UGS 302
Fall, 2009
Schedule of Topics and
Thursday, August 27 Introduction
Tuesday, September 1 Introduction,
continued
·
Digital People, Chapter 1 (Introduction)
Thursday, September 3 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
·
Hans Christian
Anderson, “The Nightingale”
·
E. T. A.
Hoffmann, “The
Sandman” (optional)
Tuesday, September 8 Legends,
continued
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The Nightingale)
·
Digital People, Chapter 3, pp. 51 - 61 (The Real History of Artificial Beings)
Wednesday, September 9 Metropolis
Thursday, September 10 Discuss
Metropolis
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Metropolis)
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Pygmalion)
Tuesday, September 15 Mechanical
Automata
·
Ovid, the Pygmalion Myth
·
Nathanial
·
Giambattista
Basile, “Pintosmalto”
·
Bagrodia and
Harris, “The Perfect Painting”
Thursday, September 17 Mechanical
Automata, cont.
Pygmalion
A quick chat with
·
Alan Turing, “Can Machines
Think?”
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 35-48
The University Lectures (Bass Concert
Hall, 7:00 p.m.) You are encouraged to go to both. You must go to one.
Monday, September 21 UNIVERSITY
LECTURE: Your Role in the Emerging Miracle of Global
Economic Growth
Tuesday, September 22 UNIVERSITY LECTURE: How to Know a Tyrant When You See One: Models of Tyranny and Leadership from Classical Drama
Tuesday, September 22 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.)
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The Turing Test)
Thursday, September 24 Doing
Research at UT
·
“Ave
Machina! Deus est Machina!!”
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Frankenstein)
·
TERM PAPER DEADLINE:
You must have met at least once with Dasha or me to talk about your term paper.
Tuesday, September 29 Discuss
Frankensteing
Rhetoric and Writing
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The OED and the Library)
·
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.
Thursday, October 1 Key
Ideas in Computing
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 1
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Robots Unlimited)
Tuesday, October 6 Key
Ideas in Computing, continued
·
Digital People, Chapter 3, pp. 61 – 84 (The Real History of Artificial Beings)
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Rhetoric and Writing)
Thursday, October 8 Key
Ideas in Computing, continued
The Foundations of Modern Artificial Intelligence
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 187-205
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 234-243
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(PCP)
Tuesday, October 13 The
Turing Test
The Turk, Chess and Other Games
·
Ambrose Bierce, “Moxon’s
Master”
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 3
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Ambrose Bierce and Common Sense I)
Thursday, October 15 Movie:
The Day the Earth Stood Still (92 minutes)
Note: We will meet in UTC 3.120 today only.
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(HRC)
Tuesday, October 20 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 HOMEWORK
(The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Thursday, October 22 Discuss
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Common Sense
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 205-234
·
“Marvin
Minsky on Common Sense and Computers That Emote”
·
Push Singh, “The
Open Mind Common Sense Project”
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: Turn in the first draft of your paper.
Tuesday, October 27 Language
and Communication
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 53-68
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 7
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Common Sense)
Thursday, October 29 Language
and Communication
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 8
·
Karel Čapek, R.U.R.
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(R.U.R.)
Tuesday, November 3 Robots
·
Robots Unlimited, pp. 48-52
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 5
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 10
·
Digital People, Chapter 5
Thursday, November 5 Robots
What Makes Us Us?
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 12
·
Ray Kurzweil,
“Are We Spiritual Machines?”
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: You must have met at least once with Dasha and with me to talk about
your term paper.
Tuesday, November 10 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.)
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(Creativity)
Thursday, November 12 Writing
– Word from the UT Writing Center
Should We Do It?
·
Robots Unlimited, Chapter 13
·
TURN IN HOMEWORK
(The Luddites)
Tuesday, November 17 Should
We Do It? – In class debates
·
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?)
Thursday, November 19 Student
paper presentations
Monday,
November 23 Forbidden Planet (7:00 at
HRC; If you cannot come to this showing, you can watch it on YouTube.)
Tuesday, November 24 Discuss
Forbidden Planet
Student paper presentations
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: You should have visited the writing center at least once by now.
Thursday, November 26 THANKSGIVING
Tuesday, December 1 Student
paper presentations
Thursday, December 3 Final
discussion
·
Bill Joy, “Why the Future
Doesn’t Need Us”
·
Freeman Dyson, “The Future Needs Us”
Friday, December 4
·
TERM PAPER
DEADLINE: Turn in the final draft of your paper (in my office).