UGS 302
Fall, 2010
Schedule of Topics and
Thursday, August 26 Introduction
Tuesday, August 31 Introduction,
continued
·
Digital People, Chapter 1 (Introduction)
·
TURN IN Notecard
(Digital People, Chapter 1)
Thursday, September 2 Early
Legends and Stories
·
Digital People, Chapter 2 (The Virtual History of Artificial Beings)
·
Taoist parable
from Lieh Tzu
·
Two Hindu
legends
·
The Golem: A
Jewish Legend
·
“The
Creation of the Golem”
·
E. T. A.
Hoffmann, “The
Sandman” (optional)
·
TURN IN Notecard
(Digital People, Chapter 2)
Tuesday, September 7 Legends,
continued
·
Hans Christian
Anderson, “The Nightingale”
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The Nightingale)
Thursday, September 9 Student
Short Project presentations (click here
to view presentations)
·
TURN IN your
short project answers and come to class ready to present
Tuesday, September 14 Student
Short Project presentations, continued
Wednesday, September 15 Metropolis (Movie night) WEL 2.256
Thursday, September 16 Mechanical
Automata
·
Digital People, Chapter 3, pp. 51 - 61 (The Real History of Artificial Beings)
·
TURN IN Notecard (Digital People, pp. 51 – 61)
Tuesday, September 21 Discuss
Metropolis
Pygmalion
·
Ovid, the Pygmalion Myth
·
Nathanial
·
Giambattista
Basile, “Pintosmalto”
·
Bagrodia and
Harris, “The Perfect Painting”
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Pygmalion)
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Metropolis)
Thursday, September 23 Movie:
Frankenstein (71 minutes)
·
Edward Shanken,
“Hot
to bot: Pygmalion’s lust, the Maharal’s fear, and the cyborg future
of art” (To get this on the web, you need to go through the UT
library.)
·
“Ave
Machina! Deus est Machina!!”
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: You must have met at least once with Tony or me to talk about your
term paper.
Tuesday, September 28 Shooting
Emergency
Thursday, September 30 Discuss
Frankenstein
Doing Research at UT
·
Alan Turing, “Can Machines
Think?”
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 35-48
·
“Ave
Machina! Deus est Machina!!”
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Frankenstein)
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: Turn in a topic, a short, tentative outline, and, in the case of a
research paper, a list of at least three sources.
University
Lecture Series, Oct. 4 and 5 in Bass Concert Hall
Monday, October 4 Cirque du Politique
Tuesday, October 5 World Changers: The Great Debate
Tuesday, October 5 Rhetoric
and Writing
The
Turing Test
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The OED and the Library)
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Robots Unlimited)
Thursday, October 7 Key
Ideas in Computing, continued
·
Discuss
University Lectures
·
Digital People, Chapter 3, pp. 61 – 84 (The Real History of Artificial Beings)
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 1
·
TURN IN Notes
from University Lecture
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The Turing Test)
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Rhetoric and Writing)
Tuesday, October 12 Key
Ideas in Computing, continued
The Foundations of Modern Artificial Intelligence
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 187-205
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 234-243
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(HRC)
Thursday, October 14 The
Turk, Chess and Other Games
·
Ambrose Bierce, “Moxon’s
Master”
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 3
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(PCP)
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Ambrose Bierce and Common Sense I)
Tuesday, October 19 Common
Sense
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 205-234
·
“Marvin
Minsky on Common Sense and Computers That Emote”
·
Push Singh, “The
Open Mind Common Sense Project”
·
TURN IN Notecard
(Common sense)
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: Turn in the first draft of your paper.
Thursday, October 21 Visit
to HRC
·
Edgar Allan Poe,
“Maelzel’s
Chess Player”
·
Tennessee
Williams, drafts of “Sonnet to Pygmalion”
·
Isaac Bashevis
Singer, author’s note for The Golem
·
TURN IN Notecard
(Maelzel’s Chess Player)
Tuesday, October 26 Common
Sense, continued
Language
and Communication
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 53-68
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 7
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Common Sense)
Thursday, October 28 Language
and Communication
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 8
·
Karel Čapek, R.U.R.
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(R.U.R.)
Tuesday, November 2 Robots
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 48-52
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 5
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 10
·
Digital People, Chapter 5
·
TURN IN Notecard
(Robot readings)
Thursday, November 4 Movie: The Day the Earth Stood Still (92 minutes)
Note: We will meet in CMA A3.112 today only.
Tuesday, November 9 Robots
What Makes Us Us?
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 12
·
Ray Kurzweil,
“Are We Spiritual Machines?”
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The Day the Earth Stood Still)
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: You must have met at least once with both Tony and with me to talk
about your term paper.
Thursday, November 11 Tony
on Social Networks
What Makes Us Us?
Can We Do It?
·
Douglas
Hofstadter, “Sounds
Like Bach”
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 9
·
Murphy and Woods, “Beyond
Asimov: The Laws of Responsible Robotics” (To get this on the web, you need to go through the
UT library.)
·
Gordon Bell and
Jim Gemmell, “Total Recall”
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Creativity)
Tuesday, November 16 Should
We Do It?
·
Noel Sharkey,
“The Ethical Frontiers of Robotics” (Science, Vol. 32, pp.
1800-1801)
·
Marshall Brain, “Robotic Nation”,
Parts 1 and 2
·
Gordon Bell and
Jim Gemmell, “Total Recall”
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: Be ready to present your project to the class. We’ll schedule presentations over
the next two weeks.
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Can/Should We Do It?)
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 13
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The Luddites)
Thursday, November 18 Student
paper presentations
Tuesday, November 23 Student
paper presentations
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: You should have visited the writing center at least once by now.
Thursday, November 25 THANKSGIVING
Tuesday, November 30 Student
paper presentations
Thursday, December 2 Final
discussion
·
Bill Joy, “Why the Future
Doesn’t Need Us”
·
Freeman Dyson, “The Future Needs Us”
Friday, December 3
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: Turn in the final draft of your paper (in my office).