MINDS & MACHINES 45.1965 Time & Place: Plenary Session - Tuesday, 2:00-3:20, Sa 3510 Problem Session - Wednesday, 3:00-3:50, Sa 3303 Section Meeting - Thursday, #1 (Fahey) - 2:00-3:20, WH 212 #2 (Fahey) - 4:00-5:20, Ca 106 #3 (Michaelides) - 2:00-3:20 Sa 3705 #4 (Michaelides) - 12:00-1:20 Gr 120 #5 (Fahey) - 10:00-11:20 Ca 210 J. Fahey Instructors P. Michaelides Sa 3203 Office Hours Ca 108 T, 3:30-5:00 W, 2:00-3:00 W, 1:30-3:00 W, 4:00-5:00 x2321 Tel. # x2635 270-8349 426-8872 faheyj2@rpi.edu E-Mail michap@rpi.edu I. WHAT THIS COURSE IS ABOUT: What are minds? What are machines? Are human persons merely a kind of complicated "thinking machine" or do humans have qualities that are essentially "non-machine-like?" If humans are "thinking machines," what kinds of things can we learn about ourselves that will help us to design machines that can best interact with us? Indeed, is it possible that we will someday build a machine that "thinks just like us?" -- a machine with capabilities similar to those of Commander Data on Star Trek NG? What are some of the obstacles we might encounter in building such a machine?" Moreover, if we were successful in building "a Data," should that machine be afforded the rights and responsibilities of a human person? How about non-human animals? Do they have rights? More generally, to what extent can the study of the minds of "cats and rats and elephants" as well as the study of human "extraordinary minds" help us to better understand ourselves and our place in the world? This course should appeal to those with interests in computer science, psychology, and both Western and Eastern philosophy of mind and ethics. It is especially relevant to those considering a dual major in computer science /psychology or computer science/philosophy in Rensselaer's newest program, MINDS & MACHINES (Dept. of Philosophy, Psychology and Cognitive Science). II. TEXTS: (REQUIRED) A. Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy; B. Perry, A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality; C. Leiber, Can Animals and Machines Be Persons? D. Crane, The Mechanical Mind; (RECOMMENDED) E. Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars. III. TOPIC SCHEDULE & READINGS: (Photocopied reading assignments will be available in hard-copy on reserve in the Library and on-line through RenSearch.) Week of Aug. 26 Reasoning and Formal Systems: an introduction to logic; Gensler, (class handout) Sept. 2 Stuff & Knowledge: an introduction to epistemology, metaphysics and the mind-body problem; Gyatso, #2 9 Descartes and Early Modernism; Descartes, Meditations I-III Hume, #3 Aurobindo, #4 Kasulis, #5 16 Persons and Identity through Time: some basic issues; Locke (handout) Perry, Nights 1 and 2 Harding, #6 23 Discontinuous Persons: technology and the stretching of the self's boundaries; Perry, Night 3 Dennett, #7 Duddy, #8 Gentle Bridges, #9 Morowitz, #10 (for reference) 30 Must persons have free will or can they be determined? Damasio, #11 Oct. 7 Can Animals and Machines Be Persons? Leiber, 1st session Midgley, #12 Noske, #13 Blumberg & Wasserman, #14 13-14 Holiday 15 "Data on Trial; Leiber, 2nd and 3rd sessions Crane, Chapters 1-2 Oct. 21 Turing Machines, the Turing Test and Searle's "Chinese Room;" Crane, Chapter 3 Haugeland, #15 Glymour, #16 Turing, #17 (for reference) Searle, #18 (for reference) 28 Humans, Animals, Machines: developmental transcendence? readings TBA Nov. 4 Mechanical Minds: GOFAI , "mentalese" and connectionism; Crane, Chapter 4 Copeland, #19 Waltz, #20 (for reference) 11 Mechanical Minds: mental modules and cognitive neuropsychology; Baron-Cohen, #21 Sacks, pp. 244-296 (for reference) 18 Mechanical Minds: consciousness and creativity; Chalmers, #22 Nagel, #23 25 Virtual Minds and the "fourth discontinuity;" Shepard, #24 Borgman, #25 Dec. 2 Minds, Machines and the World. Borgmann, #26 Borgmann, #27 Walsh, #28 IV. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: A. WEEKLY NOTEBOOK QUESTIONS: On ten occasions during the semester we will hand out a question directly related to the reading. You will write a typed, 1-2 page answer. We will ask you to hand in your first five answers on October 9. Your second five answers are due on December 11. B. 5-7 PAGE PAPER - final draft DUE NOVEMBER 20, details TBA in section meetings. C. GROUP WORK & PRESENTATIONS - TBA in section meetings. D. FINAL GROUP PROJECT AND PRESENTATION: You will be required to attend a special class on Saturday, December 6 at which time you and your group will give a presentation on the question of whether the UN Declaration of Human Rights should be amended to take account of the the rights of non- human persons. Details TBA in section meetings. E. ATTENDANCE - Attendance will be taken on random occasions during the semester. REGULAR ATTENDANCE IS REQUIRED. The instructors reserve the right to fail any student who incurs more than THREE FORMALLY RECORDED, UNEXCUSED ABSENCES V. GRADING: Your NOTEBOOK QUESTIONS will count 30% of your final average, as will your 5-7 PAGE PAPER. Your GROUP WORK & PRESENTATIONS and your FINAL GROUP PROJECT & PRESENTATION will each count 20% of your final average. At the instructor's discretion, points will be added to the student's final average in recognition of outstanding class participation (8 points maximum). Final grades will be assigned as follows: A = 89+, B = 80-89, C = 70-79, D = 60-69, F = 0-59. VI. OFFICE HOURS: The instructors will hold Office Hours at the times and places listed on page 1 and are willing to be available at other times by appointment. PLEASE COME SEE US! VII. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: One of the aims of this course is the fostering of the student's ability to think critically, creatively and independently. While everyone is aware that such thinking does not take place in a vacuum, it is ultimately the student's responsibility to ensure that the "ideas" expressed in written work are essentially those of the student, or, if they are the "ideas of others," that their sources are properly cited. Knowing disregard of this principle counts as ACADEMIC DISHONESTYand may result in course failure. The student is encouraged to examine Rensselaer's policies regarding academic integrity in the current editions of The Rensselaer Handbook, and Rensselaer Undergraduate Catalog. VIII. ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND MUTUAL RESPECT: Among the requirements for both the student and the instructors in this course is that we do our best to respect the dignity of ourselves and all persons. Words or deeds directed against a person or group, where it is obvious that the sole intent is to insult or otherwise do them harm in a thoroughly unconstructive manner, will not be tolerated. In a similar vein, we should do our best to sensitize ourselves to the unfair and derogatory racial, religious and sexual connotations of various English expressions and eliminate those expressions from casual use. (A guide to gender-fair language is available (free!) at both the Writing Center and the Library.) Having said this, however, it must also be said that it is crucial to Rensselaer's mission that there be placed no undue constraint on the free expression of ideas and opinions. Thus, the mere fact that someone considers an expression or act false or offensive is not by itself sufficient to warrant sanction. READINGS ON LIBRARY RESERVE: 1. Reading List and Course Syllabus. 2. Tenzin Gyatso, "The Second Turning ..." in The World of Tibetan Buddhism Boston: Wisdom Publications 1995, pp. 23-46. 3. David Hume, "Sceptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding" in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Oxford: Clarendon Press 1975, pp. 25-39. 4. Aurobindo, "Involution and Evolution" and "The Sevenfold Chord of Being" in The Essential Aurobindo, R. McDermott, ed. New York: Schocken Books 1973, pp. 61-82. 5. T. Kasulis, "Editor's Introduction" in Yuasa Yasuo, The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory Albany: State University of New York Press 1987, pp. 1-15. 6. D. E. Harding, "On Having No Head" in The Mind's I, D. Hofstadter and D. Dennett, eds. New York: Basic Books 1981, pp. 23-33. 7. Daniel Dennett, "Where Am I?" in Brainstorms Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1978, pp. 310-323. 8. Tom Duddy, "The Self Discontinued" in Mind, Self and Interiority Aldershot, UK: Avebury Press 1995, pp. 160-191. 9. "Consciousness, Gross and Subtle: A Conversation" in Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences ofMind Boston: Shambhala 1992, pp. 146-165. 10. Harold Morowitz, "Rediscovering the Mind" in The Mind's I, D. Hofstadter and D. Dennett, eds. New York: Basic Books 1981, pp. 34-49. 11. Antonio Damasio, "Unpleasantness in Vermont" and "A Modern Phineas Gage" in Descartes' Error New York: Avon Books 1994, pp. 3-19, 34-38. 12. Mary Midgley, "The Rationalist Tradition(2): Rights and Language" in Animals and Why they Matter Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press 1984, pp. 53-61. 13. Barbara Noske, "Is Animal Language not Language?" and "Meeting the Other: Towards an Anthropology of Animals" in Beyond Boundaries: Humans and Animals Montreal: Black Rose Books 1997, pp. 133-143, 161-170. 14. M. Blumberg and E. Wasserman, "Animal Mind and the Argument From Design" in American Psychologist, Vol. 50 #3 1995, pp. 133-144. 15. John Haugeland, "Formal Games" in Artificial Intelligence: The Very Idea Cambridge MA: MIT Press 1989, pp. 48-71. 16. Clark Glymour, "The Computational Concept of Mind" in Thinking Things Through Cambridge MA: MIT Press 1992: 339-366. 17. Alan M. Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" in The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, M. Boden, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1990, pp. 40-66. 18. John R. Searle, "Minds, Brains and Programs" in The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, M. Boden, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1990, pp. 67-88. 19. B. J. Copeland, "Are We Computers?" in Artificial Intelligence OXford: Basil Blackwell 1993, pp. 180-206. 20. David Waltz, "The Prospects for Building Truly Intelligent Machines" in Technology and the Future, A. Teich, ed. New York: St. Martin's Press 1990, pp. 366-388. 21. Simon Baron-Cohen, "Developing Mindreading: The Four Steps" and "Mindreading: Back to the Future" in Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1995, pp. 31-58, 121-133. 22. David Chalmers, "The Puzzle of Conscious Experience" in Scientific American #273 1995, pp. 80-86. 23. Thomas Nagel, "What is it Like to be a Bat?" in Mortal Questions Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 1979, pp. 165-180. 24. Paul Shephard, "Virtually Hunting Reality in the Forests of Simulacra" in Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction, M. Soule' and G. Lease, eds. Washington: Island Press 1995, pp. 17-29. 25. Albert Borgmann, "The Nature of Reality and the Reality of Nature" in Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction, M. Soule' and G. Lease, eds. Washington: Island Press 1995, pp. 31-45. 26. Albert Borgmann, "Focal Things and Practices" in Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1984: pp. 196-210. 27. Albert Borgmann, "Wealth and the Good Life" in Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1984: pp. 210-226. 28. Roger Walsh, "Global Threats to Human Survival and Well Being" in Staying Alive: The Psychology of Human Survival Boston: New Science Library 1985, pp. 5-12.