Dear AoIRists, with the usual apologies for cross-posting - please forward to potentially interested colleagues and/or lists. Please also note that the workshop, as part of the International Research Conference Robophilosophy 2020: Aarhus, Denmark, August 18-21, 2020, may be carried out as an E-conference, depending on the development of the COVID-19 pandemic. More information will follow by the end of May (at latest): please consult the conference webpage and plan your travel arrangements accordingly. Call for papers: Workshop on theomorphic robots and religious contexts, the Robophilosophy-conference 2020, August 18-21, Aarhus. https://conferences.au.dk/robo-philosophy/ Workshop organizer: PhD fellow Simon Balle, Aarhus University, Department of Theology. Chairs: Prof. Dr. Charles Ess, Oslo University, and PhD fellow Simon Balle. ABSTRACT In the wake of the robot revolution, social robots will eventually find their way into religious contexts. Indeed, some have already done so. Recently ‘Mindar’, the android version of the Buddhist deity Kannon Bodhisattva, has been introduced in a Buddhist Temple in Kyoto, while both Catholic and Protestant contexts have seen such inventions as SanTO and BlessU2 respectively. While roboticists have started producing ‘theomorphic robots’ to represent and mediate the divine, there is a great need to join this effort with theoretical, ethical and theological discussion. This is exactly what this workshop takes aim at, and a main priority to this end - in the spirit of the conference theme - would be to identify values and theological aims of religious communities that social robots should be developed, tested and introduced in compliance to. TOPICS AND AIMS This workshop invites contributions from developers of theomorphic robots along with robot ethicists, philosophers of religion, and theologians to discuss empirical findings from experiments with theomorphic robots as well as theoretical aspects of social robots in religious contexts. The workshop aims to reflect on how theomorphic robots and robotic technologies in general can be developed for faith communities to comply with and perhaps enhance values and theological aims local to that community. The workshop invites contributions on: • Critical research on representing the divine in robotic technology. • Exploration on which functions and roles social robots might fill in religious contexts without replacing humans. • Identifying theological aims of specific faith communities that social robots might contribute to. • What anthropomorphic robot-building says about our conceptions of being human within religious contexts – including attention to central themes of identity, selfhood, authority, communal life, ritual, and so on. • Social robots in pedagogical and catechistic perspectives. • Automation in devotional life. FORMAT The workshop will run two legs of 3-4 presentations of 20 minutes (including 5-10 minutes for questions), depending on the final number of accepted speakers. A panel discussion will follow before opening up to the floor for general discussion and questions. CONFIRMED PRESENTERS • Prof. Dr. Ilona Nord, Wurzburg University, Germany: Critical research on representing the divine in robotic technology • Dr. Diana Löffler, Siegen University, Germany: Designing novel complementary robots through the notion of robotic “superpowers” • Ass. Prof. Gabriele Trovato, Waseda University, Japan: Pionering Religion in Robotics • Prof. Dr. Charles Ess, Oslo University: Theomorphic robots as testbeds in religious practice INSTRUCTIONS Authors responding to the call should upload their proposal as short abstract (100 words) through the easychair website no later than April 13: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=rp2020# Login is as author and submit your proposal to the workshop on ‘Theomorphic Robots and Religious Contexts’ Authors of accepted paper should be prepared to finalize and submit a long abstract (1000-2000 words including references) by April 26. Important: Check the conference submission guidelines here: https://conferences.au.dk/robo- philosophy/submission-guidelines/ All accepted contributions will be published in the conference proceedings. TIMELINE April 13 Deadline for submissions of short abstracts April 17 Notification of acceptance April 26 Deadline for long abstract Direct your questions to Simon Balle, snb@cas.au.dk Many thanks in advance, - charles ess -- Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html> Fellow, Siebold-Collegiums Institute for Advanced Studies, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Germany Co-chair & Editor, Internet Research Ethics 3.0 <https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf> 3rd edition of Digital Media Ethics now out <http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509533428> Postboks 1093 Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway c.m.ess@media.uio.no