Schedule for CSC 190A/290A, Spring 2008 (Tentative)

The following is my current guess as to the class schedule this spring. This is a relatively new class, with mostly quite recent materials, in a rapidly evolving area, so the syllabus is bound to evolve as well. -LKS

Class Sessions Topic Reading Assignments





Thurs. Jan. 17 Introduction, overview,
meaning of consciousness; 
explanatory gap; neural
correlates;   robot pain?
self-awareness;
• Teuscher screed,  
  CACM'06;
• Carr '06 (Economist)
  piece on the brain;
• Pinker '97
Always take notes
as you read!


Always read ahead
for the next class!





Tues. Jan. 22 Explanatory gap; neural
correlates;
• Blackmore '05, 1-2





Thurs. Jan. 24 Illusions, theories
of consciousness,
the self
• Blackmore '05, 3-5;
homework 1, due Wed. Feb. 6





Tues. Jan. 29 Free will, altered states,
Evolution
• Blackmore '05, 6-8;





Thurs. Jan. 31 Conscious & unconscious
processing;   the theater
of consciousness
• Baars '97, 1-2;





Tues. Feb. 5 Vision & imagery;
attention;   contextual/
conceptual priming;
volition
• Baars '97, 3-5 HW 1 due tomorrow





Thurs. Feb. 7 the self (or selves);
role of consciousness;
it's no illusion;
facets of the evidence
• Baars '97, 6-App.





Tues. Feb. 12 Role of affect in
organisms & robots;
functional architecture
of emotions;
• Fellous & Arbib '05, 7
  (Ortony et al.);
• Fellous & Arbib '05, 5
  (Rolls))
homework 2, due Fri. Feb. 22, 5pm:





Thurs. Feb. 14 Fear circuits,
amygdala, emotions,
& consciousness
• Fellous & Arbib '05, 4
  (Fellous & Ledoux);





Tues. Feb. 19 Genuine emotions,
emotion processing,
robot emotion;
affect & architecture
• Fellous & Arbib '05, 2
  (Adolphs);
• Fellous & Arbib '05, 8
  (Sloman)





Thurs. Feb. 21 Behavior-based robots;
models of motivation
• Fellous & Arbib '05, 9
  (Arkin);
• Fellous & Arbib '05, 10
  (Breazeal & Brooks);
HW 2 due tomorrow





Tues. Feb. 26 "Heated" emotions,
language evolution,
(dis)passionate robots
• Fellous & Arbib '05, 12 
  (Arbib)
homework 3, due Mar. 7, 5pm





Thurs. Feb. 29 Mind & body (again) • McDermott '02, pref-1  Finalize project teams





Tues. Mar. 4 AI state-of-the-art • McDermott '02, 2;





Thurs. Mar. 6 Self-modelling,
computation, & qualia;
• McDermott '02, 3-4; HW 3 due tomorrow,
Mar. 7, 5pm





Mar. 8-16 Spring Break (no classes)





Tues. Mar. 18 Symbol processing,
neural nets, and
meaning;
• McDermott '02, 5 Progr. reports:
Task updates,
progress to date,
plan for demo





Thurs. Mar. 20 Morality,
souls, and religion;
metacognition in AI
• McDermott '02, 6

• Cox '05





Tues. Mar. 25 Knowledge represent-
ation & reasoning
• Allen '95, 13?
• Handout?
homework 4, due Apr. 9 , 5pm





Thurs. Mar. 27 A basic agent;
Making computers
self-aware
• Vere & Bickmore '90;
• McCarthy '95





Tues. Apr. 1 Progr. reports:
progress to date,
plan for demo





Thurs. Apr. 3 KR & R requirements
for self-awareness
• Schubert '05





Tues. Apr. 8 autocognitive
inference
Morbini & Schubert '07 HW 4 due tomorrow,
Apr. 9, 5pm





Thurs. Apr. 10 Minsky on emotion,
programs, common sense
• Minsky '01 homework 5, due Apr. 25 , 5pm





Tues. Apr. 15 Minky's Emotion Machine • Minsky '06 final project reports due





Thurs. Apr. 17 project presentations





Tues. Apr. 22 project presentations





Thurs. Apr. 24 project presentations HW 5 due tomorrow,
Apr. 25, 5pm





Tues. Apr. 29 quiz? (Minsky, projects)
project votes(?)
...






Last Change: 16 January 2008 / Len Schubert