Professor: Lee Spector, lspector@hampshire.edu, x5352, office: ASH 201, office hours: posted, with signup sheets, on the door of ASH 201
Assistant: Matthew Lerner, msl96@hamp.hampshire.edu
Class Time/Place: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30-11:50 AM, ASH Auditorium
Evening Screenings: Tuesdays as scheduled, 7:00-9:00 PM, ASH Auditorium
Prerequisite: none
Class Web Page: http://hampshire.edu/lspector/courses/cs104.html
Can androids fall in love? Could a planet have a mind of its own? How might we communicate with alien life forms? Will it ever be possible for two people to "swap minds"? How about a person and a robot? And what would it feel like to engage in a Vulcan "mind meld"?
A large body of science fiction explores questions like these -- questions that push the limits of the science of the mind. Current cognitive science research can shed light on many of these questions, with results that are often as strange and as wonderful as the inventions of science fiction authors.
In this course we will read and view science fiction while simultaneously reading current scientific literature on the mind, the brain, and intelligent machines. The science fiction will provide a framework for our discussions, but the real goal of the course is to provide a tour of issues in cognitive science that will prepare students for more advanced cognitive science courses. No previous experience in cognitive science is required. The course will meet twice a week for one hour and twenty minutes each time, with possible additional meetings for film screenings.
All readings will be available for 3-hour loan from the reserve desk of the library, but all students are strongly encouraged to have their own copies.
The following is only an approximate schedule and it is subject to change. Adjustments will be announced in class. Assigned readings should be read prior to the indicated classes. Note that some topics have large amounts of material to read, while others have less; read ahead whenever you have the chance so that you won't fall behind when we come to a topic with more reading.
| Date | Topic | Read Before Class | In Class | Evening |
| Thu 9/10 | Introduction | - | Twilight Zone: The Lonely | |
| Tue 9/15 | Pain | Why You Can't Make a Computer that Feels Pain (Dennett); Good Pain, Bad Pain (Science) | Discussion | |
| Thu 9/17 | Emotions | Star Trek on the Brain (SToTB) ch 1&2; Probing the Biology of Emotion (Science); Emotions, Memory and the Brain (Sci. Amer.) | Discussion | |
| Tue 9/22 | Mind Drugs and Hallucinations | The Futurological Congress (Lem); Psychoactive Drugs in Evolutionary Perspective (Science); Prelude: How are Hallucinations Possible? (Dennett) | Discussion | Altered States |
| Thu 9/24 | Dreams | The Meaning of Dreams (Sci. Amer.) | The Prisoner: A, B and C | |
| Tue 9/29 | Sex, Genes, and Mind | SToTB ch 3, Males Mutate More, Bird Study Shows (Science); Successful Flies Make Love, Not War (Science), Solving the Brain's Energy Crisis (Science); From Science Fiction to Ethics Quandary (Science); from How the Mind Works (Pinker) | Discussion | Gattaca |
| Thu 10/1 DUE: PAPER 1 |
Motor Control | from Vehicles (Braitenberg); 'RoboCup' Soccer Match is a Challenge for Silicon Rookies (Science) | Star Trek: Spock's Brain | |
| Tue 10/6 | Reasoning | Reason (Asimov); The Approach Through Symbols (Newell, Young and Polk) | Discussion | 2001: A Space Odyssey |
| Thu 10/8 | Machine Intelligence | Computing Machinery and Intelligence (Turing) | Star Trek NG: The Measure of a Man | |
| Tue 10/13 | (October Break) | - | - | |
| Thu 10/15 | Machine Intelligence | Minds, Brains, and Programs (Searle) | Discussion | |
| Tue 10/20 | Animal Minds | Testing Hypotheses in Behavioural Ecology (Krebs and Davies) | BBC Special: Animal Minds | Conquest of the Planet of the Apes |
| Thu 10/22 | Aggression and Fear | SToTB ch 4; The Neurobiology of Fear (Sci. Amer.) | Discussion | |
| Tue 10/27 | Mind and Body | Mind versus Body (Quine); Mind and Brain (Sci. Amer.) | Outer Limits: The Human Factor | Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955) |
| Thu 10/29 | Language | The First Sally (A) or Trurl's Electronic Bard (Lem); An Instinct to Acquire an Art (Pinker) | Discussion | |
| Tue 11/3 DUE: PAPER 2 |
Language | How Language Works (Pinker); Wordy Tots Ignore Some Speech Sounds (Science News); New Insights into How Babies Learn Language (Science) | Discussion | Blade Runner |
| Thu 11/5 | Perception | SToTB ch 5 | Gateway to the Mind | |
| Tue 11/10 | Perception | Visual System Provides Clues to How the Brain Perceives (Science); Sharpening the Senses with Neural Noise (Science) | Discussion | Them! |
| Thu 11/12 | Collective Intelligence | Introduction to Eruntics by Reginald Gulliver (Lem); Genetic Programming Produced Competitive Soccer Softbot Teams for RoboCup97 (Luke); After 50 Years, Self-Replicating Silicon (Science) | Star Trek NG: I, Borg | |
| Tue 11/17 | (Advising/Exam Day) | - | - | |
| Thu 11/19 | Memory and False Memory | We Can Remember it for You Wholesale (Dick); Creating False Memories (Sci. Amer.) | Discussion | |
| Tue 11/24 | Memory and False Memory | SToTB ch 6, How Does the Brain Organize Memories? (Science) | Discussion | Total Recall |
| Thu 11/26 | (Thanksgiving) | - | - | |
| Tue 12/1 | Mental Illness | SToTB ch 7 | Outer Limits: The Brain of Colonel Barham | |
| Thu 12/3 | Mental Illness | Linking Mind and Brain in the Study of Mental Illnesses: A Project for a Scientific Psychopathology (Science); The Neurobiology of Depression (Sci. Amer.) | Discussion | |
| Tue 12/8 DUE: PAPER 3 |
Wrap-up | Discussion |
Each student will be evaluated on the basis of:
See below for details on how to get an evaluation, how to get 2-course option credit, and how to complete a Cognitive Science Division I project via this course.
There will be no lectures in this class. All class time, aside from screening
time, will be devoted to discussion. You must come prepared to discuss the
readings/screenings to every discussion session.
How to prepare for a discussion session:
I will expect each student to have several items to discuss, on paper (though you don't have to turn it in), for each discussion session.
Every paper should be approximately 8-10 pages and should do the following, in order:
These are not soft limits; if you fail to do any of 1, 2, or 3 you will not get an evaluation. At the start of each class I will read the names of everyone who is doing what they need to do in order to get an evaluation. If you don't hear your name (or aren't there to hear it) then you need to talk to me or to assume that you won't be getting an evaluation.
Last updated August 27, 1998, by Lee Spector, lspector@hampshire.edu