Decade of The Mind - Follow-on To The Decade of The Mind Symposium

Follow-on To The Decade of The Mind Symposium

Following the symposium, decision-makers from multiple US agencies assembled to react to the Manifesto and to imagine how their agencies might participate in the proposed Decade of the Mind initiative (Decade of the Mind II). A further follow-on scientific conference was held May 7-9, 2008 at the Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa. The symposium, titled "Emergence of Mind" examined how mind emerges in animals, particularly the great apes. This third symposium included 9 plenary sessions provided by luminaries from their respective fields. Each speaker addressed the general topic of "Consciousness and Mind in Nonhuman Primates", some from the perspective of their experimental work with primates in captivity and others, from their studies of primates conducted in the wild. Additionally, two sessions were devoted to philosophical perspectives on nonhuman consciousness and the evolution of consciousness and mind.

The fourth symposium was held at Santa Ana Reservation, New Mexico on January 13-15, 2009. The conference was organized by the Sandia National Laboratory. It focused on the emergence of mind in machines. The meeting also focused on the ethical, legal and social implications of new neurotechnologies that might emerge from the Decade Project.

The Decade of the Mind Project became internationalized with a European initiative in Berlin, Germany at a meeting in September 2009, and an Asian Decade of the Mind Project Symposium will kick off in Singapore in October 2010.