NSC 110 Deans Scholars Seminar

Mirrors on Ourselves 
Elaine Rich
Spring, 2008

Textbooks and Other Readings

We will read parts or all of the following books:

·        Crevier, Daniel, AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence.  Basic Books, 1993.  This one is out of print but available used from Amazon. 

·        Moravec, Hans, Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind.

·        Teller, Astro, Exegesis.

·        Diamond, Jared, The Third Chimpanzee.

And I’ll hand out additional readings.

Other Books You May Want to Read

  • Čapek, Karel, R. U. R. (This play, premiered in 1921, is credited with introducing the word “robot”.  It’s a classic in the genre of stories in which the robots rebel against their human creators.)
  • Cohen, John, Human Robots in Myth and Science.  (This book is out of print.  But it is available used on Amazon.  It’s a very concise summary of the topic given in it’s title.)
  • Hawkins, Jeff, On Intelligence.  (This book decries most of modern A.I. and argues instead for using the human brain as a direct model for the construction of intelligent machines.)
  • McCorduck, Pamela, Machines Who Think.  2004 Edition.  (This is the classic book on the history of A.I.  It’s long, but full of interviews with many of the key players.)
  • Sale, Kirkpatrick, Rebels Against the Future.  (The first part is a history of the Luddite movement.  The second part, which I don’t like much, tries to apply lessons from the history of the industrial revolution to the modern “information revolution”.
  • Standage, Tom, The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth-Century Chess-Playing Machine.  (This book is out of print.  But it is available used on Amazon and on reserve at PCL.  It is a history of attempts at chess machines, starting with The Turk and going up through Deep Blue.)
  • Wood, Gaby, Edison’s Eve.  (This book is a good history of physical devices that mimic various aspects of human behavior.)

Movies

We will discuss several movies in class.  You should make sure you’ve seen each movie before we discuss it.  A list of likely movies includes:

·         Frankenstein

·         The Day the Earth Stood Still

·         Forbidden Planet

·         Bicentennial Man

·         Short Circuit

·         A.I.

·         I Robot

Class Attendance and Quizzes

You must come to class.  There will be a sign in sheet every day.  If it begins to appear that people are coming to class without having done the reading, there will be quizzes at the beginning of class.

Students with Disabilities

Any student with a documented disability (physical or cognitive) who requires academic accommodations should contact the Services for Students with Disabilities area of the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 (voice) or 471-4641 (TTY for users who are deaf or hard of hearing) as soon as possible to request an official letter outlning authorized accommodations.

Academic Integrity

You should read carefully the class policy on class policy on academic integrity. Cheating of any form will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade in the class.

Additional Class Policies

You should read CS Department Code of Conduct. The policies described there will be followed in this class.