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Participation Assignments

Participation assignments should submitted to the Assignments Page on the course Sakai Site  by 10:00 am of the day that they are due.  You will not receive credit for participation assignments unless you are in class on the day of the discussion. You should write your assignment in a word processor and then paste it into the box on the assignments page.  Your submission should be single spaced and you should not put your name or a title at the top of your submission.

The Natural and Artificial Worlds

Identify one idea from Herbert Simon’s first chapter of his book, The Sciences of the Artificial, that you find interesting. Do you strongly agree or disagree with this idea?

Computational Power

Read Chapter 2 of Hans Moravec’s book, Mind Children. In a paragraph, write a response to one of the questions below:

    1. Do you think that Moravec provides a convincing argument for his calculation of the computing power necessary for human equivalence? Why or why not? If you don’t think that the argument is convincing, what additional factors do you think would have to be considered in order to achieve human equivalence?
    2. Moravec’s book was published in 1988. How accurate have his predictions been about the growth of computing power?

Mind and Machine

Read Chapter 4 of Hans Moravec’s book, Mind Children. In a paragraph, write a response to one of the questions below:

  1. Consider Moravec’s description of the ‘robot bush’. Would you consider this being ‘intelligent’? Why or why not?
  2. According to Moravec, our mind can be instantiated in any device, biological or engineered. Do you agree with this? How important is our physical body to ‘being human’ or human cognitive functioning?
  3. Based on the assumption that our minds can be transferred to engineered devices, Moravec describes a scenario in which humans become more and more like computers. Which of the changes he describes do you think signifies the biggest departure from a ‘normal,’ ‘human’ cognitive system to a computer system?
  4. Moravec’s book was published in 1988. Have any of the things he describes already happened? Are we at all close?
  5. Moravec argues strongly in favor of pattern-identity. Do you agree? Are there any arguments in favor of body-identity?

Please note, the last sentence on page 102 (second paragraph of ‘Robot Bushes’ is missing in the scanned document on Sakai. The sentence reads: “Now generalize the concept — a robot that looks like a tree, with a big stem repeatedly branching… etc.”

Should we be worried about computerized facial recognition?

Read the New Yorker article by Owen on implications of computerized facial recognition.  Are you worried?  If no, why not, if yes analyze an example in order to illustrate your worry.

AI in Medicine

Read the article by Topol on convergence of human and artificial intelligence.  What strikes you as interesting and why?

Best Chatbot

Which Chatbot project (other than your own) did you think was the best? Why? Did the group do anything differently from your group that helped their project? Explain. In order to get credit for this assignment you must be present for all the group presentations on both days.

Physical & Psychological Presence

Technology makes it possible for people to be psychologically in each other’s presence even when they are physically separated.  This is not new — it arguably began with people writing letters — but recent technology greatly increases the realism with which psychological presence can be achieved in the absence of physical presence.  The current pandemic has made it advisable for class to be taught online (that is without our being in each others’ physical presence), which makes this topic relevant.  Read the New York Times article by Eyal Press called The Wounds of the Drone Warrior, which provides an extreme case of physical distance combined with psychological presence.  Describe what you find interesting or surprising about this article?  Also describe one or two more mundane examples that share some features of this extreme case.

Simon on Rationality I

Read pps. 25-37 (up to The Theory of Games) of Chapter 2 of The Sciences of the Artificial. Answer questions and make annotations in the “Hypothesis” tool under Lessons on the Sakai page.  In addition, submit a participation assignment for saying what you found interesting about this part of the chapter and why.

Simon on Rationality II

Read pps. 37-49 of Chapter 2 of The Sciences of the Artificial (The Theory of Games to end of chapter).

Make annotations in the “Hypothesis” tool under Lessons on the Sakai page. Possible annotations that you may want to make:

    • Annotations as response to a question posed by the instructor.
    • Annotations as gloss — look up difficult words or unknown allusions in a text and share your answers as annotations.
    • Annotation as question — highlight, tag, and annotate words or passages that you find confusing in the reading.
    • Annotation as opinion — share your opinions on a topic discussed in the reading.

In addition, submit a participation assignment saying what you found interesting about this part of the chapter and why. This may simply be a cut-and-paste from your annotations.

Personal Best

Read the article by Gawande called Personal Best. Discuss the roles of System 1 and System 2 processes in his efforts to improve his skill in domains where he had achieved high levels of performance but had ceased improving.  Focus your discussion on one of Gawande’s examples (tennis or surgery), or you may give an example of from your own experience. What role do cognitive dispositions play in an effort like Gawande’s?

Gender, Race, and Perception of Environmental Health Risks

Read the article above by Flynn, Slovic & Mertz (Risk Analysis, 1994).  Do you find the result meaningful and credible?  Why do you think that occurs?

Polarizing Effects of Science Literacy

Read the article above by Kahan et al (Nature Climate Change, 2012). Read and comment on this article.  What does it say about the two system approach to cognition?  What else do you find interesting about it?

Psychic Numbing

Read the article by Slovic, Psychic numbing and genocide (JDM 2007).  Describe and evaluate one specific argument that he makes about why people do not generally intervene to prevent atrocities.  What is your reaction to the article overall?

College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage

Read the article by Gale and Shapley (1962). For you what is the most interesting point that they make? Why?

Simulating an Epidemic

Watch the video called “Simulating an Epidemic” (https://www.3blue1brown.com/videos-blog/simulating-an-epidemic.  It conveys a very abstract (System 2) approach to contagion.  What makes this sort of model difficult to communicate?  What are some different System 1 responses to the pandemic and to mitigation efforts?  What role does the law of large numbers play in the simulation presented at time stamp 8:00?  What can make it difficult to effectively communicate about mitigation strategies that are based on this principle?