With the advent of ubiquitous
computing the complexity of
systems in several fields,
including building and industrial
automation has increased
exponentially over the past
decade. The number of intelligent
network nodes occurring in such
systems is likely to increase to
several million in the foreseeable
future. In order to enhance the
services and cognitive
capabilities of these systems,
Artificial Intelligence must
radically increase the levels of
abstraction – something that is
not feasible with currently
available tools.
More than 100 years ago
Sigmund Freud revolutionized
the fields of medicine and
psychology with his scientific
understanding of the human
mind. During the past decade
neuro -psychoanalysts have
worked on integrating the highly
abstract concepts of
psychoanalysis with lower levels
of abstraction in the
neurosciences. At the same time
current developments in the field
of computer sciences were
heading towards ever higher
levels of abstraction. These
concurring developments give
rise to the idea that engineers
could use psychoanalytic
concepts for machine thinking
systems.
Goals
Engineers and psychoanalysts
come from very different scientific
cultures. Our goal is to reduce the
gap between the cultures of these
two communities by providing a
common forum, which is to take
place as a one-day workshop –
positioned between the
International Neuro-Psychoanalysis Congress (NPSA 2007), and the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN 2007).
This workshop is designed to
facilitate communication,
interaction and mutual
understanding between the two
fields and thereby expand the
prospects of investigating common
approaches for the analysis,
comprehension, description, and
synthesis of intelligent systems.
The dialogue could lead to more
precise definitions of psychological
concepts used at present by
examining them from the
perspective of a radically different
discipline within the field of
engineering.
For engineers a new perspective on
modelling machine intelligence is
to be revealed as the essence of the
human mind is spelled out,
allowing its complexity to be
incorporated into machines and
intelligent devices.
The ENF is a kick-off event and will lay the ground for future research. It will define a road map for the next years, including a new interdisciplinary biannual conference.
