CALL FOR PAPERS PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments Special Issue on Legal, Ethical, and Policy Issues Associated with Wearable Computers, Virtual Environments, and Computer Mediated Reality Guest Editors: Woodrow Barfield, Steve Mann, Ian Kerr, and Rita Lauria PRESENCE, published by the MIT Press, is the first journal for serious investigators of teleoperators and virtual environments, incorporating perspectives from physics to philosophy. Recent advances in the technologies associated with the development of wearable computing, virtual environments, and mediated (augmented, dimensioned, or otherwise computer-modified) realities have led to interesting legal, policy, and ethical issues. As evidence of the emerging interest in this area, the term "cyborglaw" has already appeared in numerous events, workshops, and symposia. Questions of interest for the special edition include: Should an artificially intelligent system represented within a virtual environment by an avatar be afforded the rights of legal personhood, be able to contract, or be liable for errors, in the same way as humans or abstract entities such as corporations that already enjoy such rights? Are the legal, ethical, or policy issues different when the intelligence arises through having a human being in the feedback loop of a computational process, i.e. as with Humanistic Intelligence (HI)? Should humans that wear computing (sometimes termed cyborgs, or cybernetic organisms) be recognized as legal entities, and afforded special protections like those who wear prosthesis? What liabilities should be incurred by those who disrupt the functioning of a person's prosthesis or wearable computer? Papers that discuss and describe current legal, policy, and ethical issues and case law associated with technology in the design and use of wearable computing, virtual and mediated (augmented/dimensioned/modified) reality environments, are especially sought. Topics include, but are not limited to: * Policy and ethical issues associated with wearable computing, virtual environments, and mediated reality. * Legal issues unique to those who integrate wearable computing and their everyday life. * Legal liability of artificially intelligent systems and humanistically intelligent systems. * Legal personhood issues for virtual or mediated entities. * Intellectual property rights as applicable to artificially or humanistically intelligent systems, especially copyright. * Venue for distributed intelligent systems, and collective connected humanistic intelligence. * Issues of search and seizure for artificially and humanistically intelligent systems. * Right of publicity for virtual or mediated entities. Submission Deadline: July 15, 2003. Original manuscripts (in Microsoft Word or anonymous .pdf) should be emailed to presence@mit.edu. They should conform to the submission guidelines available at http://mitpress.mit.edu/pres. Contact Information: Woodrow Barfield Jbar5377@aol.com Steve Mann mann@eecg.toronto.edu Ian Kerr Iankerr@uottawa.ca Rita Lauia rlauria@att.net