Instructor: Peter Asaro pasaro AT rci.rutgers.edu
Time: Tuesday & Thursday, 4:30 - 5:50 pm
Location: Center for Cultural Analysis (CCA), 8 Bishop Place, Seminar Room
Office Hours: Tuesday 5:50-6:50 pm (CCA)
Course webpage is here: http://peterasaro.org/courses/2008MMP.html
Course blog is here: http://asaro.wordpress.com
Course wiki is here: http://mindsmachinespersons2008.pbwiki.com
This course examines the question of whether a robot could ever become a person. In examining this question, we will consider various aspects of the relationship between minds and machines, as well as the possible criteria for personhood. In particular we will consider the question of whether the brain is a computer, whether a machine can be intelligent, conscious, creative, emotional, social, or the bearer of moral and legal rights and duties. In considering these issues, we will also take into consideration what cognitive neuroscience has learned about the minds of human and non-human animals, as well as developments in robotics and computer science.
There will be several "Required" and several "Suggested" readings each week. The in-class discussion will focus on the required readings, and the suggested materials are provided for further research if you are interested in a topic, and are strongly recommended if you intend to write a paper on the topic.
The weekly assignment is to write a blog entry (500-1500 words) on the course blog. Reflection questions will be given to guide you, and you can also comment on the blog entries of other students. You must post your writing to the course blog by the beginning of class on Tuesday of each week. Each post is worth 2 points if made before Tuesday's class, 1 point if made before Thursday's class, and 0 points after that.
There will be 13 weekly assignments (thus 26 points possible). The remaining 4 points will be earned by commenting on the blog posts of other students. Each comment should be short (200-1000 words) and will receive 1 point. Making more than the minimum of 4 comments during the semester is strongly encouraged.
There will be a midterm project due before Spring Break. You will have the following options:
There will be no final exam. Instead, a 10 page (Times New Roman, 12pt font, double spaced) term paper is due on Friday May 9, 2008 at 5:00PM. If that time will not work for you, you need to make other arragnements by May 1st at the latest.
Your weekly blog entries will help you develop ideas for your term paper. Your paper should be submitted to me in electronic form (Word Perfect, MS Word, PDF, HTML and plain TXT are all fine). Late papers will not be accepted, as I must turn in grades shortly thereafter.
Grade Breakdown:
24 points Weekly Assignments
6 points Blog Comments
30 points Midterm Project
40 points Final PaperThe final grade will be assigned according to a 90-80-70-60 scale, based on 100 points for the semester. Papers and projects will be assigned points scaled to their weight, thus for final papers, A's range from 40-36 points, B's from 35-32 points, C's from 31-28 points, and so on.
Create an account on Wordpress. Send me your username and email for the account, along with your name as it appears on the class roster, so I can add you to the user list. Log into the blog and wiki pages for the course. Also in your email, tell me where you are from, your major, and any previous philosophy courses you have taken.
Search the internet for a robot or computer program which you believe exhibits a particularly human trait and/or that you believe raises a philosophical problem. Make an entry in the course blog for Week 1, include a link to the article, website, photo or video of the robot you found, and write a short explanation of the trait and what you take to be te philosophical problem that it raises. You should post your work to the course blog.
Jim Pryor's Guidelines on philosophical argument
Jim Pryor's Guidelines on writing a philosophy paperOpen Questions: Robotics
Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind
David Chalmers' Philosophy of Mind Web resources
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)
The MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (MITECS) (several articles will be required reading)
The readings listed below will be divided into "Required" and "Suggested" as each topic approaches. This list is also subject to revision based on the interests of course participants.
All course reading material should be available online, either as a PDF or in some cases a link, from this webpage. Some of the video material will be shown in class, some will be available on-line, and most of the suggested films should be readily available on DVD from the library or a local rental shop. Only in one case will class participants be required to attend an event outside of class, or make other arrangements with me.
Gates, B. (2007) "A Robot in Every Home: The leader of the PC revolution predicts that the next hot field will be robotics," Scientific American, January 2007.
Moravec, H. (2000) "Robots: Re-evolving Minds at 10^7 Times Nature's Speed," Cerebrum 3 (2), Spring 2001, pp. 34-49
Leiber, Justin (1985) Can Animals and Machines be Persons? A Dialogue. Hackett Publishing.
Suggested:
"Folk Psychology" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
"Rational Agency" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Turing, A. M. (1950) "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," Mind 59, pp. 433-460.
"Intelligence" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Suggested:
"Algorithm" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
"Chinese Room Argument" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Searle, J. (1980) "Minds, Brains, Programs," Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3: 417-424.
"Intentionality" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Suggested:
Dennett, D. (1971) "Intentional Systems," Journal of Philosophy 68: 87-106.
Newell, A. (1980) "Physical Symbol Systems," Cognitive Science 2: 135-184.
"Situatedness/Embodiedness" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
"Situated Cognition and Learning" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.Hutchins, E. (1995) "How a Cockpit Remembers its Speeds," Cognitive Science 19(3): 265-288.
Suggested:
Brooks, R. A. (1991) "Intelligence without Representation," Artificial Intelligence 47: 139-159.
"Consciousness" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
"Pain" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Koch, C. and F. C. Crick (2001) "The Zombie Within," Nature (2001) 411, 893-893
Suggested:
Dennett, D. (2001) "Are We Explaining Consciousness Yet?" Cognition 79: 221-237.
Parvizi, J. and A. Damasio (2001) "Consciousness and the Brain Stem," Cognition 79: 135-159.
Suggested:
Kanwisher, N. (2001) "Neural events and perceptual awareness," Cognition 79: 89-113.
"Comparative Psychology" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
"Primate Cognition" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Legal Rights for the Austrian Chimp, Hiasl?
Guardian article, April 2007
Nation article, May 2007
"Emotion" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Suggested:
"Emotion" in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Sloman, A. and M. Croucher (1981) "Why Robots Will Have Emotions," Proceedings of IJCAI, Vancouver.
Suggested:
"Self" and "Self-Knowledge" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Suggested:
Sparrow, R. (2004) "The Turing Triage Test," Ethics and Information Technology 6, pp. 203213.
Suggested:
"Ethics and Evolution" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
"Moral Psychology" MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Dworkin, R. (forthcoming) "Responsibility without Freedom" manuscript draft
"Computing and Moral Responsibility" in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Suggested:
Arkin, R.C. (2007). Governing Lethal Behavior: Embedding Ethics in a Hybrid Deliberative/Reactive Robot Architecture, Part I. Motivation & Philsoophy, GVU Technical Report GIT-GVU-07-11, pp.1-8.
Sparrow, R. (2007). Killer Robots, Journal of Applied Philosophy, Vol. 24, No.
1, 62-77.