Computer Science and the Modern Intellectural Agenda
Computer Science and the Modern Intellectural Agenda
(Computer Science 150b)
TTh 1.00-2.15 AKW 300
This course is taught by
Professor David Gelernter
of the Computer Science Department at
Yale University
Contents
Computer science is a technical topic with important
connections to many non-technical topics outside of science and
engineering. This course is designed to acquaint non-scientists with
some basic ideas of computer science, and with several ongoing and
productive relationships between the ideas of computer science and
other fields, particularly in the humanities. The goals are:
- To introduce some key ideas of computer science in a non-mathematical but
reasonably precise way, including the ideas of computability, software
and virtual machines, algorithms, symbol-processing, connectionist and
parallel systems.
- To discuss the uses to which these ideas have
been put in modern philosophy of mind, and the ongoing exchange
between philosophers and computer scientists on the nature of thought.
Questions include
- Is it possible in principle for a mind to be built out of software?
- How do we decide whether or not someone or something has a mind?
- Is there a basic distinction between classical symbol-processing
artificial intelligence and ``connectionist'' approaches?
- Briefly to survey the relationship between computing and the visual arts:
- pursuit of simplicity and elegance in design and in the theory of
computation;
- the longstanding relationship between art and technology;
- what is ``computer art"? Is it any good?
- To discuss some ``computers and society" issues:
- 1930's roots of current attitudes toward technology;
- are computers in education good or bad?
- the internet and the coming ``information highway": boon or baloney?
Requirements: midterm, final and three short-order micro-papers. (Not
for CR/D/F.)
Prerequisites: none.
The syllabus for the course in Spring 1996 is as follows:
- Turing's Game and Searle's Question. Is it possible to build a
mind out of software? (Readings: papers by Turing, Searle, Hofstadter
and Dennett from the Mind's I, a section from Dennett's Consciousness
Explained, handout paper by Paul Ziff.)
- Basic ideas in computing and software: algorithms; Goedel's
theorem; Turing and the idea of computability; software and virtual
machines. (Readings: handouts from Dewdney's Turing Omnibus and
others.)
- Basic ideas in Artifical intelligence: heuristic search, image
processing, expert systems, connectionism. (Readings: from
Consciousness Explained, Microcognition and assorted handouts.)
- Art and Computing. (Readings: 0. We slip temporarily into
slide-lecture mode.)
- Computers, Society, Etc. (Readings: handouts from Orwell's The
Road to Wigan Pier (1937), Wendt's Science for the World of Tomorrow
(1939), Birkerts' Gutenberg Elegies (1994), Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil
(1995), Toffler, Dyson et. al.'s Magna Carta for the Cyber Age,
others.)
- Initial Questions Revisited: so, what about it? Can computers
have minds? (Readings: from Gelernter's Muse in the Machine,
Penrose's Emperor's New Mind).
Required:
Hofstadter and Dennett, eds., The Mind's I. (Bantam: 1981).
Recommended:
Andy Clark, Microcognition (MIT: 1990).
Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained. (Little Brown: 1991).
- Computing Machinery and Intelligence, A.M. Turing. From
The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul,
Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett, Editors. 1981.
- The Feelings of Robots, Paul Ziff. In Analysis: 1958-1960,
Bernard Mayo, Editor. 1967.
- Minds, Brains and Programs, John R. Searle. From
The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul,
Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett, Editors. 1981.
- Reflections, Douglas R. Hofstadter (appearing after
Minds, Brains and Programs). From
The Mind's I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul,
Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett, Editors. 1981.
- Consciousness Imagined, pages 435-440.
From Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett. 1991.
- Algorithms, pages 1-7,
From The Turing Omnibus, A.K.Dewdney. 1989.
- Godel's Theorem, pages 29-35,
From The Turing Omnibus, A.K.Dewdney. 1989.
- Disembodied Machines, pages 37-63,
From Mirror Worlds, David Gelernter. 1993.
- The Evolution of Consciousness, pages 213-214,
From Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett. 1991.
- The Road to Wigan Pier, pages 188-209, George Orwell, 1937.
- Science for the World of Tomorrow, pages 142-149, Wendt, 1939.
- Chapter 9: Education: The Best Investment, pp 185-204. From
The Road Ahead, Bill Gates.
- Chapter 9: On Classrooms, With and Without Computers;
Some Basic Astrophysics for the Intrepid. From
Silicon Snake Oil, Clifford Stoll.
- Cyberspace and the American Dream:
A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age,
Release 1.2, August 22, 1994. Esther Dyson, George Gilder, Jay Keyworth
and Alvin Toffler.
The final exam for CS150b, Spring, 1996 was at 9:00am, Monday the 6th
of May in room ML211.
Teaching Assistants Spring 1996:
Elisabeth Freeman
and
Eric Freeman
Web Page Design: Elisabeth Freeman
Last updated: June 24, 1996