UGS 302 Freshman Seminar

Mirrors on Ourselves: Attempts to Build Artificial People

Elaine Rich

Fall, 2009

Unique:

64670

TTh 2:00-3:30

MAI 220A

Staff

	Email	Office	Office Hours
Elaine Rich	ear@cs.utexas.edu	TAY 3.126	T 11:00 – 11:30 and Th 3:30 – 5:00
Dasha Tsybulnik	dash006@yahoo.com	Starbucks in the Union	F 1:00 – 2:00

The Structure of the Class

Over the course of the semester, we will:

• Read:

• Fiction and literature
• Philosophical essays
• Historical surveys
• Scientific papers

• Analyze and discuss what we have read
• Write:

• Short essays
• One significant term paper

• Watch movies. Some we will watch in class. Others you can watch on your own or watch at the movie nights that Dasha will be organizing. If you want to watch them on your own, you can check them out of the UT film library:

• Metropolis
• Frankenstein (the original)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original and the 2008 remake)
• Forbidden Planet
• I Robot

In this class it will be very important that everyone come to class prepared to participate in the discussions. On the Schedule of Topics page, you will find a schedule for the semester (which will evolve as the semester progresses).

Required Text Books

• Čapek, Karel, R. U. R.
• Levy, David, Robots Unlimited.
• Perkowitz, Sidney, Digital People. You can access this book electronically from the UT Library: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/

Additional Books that You May Find Interesting and Possibly Useful for Your Term Paper

• Benford, Gregory and Elisabeth Malartre, Beyond Human: Living with Robots and Cyborgs.
• Cohen, John, Human Robots in Myth and Science. (This book is out of print. But it is available used on Amazon and at PCL.)
• Crevier, Daniel, AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence. (This book is out of print. But it is available used on Amazon and at PCL.)
• Diamond, Jared, The Third Chimpanzee.
• Hawkins, Jeff, On Intelligence.
• McCorduck, Pamela, Machines Who Think. 2004 Edition.
• Moravec, Hans, Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind.
• Riskin, Jessica (ed.), Genesis Redux: Essays in the History and Philosophy of Artificial Life.
• 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 at PCL.)
• Wood, Gaby, Edison’s Eve.

Grading

• Attendance: 10%
• Class participation: 10%
• Homework: 35%
• Term paper: 45%

There will not be a final exam.

Homeworks

There will be two kinds of assignments:

• Reading assignments. For some of these, you will be asked to choose a topic that is covered in the reading, do some research on it, sketch your results (to hand in) and come to class prepared to discuss what you have learned.
• Written homework assignments. For these, you may work with other people to come up with answers, but each person must write up his or her own solutions. These assignments must be turned in at the beginning of class so that we can discuss them in class. If you must miss a class, you may turn in your homework at my office prior to 2:00 on the day of class. Late homework will incur a penalty of 20% per day.

All homework assignments must be typed.

Attendance and Class Participation

You need to come to class and participate. Starting with the 4^th class, there will a sign-in sheet at each class. Assume there are n remaining classes. Then 1/n^th of the total attendance points will be deducted for each missed class. If you must miss class for a legitimate reason, let me know as soon as possible.

Academic Integrity

Every piece of work you turn in for the class must be your original work, except as otherwise explicitly allowed by class policy. See the class integrity policy for details of what this means.

Additional Class Policies

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