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CSLV 4660 Sec. 001 -- Minds, Machines & Society
Spring, 2008

Assignments

• Given January 15: Read the following two articles, which will be the basis for discussion next class:
  1. Alan Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence, in Mind vol. 59, pp. 433-460 (1950). This can be found through JSTOR at the library, or online at this site
  2. John R. Searle, Minds, brains and programs, in Behavioral and Brain Sciences vol. 3, pp. 417-424 (1980). Available online at this site
• Given January 25: Read chapter 6 of  Joseph Weizenbaum's book, Computer Power and Human Reason.  The book is held in the Rose Hill library, but for convenience I have scanned chapter 6 and the end-notes as PDF page images available on the class Blackboard site, under Assignments.
• Given January 25: First essay: impressions of computers.  Describe your own first experiences with computers. Discuss how those experiences shaped your perception of computers and your expectations about their present and potential capabilities. Finally, compare these impressions of computers with the visions of Turing, Simon, and other computer scientists whose ideas we have read and discussed.
  Keep to within 500 to 1000 words in length (2 to 4 pages).  Due: Friday, Feb. 1.
• Given February 1: Read the following articles:
  1. Mark Weiser, The Computer for the 21st Century. Scientific American, 265:3 (September, 1991), pp. 94-104. Available in the library stacks, but for convenience a page image PDF is provided on Blackboard under Assignments.
  2. David H. Gelernter, Mirror Worlds (Oxford University Press, 1991), chapter 2. A page image PDF is provided on Blackboard under Assignments.
  3. Francine Gemperle, Nathan Ota and Dan Siewiorek, Design of a Wearable Tactile Display. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on Wearable Computers, Zurich, Switzerland, Oct. 2001. Available through the library's databases (IEEE Computer Science Digital Library) but for convenience a PDF is provided on Blackboard under Assignments.
  4. Jennifer Healey and Rosalind Picard, StartleCam: A Cybernetic Wearable Camera. Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 19--20 October 1998, pp. 42--49. Available online at this link
  For items 3 and 4, skip the technical parts and focus on the introduction and conclusion, with particular attention to the applications foreseen for these technologies.
• Given February 8: Second essay: Write about some of the ideas for new modes of computer use in the near future, as discussed in class and in the readings for week 3 (ubiquitous and wearable computing, "mirror worlds").  You may write a fictional short story illustrating these ideas, or you may write an expository essay discussing them.  (You need not include all of the proposed ideas, and you may add some ideas of your own.)
  Address both the advantages and the limitations or disadvantages of the technologies.  Also make a statement about the influence and value (positive or negative) of the technology on society of the future.
  Keep to within 500 to 1000 words in length (2 to 4 pages).  Due: Friday, Feb. 15.
• Given February 12: Read the following three articles:
  
  1. K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology. Anchor Books (1986). Chapter 1. Available online at this link.
  2. Richard P. Feynman, Plenty of room at the bottom. Talk given at American Physical Society meeting at Caltech (1959). Available online at this link.
  3. Bill Joy, Why the future doesn't need us. Wired (April 2000). Available online at this link.
• Given February 22: Read the following excerpted selections:
1. Stefano Franchi and Gueven Guezeldere, eds. Mechanical Bodies, Computational Minds (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005). Sections 10-11 of the chapter "Machinations of the Mind." Provided as page image PDF on Blackboard under Assignments.
2.  Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines (Penguin, New York, 1999). Excerpts from chapters 5-6, and all of chapter 9. Provided as page image PDF on Blackboard under Assignments.
• Given February 22: Third essay: "spiritual machines"
  In the assigned reading selections from "The Age of Spiritual Machines," Ray Kurzweil makes a number of specific predictions for developments by the year 2009, as well as predictions of much greater advancements for the more distant (but not very distant) future.
  
  Examine his predictions in some depth. Pay particular attention to bringing out and analyzing unspoken assumptions, of which there are many. (An example of one such assumption is that complete knowledge of the brain would imply complete knowledge of the mind.)
  
  For this essay I am looking for serious engagement with the psychological, social, ethical, and especially philosophical issues that these visions of the future involve. Positions you take are to be backed up with the best arguments you can marshal. You may find some ammunition in the Franchi & Guezeldere selection, as well as some of the readings from previous weeks, but feel free to look elsewhere for ideas, as well as bringing in your own.
  
  This essay can go on a bit longer than the previous ones, but still try to keep it to about 5 pages or less. Due Tuesday, Mar. 4.
• Given February 29: Read the following two articles:
  
  1. Hubert L. Dreyfus & Stuart E. Dreyfus, Making a mind versus modelling the brain: artificial intelligence back at a branch point. Daedalus 117, no. 1 (Winter 1988), pp. 15-43. Available through the library's ProQuest database.
  2. Allen Newell & Herbert A. Simon, Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry: Symbols and Search. Communications of the ACM 19:3 (March 1976), pp. 113-126. Available through the library's on-line databases, ACM Digital Library.
  
  For your convenience, these articles are provided in PDF format on Blackboard under Assignments.
• Given March 7: Read the following article:
  Rodney A. Brooks, Intelligence Without Representation. Artificial Intelligence Journal 47 (1991), pp. 139–159. Available at http://people.csail.mit.edu/brooks/papers/representation.pdf 
• Given March 11: Fourth Essay: where is AI going?
  We have now looked at some "real" AI systems based on symbol manipulation and on computational approaches such as artificial neural networks.  The readings from Newell & Simon (1976) and Brooks (1991) have advocated the advantages of each of these approaches, while Dreyfus & Dreyfus (1988) argue that neither is likely to achieve the goal of true human-level intelligence.  Critique one of these articles in light of the others and of what you have learned by seeing these technologies in operation (albeit in small examples).  Do you think the author(s) of the article would change his/their view now, after the passage of quite a few years?  (Assuming, in the case of Newell and Simon, that they were still alive.)  Do you see any of their predictions coming to pass?
  
  Again, I am looking for a serious engagement with the philosophical issues raised by this debate.  Still, try to keep the paper to no more than 5 pages.  Due Friday, Mar. 28.
• Presentation outline: Please provide me with an outline of your presentation at least 3 weeks before your presentation is scheduled to be given.
  
  To encourage compliance, the outline is now included in the gradebook with a maximum of 5 points. This score is included in your attendance/participation total. You get the full 5 points if the outline is provided on time or early, and lose 1 point for each Tuesday or Friday subsequent to the due date (including time during break).
• Final research paper: The final paper must be based on research and written in proper scholarly style, with references for all sources consulted. See the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers or similar work for guidelines on proper citation style.  The topic of your paper is to be the same as your presentation, but you may go into greater depth and cover a broader range of aspects of the topic than your presentation did, if appropriate.  For instance, overlap with another student's presentation topic is not a problem for your paper.  The paper should be 2000 to 4000 words in length.  It will be graded with the same rubric as was used for the fourth essay.  Due Friday, May 9, at the time of the final exam.