This Roundtable was postponed to August 2022.
The addicted self in the age of information technology: Exploring the mind’s propensity for habitual and compulsive interactions
Neuroscience has characterized brain mechanisms related to addiction, including information technology addiction (e.g., internet, video gaming and betting). It has remained unclear how these findings on brain mechanisms relate to our understanding of mental processes, such as the “self”, and deliberate, habitual and addictive interactions. Our common sense intuitions of a “self” as an irreducible conscious intentional agent has been challenged by findings in diverse fields such as cognitive sciences, philosophy, and artificial intelligence. But the relationships between common sense intuitions, brain mechanisms and science-based conceptualizations of mental processes have received little attention.
The multidisciplinary Roundtable is designed as a dialog to synthesize current knowledge, identify unanswered questions and propose further research. The focus will be on exploring the current concept of the “self” as it pertains to deliberate, habitual, and addicted interactions of the individual with information technology, testing the utility of embodied and enactive concepts as comprehensive integrating approaches.