NSC 110 Deans Scholars Seminar
Mirrors on Ourselves
Elaine Rich
Schedule
of Topics and
January 16 Introduction
January 23 The idea crosses many cultures
· “Technological Models of Mind – Lieh Tzu” (handout)
· “Legend: Durga Puja and Navratri” (handout)
· “The Birth of Ganesha”, (handout)
· “The Golem: A Jewish Legend” (handout)
The most famous of the early automata, The Turk
January 30 The legacy of The Turk
· “Moxon’s Master”, Ambrose Bierce (handout)
Turing’s Test and his prediction
· “Can Machines Think?”, Alan Turing (handout)
· AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence: Chapter 5, pp. 132 – 139.
February 6 Discussion of Turing’s paper
The early legends lead to The Pygmalion legend
· “Pygmalion” (handout)
· “The Perfect Painting” (handout)
Computation
· AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence: Chapter 1.
·
“
February 13 A (somewhat) modern story
· “The Nightingale”, Hans Christian Anderson (handout)
Computation, continued
How much computing does it take?
· Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, Chapter 3.
February 20 Another (somewhat modern story)
· “Drowne’s Wooden Image”, Nathaniel Hawthorne (handout)
Computation, continued
· AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence: Chapter 4.
February 27 Another (somewhat modern story) A video
· “The Sandman”, E. T. A. Hoffman (handout)
Computing, continued
· AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence: Chapter 6.
March 5 Computing, continued
Artificial Intelligence
· AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence: Chapter 10, pp. 237-243.
· “Marvin Minsky on Common Sense and Computers That Emote” (handout)
· Push Singh, “The Open Mind Common Sense Project” (handout)
March 12 SPRING BREAK
March 19 Artificial Intelligence and Common Sense
· Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, Chapters 1 and 2.
March 26 Robots
· Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, Chapter 4.
April 2 The line between us and them
·
Exegesis
Language
April 9 What makes us us?
· The Third Chimpanzee: Chapters 1 - 5 and the Introduction to Part III
April 16 Art and music
· The Third Chimpanzee: Chapter 9
April 23 Should we do it?
·
The Day
the Earth Stood Still
·
Short
Circuit
· Marshall Brain, “Robotic Nation”
· Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, Chapter 5.
· Bill Joy, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us”
· Freeman Dyson, “The Future Needs Us”
April 30 Should we do it?
·
I, Robot
· Ray Kurzweil, “Are We Spiritual Machines?” (handout)