CSC 191/291: Machines and Consciousness

Spring 2012

Basic Course Information
Instructor: Professor Lenhart Schubert
TA: Ian Perera
TA Office Hours (CSB 607): Monday 2:00-3:00 PM, Friday 2:30-3:30 PM, and by email appointment
Other Information: Found Here

Homework and Project Policies

Please read the homework submission guidelines and requirements. All assignments must conform to them. Assignments will be accepted up to four (4) days after the due date, or until the assignments are graded and handed back, or until solutions are published, whichever comes first. However, there will also be a lateness penalty: for every calendar day except Sunday that the assignment is late you will lose 10% of the grade per day. After four non-Sunday calendar days though, you receive an automatic zero.

Naturally, in extenuating circumstances, these policies can be amended. To get an individual extension, you must communicate with both Professor Schubert and me well before the deadline (that is, at least one day, preferably more). As an individual extension can affect the entire class, it is not something to be taken lightly. However, entire class extensions can also be given.

Homeworks and Quiz
Note that this table is subject to change as it is based on the class schedule that could change. Quizzes will be added as they occur. Due to the number of students, the statistics are for the class as a whole.
Assignment Assigned Due Possible Points Low Median High Average
1/291 1/291 1/291 1/291 1/291
Homework 1






Quiz 1






Homework 2






Homework 3






Homework 4






Homework 5







LISP Help
If you are taking CSC291, you may (we are still deciding whether it will be mandatory) be programming in Lisp. For some quick-and-dirty reference guides, there are four files you can look at: However, there are also some more heavy-duty Lisp materials available: Now that you have more Lisp tutorials and guides than you ever would have thought, you know how to write Lisp. The question though is what's the best way. One popular technique is using Emacs whenever writing Lisp; there is a very nice mode in Emacs called SLIME. To get going with SLIME, some good starter tutorials are provided by our own C. Gomez and B. Van Durme.
Fun Machines and Consciousness Links

"They're made of meat" - the real reason that we've never had alien contact.
Questionable Content on AI rights QC is one of [Carolyn's] favorite webcomics. It takes place in a futuristic world similar to our own, except there are AI robots called AnthroPCs which are companions to humans. Most of the comic is devoted to the human characters, their love lives, and indie bands, but there are a few good AI storylines.
The AI-box experiment This guy proposes that keeping a human-level AI even in captivity is a dangerous situation, and claims to have convinced two people to let him out when he was playing the part of the AI. I don't really find his results convincing, as he both neglects to mention the two times he lost and he does not release the transcripts. But it's interesting to think about the problem and also serves as a reminder to examine the claims of futurists with a critical eye. Some more details are here.

Last change: 15 Jan 2012
Back to URCS Grad Directory   |     Back to URCS Home Page