and similar algorithms, principles of the artificial life, etc. We expect the workshop to reflect the state-of-the-art in research in the field of intelligent robotics with stress to topics of collective robotics, robotic games and social behavior of software agents or physical machines. Considerations concerning machines, their "emotions", interaction with humans and capabilities to overtake the power over the human beings shall be focus of attention, too. The topics aimed at a direct physical linkage of the human tissue and electronic chips are welcome as well as a wide discussion concerning these solutions and their consequences. Simply, we expect this first "e-Golems" international workshop to include many interesting topics tightly or loosely coupled with the Golem vision, Capek's R.U.R. motives and today's cultural, social and economic environment emanating from the impact of cybernetics science and technologies on society and in art since its kinetic origins. Deadline for submission of the papers is February 28th, 2005. Their lengths should be between 5 to 10 pages and the language English. Those selected shall be published as the proceedings of the Workshop and Biennale. Submissions should be sent electronically to one of the contact persons. For the Workshop, it is expected that it shall last two days, with four consecutive sessions in each them, lasting each 90 minutes. The panelist's presentation should last 15 minutes in order to give time for discussions and questions from the public. Their shall be a co-ordinator for each session. The language shall also be English. Contacts: Prof. Vladimir Marik, Czech Technical University Prague Czech Republic Phone: +420-224357421 Fax: +420-224357224 Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Prof. Pablo M. Jacovkis Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences University of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Phone: +54 11 4576 3333 / 3332 Fax: +54 11 4576 3351 Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]