Best. Conference. Ever.

A couple of days ago, I returned home from what was, as the title of this post suggests, the best conference ever. Now admittedly, I've not been to loads and loads of conferences (maybe 10?) so I don't have much frame of reference, but I think I can say with some confidence that this was the best conference ever. I fear that few or no conferences will ever come close to the very high standard which has now been set.

I shan't name names, because it may only embarrass those involved, and I wouldn't want them to be the targets of conference-envy (is that even a thing?!) Anyway, the conference was held in Portland, Oregon, on the west coast of the USA. I think America is a fantastic country anyway; I've spent around 5 months there in total, and have visited 8 States (Oregon is number 9!)

The 5-day conference is an annual event, meaning that several of the attendees have known each other for some time - some for as long as 25 years - although I didn't realise this until a few days in. As one might expect from a conference, it involved different speakers presenting papers on a range of related (ish) topics; presentations began at 9am each day, and some days continued on until 9pm (other days we finished earlier at 5, 6, or 7pm). So on paper it was a fairly gruelling schedule... but almost all of the papers were really interesting, and so it didn't feel gruelling at all. There were about 25 or so people there at any one time, and we ate lunch together, we went out for dinner together in the evenings, and for drinks afterwards, and they were so welcoming and so much fun to be around. Sometimes when there is an established group of friends, it all gets a bit cliquey and newcomers are sidelined (sometimes unintentionally) as old friends want to catch up with one another, but this really didn't feel like that at all: I was welcomed into the group with open arms, and it felt like I was meeting up with a group of friends I'd known for years. Ah, they were great people!

The people I met were - almost without exception - left-wing liberals, atheists, Trump-hating, anti-gun, immigrant-sympathetic, they believed that climate change is happening, and children should be vaccinated. The news (or is it "Fake News"??) would have me believe that Americans are none of these things. At any rate, no one expressed any right-wing, creationist, Trump-supporting... (etc) views. I guess I wasn't seeing a representative sample of the population, but I'm not complaining.

Conferences I've been to in the UK have primarily consisted of people clicking through a powerpoint and talking about it, but it would seem that the American style of presentation is somewhat different: "presenting a paper" can mean to literally read through an essay word-for-word (with the standard 30 minutes of Q&A afterwards, of course). My style of presentation felt somewhat at odds with this standard: I suppose that 14 years of teaching A-Levels has got me used to a more informal style of presentation which might appear low-brow or inarticulate to some viewers, so that was a concern... but thankfully my concern was unwarranted and a couple of other delegates described my presentation as "a breath of fresh air" and "the highlight of the week". A wife of one of the speakers said to me "I'm a non-philosopher, and I can tell you, I find so many presentations dull because I just don't understand them -- but I understood yours! It was great!" I'm taking that as a compliment.

Portland is a great city, and felt really safe. I've been to New York City and I did not feel safe there; once darkness descended I felt anxious that I might get attacked or shot! OK, I was 20 and it was my first time travelling alone, but still, there seemed to be a lot of gang members on the streets at night. But Portland was really lovely place, and I didn't worry at all about getting shot!

So overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I felt genuinely sad at the end of it. It's going to be pretty hard for any conference to top it. However, it's an annual event, so maybe I'll manage to attend again next year...? To quote my sister (who was being sarcastic when she heard I'd be travelling all the way to the USA to present my paper) "people must really want to hear about sex robots!"

Funded PhD scholarship - secured!

It feels like it's been a really long road towards securing funding for my PhD, and I won't lie: there have been tears along the way. But this week I got the news I've been waiting for! I've been awarded a fully-funded scholarship to research exactly what I want to research, at the university I want to study at (ie where I currently am: the University of Nottingham) and I am so happy, relieved, and excited that I can hardly contain myself.

There have been a few opportunities to apply for funding over the past year, and I've applied for whatever I could. Earlier in the year (April maybe?) I got through to the final 'round' of scholarship awards from the funding body I most wanted to be funded by, only to fall at the final hurdle. It was a tough blow, not least because I am currently not working, and I have a mortgage and a young child to support, and I need income from somewhere in order to put food on the table. So that was very disheartening, but there was still a glimmer of hope because I had heard word that there was set to be some funding available for arts and humanities research in the field of AI, which is exactly my preferred field of study.

I think it's probably fair to say that it was science fiction which cultivated my interest in philosophy before I even knew what philosophy was. Time travel paradoxes, robots with feelings, mind-body swaps, the ethics of dealing with alien cultures - ah, I love it! Throughout all these years, I've continued to enjoy sci-fi and philosophy, but separately. But the opportunity to study emerging technologies through the lenspiece of philosophy, well, I'm in heaven! So when I found out about a funded scholarship studying how AI robots should conceive of consent/harm, I didn't need to think too hard before applying.

What can I say, the rest is history: I applied, I was selected, offered the scholarship (covering fees, plus a living stipend), and I accepted. Now I'm just finishing off my MA dissertation before starting work proper on something I can't wait to get started on: it's like a dream come true for me. Yes I know that's a cliche, and I'm sure it will be difficult, hard work, and at times maybe exasperating, but right now I am just filled with excitement for what lies ahead over the next three years.

Bring it on!!