The following is my current guess as to the class schedule this spring.
However, the syllabus may evolve in this rather new area, and the details
of programming/project requirements for 291 students are still being
filled in, depending on the background of the students. -LKS
| Class Sessions | Topic | Reading | Assignments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thurs. Jan. 17 | Introduction, overview, meaning of consciousness; explanatory gap; neural correlates; robot pain? self-awareness; | 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, 5pm | |
| 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, 5pm | |
| 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, 5pm | |
| Tues. Feb. 26 | "Heated" emotions, language evolution, (dis)passionate robots | Fellous & Arbib '05, 12 (Arbib) | homework 3, due Fri. Mar. 8, 5pm | |
| Thurs. Feb. 28 | Mind & body (again) | McDermott '02, pref-1 | Finalize project teams | |
| Tues. Mar. 5 | AI state-of-the-art | McDermott '02, 2; | ||
| Thurs. Mar. 7 | Self-modelling, computation, & qualia; | McDermott '02, 3-4; | HW 3 due tomorrow, Mar. 8, 5pm | |
| Mar. 9-17 | SPRING BREAK | (no classes) | ||
| Tues. Mar. 19 | Symbol processing, neural nets, and meaning; | McDermott '02, 5 | Progr. reports: Task updates, progress to date, plan for demo | |
| Thurs. Mar. 21 | Morality, souls, and religion; | McDermott '02, 6 | ||
| Tues. Mar. 26 | (catching up - schedule lag!) | McDermott '02 | homework 4, supplied today, due Apr. 10, 5pm | |
| Thurs. Mar. 28 | (catching up - schedule lag!) | McDermott '02 | ||
| Tues. Apr. 2 | Knowledge represent- ation & reasoning | Handout | ||
| Thurs. Apr. 4 | A basic agent;
Making computers self-aware | Vere & Bickmore '90;
McCarthy '95 | ||
| Tues. Apr. 9 | self-motivated agent | Liu & Schubert '12 | HW 4 due tomorrow, 5pm | |
| Thurs. Apr. 11 | Minsky on emotion, programs, common sense | Minsky '01, Minsky '06, ch. 0-1 | homework 5, due Apr. 26, 5pm. | |
| Tues. Apr. 16 | Minky's Emotion Machine | Minsky '06, ch. 2 | ||
| Thurs. Apr. 18 | Minky's Emotion Machine | Minsky '06, ch. 3 | final project reports due | |
| Tues. Apr. 23 | Minky's Emotion Machine | Minsky '06, ch. 4 | ||
| Thurs. Apr. 25 | project presentations | HW 5 due tomorrow, Apr. 26, 5pm | ||
| Tues. Apr. 30 | Quiz (Minsky, projects) | |||