Mirrors
on Ourselves: Attempts to Build Artificial People
Over the course of the semester, you will
work on one significant term project.
You may choose to do either of the following:
·
Write a research
paper on some topic related to the theme of the class.
·
Write a short
story that is related to the theme of the class.
The final paper should be at least 3,000
words and no more than 6,000 words.
Here are the deadlines:
·
Tuesday, Sept. 22:
Have at least one meeting with me to discuss your project.
·
Thursday, Sept.
24, in class: Turn in a topic, a short, tentative outline, and, in the case of
a reserach paper, a list of at least three sources.
·
Thursday, Oct. 22,
in class: Turn in a first draft of your paper.
·
Thursday, Nov.
5: By this point, you should have met at least once both with me and with Dasha
to discuss your project.
·
Tuesday, Nov. 17:
Be ready to present your project to the class. We’ll schedule presentations over
the next two weeks.
·
Tuesday, Nov.
24: By this point, you should have visited the writing center at least once.
·
Friday, Dec. 4,
by noon: Turn in the final paper (to my office).
Here are some suggestions for topics:
·
Human figures in
mythology.
·
Human figures in
modern religions.
·
If Pygmalion had
been a woman.
·
Frauds: human
imitations that weren’t.
·
Rivaling people
as artists.
·
Rivaling people
in chess.
·
Why are chatbots so bad?
·
Human images in
art.
·
Suppose we can
make artificial people. What then?
·
Learning from
the Luddites.
·
The common
theme: artificial people run amok.
·
Artificial
people that don’t look like people.