Schedule for CSC 191/291, Spring 2013 (Tentative)

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)






Last Change: 14 January 2013 / Len Schubert