FS 301 Freshman Seminar
Mirrors on Ourselves: Attempts to Build Artificial People

Elaine Rich
Fall, 2008

Schedule of Topics Lecture Slides Class Information:   Unique number   Office hours   Textbooks   Movies   Policies   Grading Term Paper   Requirements   Topic ideas Academic Integrity

Course Description Throughout history, we, people, have been fascinated by our ability to think, to solve problems, and to communicate with each other. We have studied ourselves and we have imagined ways in which we could build artificial copies of ourselves. Our literature describes some of those imaginings. Some of our early technology embodies other attempts. The modern computer gives us the opportunity to test all of our theories and to build agents that have begun to rival people in performing some kinds of "intelligent" tasks. The goal of this course is to explore our attempts to build artificial people, starting with early legends and ending with modern artificial intelligence. We’ll end with a discussion of the question, “Suppose that eventually we can build artificial people, should we?” Course Topics Automata and Artificial People in Legend, Myth, Literature and Film Legends, stories and plays Movies Automata in the age of technology before computers Clocks and other early automata Artificial voices Early hoaxes Key ideas in computing (that we need in order to be able to think about AI) Anything can be represented in binary Many things can be described using some kind of logical formalism Statistical inference The perils of exponential growth There exist undecidable problems Artificial intelligence – the science What is it and how will we recognize it? The importance of knowledge Representing knowledge Search Language Common sense Expert systems Moving and acting (robotics) Learning Games – a quintessentially human activity Machines that beat us at our own games Modern role playing games: blending imagination with science Are we so special? Our closest relatives - chimpanzees What is consciousness? Art and music Should we do it? Ethical, moral, economic and political issues The Luddite argument: how will people eat if their jobs disappear? Will smart machines replace us? Who is liable for the behavior of artificially intelligent systems? Contact Information Elaine Rich - ear@cs.utexas.edu