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                Another issue of "Technology and Language" has appeared, and with it a 
new call for contributions that appeals to the interests of science and 
technology studies, of linguistics and multilingualism, of cultural and 
literary studies, art and engineering education.

https://soctech.spbstu.ru/en/issue/15/
www.philosophie.tu-darmstadt.de/T_and_L

Guest-edited by Elena Seredkina and LIU Yongmou, the most recent issue 
is dedicated to “ChatGPT and the Voices of Reason, Responsibility, and 
Regulation”: When we evaluate the capacity of ChatGPT to match or 
surpass human capabilities, this is evidently an invitation to look at 
ourselves. Some of the authors offer enactivist or Derridean accounts of 
human communication, understanding, and thought that allow for machines 
to do the same. Others cite creativity and conceptual reasoning to 
highlight an unbridgeable gap between human and machine intelligence. ¬– 
More generally, André Leroi-Gourhan (1911-1986) viewed humanity through 
the lens of technical intelligence. His 1952 lecture on the origin of 
science is here for the first time published in English, accompanied by 
three papers about his historical and philosophical legacy. Werner 
Rammert finally provides a social pragmatist perspective on "Doing 
Things with Words and Things."

For the June 2025 issue, we are issuing once again a general call for 
contributed papers (deadline March 15, 2025). All papers at the 
intersection of technology and language will always be considered, of 
course. This is a chance also to submit small groups of papers, e.g., 
from workshops, conferences, summer schools, research projects. This 
issue can exhibit a great variety of themes: on the language of things, 
on human and machine voice, on resonance, on technology and tragedy – or 
comedy or farce. And much more.

Other open calls (shortened):

„Speculative Technologies“ (inquire about the upcoming 
submission-deadline) — It is a distinctive feature of human language 
that we can refer to things that aren't there - to events in the future 
or the past and even to things that wiill never exist. Does this hold 
for technology as well? Can machines and other technical schemes refer 
to impossibilities? Can they invite us to engage in hypothetical 
thinking about alternate worlds? And where do they come from, what is 
the cultural or socio-technical milieu for their conception? 
Astronomical clocks invoke ideas of the cosmic order, a perpetuum mobile 
reflects the human ambition to conquer physical limits, von Kempelen’s 
chess player challenges humans to question human and machine 
intelligence, prototypes herald an imagined future, envisioned carbon 
reduction technologies enter into calculations of climate futures - and 
a machine that is standing still holds the secret to that machine in 
motion. There is a long tradition of wish-fullfilment machines (quantum 
computers, fusion reactors), and a long tradition of difference engines 
with different settings for various contingencies. We invite historical 
reconstructions, philosophical reflections, and cultural technology 
assessments on this range of subjects. (guest editors: Anna Kotomina and 
Colin Milburn)

“Translation - Theory and Technology” (deadline: Oct 5, 2024) —A 
mechanical device delivers faithful translations of rotary motion into 
the vertical back and forth of a beam - and vice versa. Ludwig 
Wittgenstein analogized translation to the ways in which a musical 
performance can be mapped onto the grooves of a gramophone record as 
well as a score - no interpretation involved. And if only the data set 
is big enough, new computer applications for translating between natural 
languages require nothing but the discovery of correlations in the 
occurrence of words in phrases - again, no interpretation involved. To 
be sure, there are other conceptions which highlight gains and losses, 
proximity and distance, inventiveness and transformation in the process 
of translation. If one thinks of translation as a kind of transport from 
the one bank of a river to the other side, this would be akin to the 
work of engineers who transport knowledge of functional regularities in 
biological systems into the sphere of human devices. And if one thinks 
of the techniques and collaborative arrangements for rendering old 
meanings in new settings, one will appreciate how new works and new 
ideas are created. — Considered for its linguistic as well as technical 
dimensions, the art of translation will be of interest not only to 
philosophers, linguists, and literary scholars, but also to cultural 
studies, biomimetics, mathematics and engineering. (guest editors: 
Andrea Breard and Marco Tamborini)

#mediaopera. Recomposing Agency (deadline: Dec 15, 2024), guest editor: 
Cheryce von Xylander. The word „opus“ refers to a technically or 
artfully produced work. The plural form „opera“ refers to an art-form 
that draws together many artists and technicians - musicians, singers, 
dancers, architects and builders of the space, costume and light 
designers, and then writer(s) and composer(s), conductor(s) and 
stage-director(s) who bring all this together. Not only the cinema has 
been transformed by video which is now routinely incorporated in opera 
stagings and, most recently, spawned a whole new genre of „mediaoperas“ 
- such as „Einstein and Margarita,“ „Theremin’s Last Secret,“ or „Pink 
Mouse“ by Iraida Yusupova. Akin to the medieval and renaissance 
Cathedral, modern opera and cinema enable assembly — and the 
„Gesamtkunstwerk“ finally constellated is arguably never completed. — We 
invite contributions from history, art theory, media studies, data 
science, sociology, philosophy, and related fields to consider more 
generally the configuration of aesthesis in social space: How are 
technical media and sensory modalities organised in spectacular 
art-forms which herald the historical changes they exemplify?

Beyond these calls for special topics, any submitted paper and 
interdisciplinary exploration at the interface of technology and 
language is always welcome. The next deadline for submitted papers in 
English or Russian is October 10, 2024.

“Technology and Language” is a quarterly journal: international, peer 
reviewed, Scopus listed, online, open access, academic (no fees). 
Queries, suggestions, and submissions can be addressed to 
soctech@spbstu.ru or to Daria Bylieva (bylieva_ds@spbstu.ru) and Alfred 
Nordmann (nordmann@phil.tu-darmstadt.de).

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