FS102 Spring 2008: Computing and the Mind

Instructor: Bob Roos
E-mail: rroos@allegheny.edu
Department Web Page
My Schedule

Office Hours

Tues, Thur 1:30p-4p
Weds, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
and by appointment

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Handouts

Course Description and Non-Syllabus (PDF file)
Course Description and Syllabus (Take 2) (PDF file)
Using Your Alden Account (PDF file)
A Sample Conversation (PDF file)
Important Dates (PDF file)
Thesis statement (PDF file)
Guidelines for critiquing theses (PDF file)
First Paper (PDF file)

Important Dates

Monday, 3 March: First research paper due (there will be several "checkpoint" assignments prior to this date)
Friday, 7 March – Friday, 14 March: oral presentations (specific dates for each individual presentation will be scheduled in early March)
Weds., 23 April: Second research paper due
Weds., 23 April – Monday, 28 April: oral presentations

Assignments (I have reordered these, more recent first)

For Wednesday, 23 April – Hand in your next paper (see below).
For Monday, 7 April – Email me a topic for your next paper. This is a much more open-ended assignment than last time – you may choose any topic that relates to connections between computers, art (all forms) and/or creativity. This is NOT limited to "philosophical" issues such as "can computers be creative" or "is computer generated art really worthy of being called 'art'". Nor is it limited to issues such as whether or not the power of the computer helps or hinders artists (as discsussed in the previous reading). You may choose topics such as "can a computer appreciate a painting" or "how a computer will someday write the Great American Novel". You can describe your experiences with creating a short Alice animation, combined with a description of Alice programs you have found described on the internet, and write about the creative challenges posed by the "limitations" of the Alice program, or perhaps write a paper on what you view as plausible extensions to the powers of programs such as Alice (will there ever be a future Alice-like program that permits users to not only manipulate virtual images in a closed "world", but to take other kinds of sensory data – sounds, smells, tastes, even touching – and let the "artist" manipulate these into a whole-person experience? Describe what this would be like.) Or look at a very down-to-earth idea such as the effects of digital art on museums or galleries, or even on so-called "serious" artists – will we see a decline in attendance at shows of Van Gogh paintings or performances of operas once the digital reproductions of such things became more real, more like the originals? And related to this question, is this a bad thing, or just the next logical step in the history of artistic expression?

Some of these topics, while speculative in nature, can be backed up with supporting documents. For instance, while you may not have any data about museum attendance and recent trends, you can certainly find data about other artistic "revolutions". How did the advent of digital music transfer affect the CD industry? You might not have the technical expertise to explain how a computer program might generate a plausible narrative, but a Google search for "computer generated literature" brings up many links, including one for a place called "The Centre for Computer-produced Texts and Cyberliterature Studies," and these might serve as guides in your thinking.

For Friday, April 11 – with one or two other students in the class, create a short animation in Alice and be prepared to present it to the class. I will need to email you instructions on how to submit your Alice programs so that the rest of the class may view them – watch for this email on Wednesday or Thursday evening. Write a short (a few paragraphs) description of your self-observation of the creative process as you tried to do this exercise. Did the requirement that you use the Alice program open up new ideas, new avenues of creativity? Did it dry up your ideas as you struggled to use the technology? What is your ultimate verdict on the use of programs such as these to promote genuine creativity and to serve as an outlet for artistic expression?

Friday, 28 March – Read the paper The Computer: Liberator or Jailer of the Creative Spirit. Then visit the web site of artist Kenneth A. Huff. Click on the "Works" link and explore some of his art, then click on the "Information" link, click on the "Intent" link, and read the artist's description of his intentions regarding his art. If you are able, view the "Introduction Video". Based on the article and Huff's work, prepare answers to the following questions and place them on your web site:
- Liberator, jailer, or neither? What do you think, and why?
- Do you think Huff's work (and, by extension, other comparable digital works) are equal in artistic value (whatever that means!) to more "traditional" forms of visual art (painting, sculpture, collage, etc.)? Why or why not?
- Can you conceive of a time when a digital artist will receive the same kind of adulation that we give to the great artists of the past? Why or why not?
Friday, 4 April – First Paper Revision. I have assigned tentative grades to your first drafts of papers and written comments about both writing style and content. If you wish to keep that grade, you don't need to submit a revision of your paper. However, if you do, the revision should be a complete, top-to-bottom rewrite. If all you do is make the changes I've penciled in on your first draft, your grade will not change
(for Wednesday, 27 February): Using some of the resources you have located for your thesis topic, sketch out an outline for your paper. Enter it at the top of your personal Web page on the course web site. Try to avoid writing a "generic" outline consisting of content-empty words (for instance, "Introduction", "Background", "First argument", etc.). Instead, try to make your outline specific to the topic you have chosen. As you delve into your resources, keep track of which ones are the most useful to you. On Friday I will ask you to hand in a hard copy document with an annotated list of the references you intend to use. I will discuss specific styles for the bibliography in class.
List of Thesis Topics of thesis topics (subject to change)
(for Wednesday, 20 February): Read the handout on evolutionary robotics. Locate some Java applets online that illustrate "evolutionary techniques" (I will give examples in class) and post links to these on your Web page.
(for Friday, 15 February): Come up with several thesis statements and post them on your Web page. See handout number 6, above, for further instructions
(for Monday, 11 February): We have now read a number of papers in which a central persuasive technique is a metaphor or a thought experiment of some kind. Try to propose your own metaphor or thought experiment to accompany one of the following propositions (or its opposite). Describe your metaphor or thought experiment on your swiki page. Pay attention to your writing – try to be formal, in the same manner as the papers you have read.
- my "self" temporarily ceases to exist when I am sound asleep
- it is impossible to have an "idea" without possessing knowledge of a language (think about the deaf-and-blind Helen Keller before she learned to speak)
- thoughts can be recorded (even if they can be "played back" only in the same brain from which they were recorded)
- some other notion that you have come up with relevant to the material we've been discussing

Old homework assignments

Student Swiki Pages

Readings

"Death to the Syllabus!" by Mano Singham. Liberal Education, vol. 93, no. 4, Fall 2007, pp. 52-56.
Permisson policy for publications of the AAC&U
"Computing machinery and intelligence" by A. M. Turing Mind, vol. 59, no. 236, October, 1950, 443-460. (An abridged version appears in the course text, The Mind's I.)
"Minds, brains, and programs" by John Searle Behavioral and Brain Sciences vol. 3, no. 3, 1980, 417-457. (See also the course text, The Mind's I.)
"Can Machines Think?" by W. Mays. Philosophy, vol. 27, no. 101, April 1952, pp. 148-162.
"Empirically Understanding Understanding Can Make Problems Go Away: The Case of the Chinese Room" by Geir Overskeid. Psychological Record, vol. 55 no. 4, Fall 2005, pp. 595-617. [Click on the link labelled "Wilson OmniFile: Full Text Mega Edition" and then select "v 55 n 4, Fall 2005". The article appears in this issue.]
"What's Really Going on in Searle's Chinese Room?" by Georges Rey. Philosophical Studies, vol. 50, no. 2, September 1986, pp. 169-185.
"Causal Powers and Cognition" by Patricia Hanna. Mind, New Series, vol. 94, no. 373, January 1985, pp. 53-63.
"Discussion: Searle's Experiments with Thought" by William Rapaport. Philosophy of Science, vol. 53, no. 2, June 1986, pp. 271-279.
"Subcognition and the limits of the Turing test" by Robert M. French. Mind, New Series, vol. 99, no. 393, January 1990, pp. 53-65.
"Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?" by Thomas Pynchon The New York Times Book Review, 28 October 1984, pp. 1, 40-41.
"Five facets of a myth" by Kirkpatrick Sale Available online at http://www.primitivism.com/ (click the "Technology" link). Accessed 13 February 2008. According to the link highlighted above, this is an excerpt from a book by Sale but the title is not given. Apparently this article also appeared in Resurgence, issue 192, January/February 1999. Here is the Web site, but the article is not available for download.
"Why the future doesn't need us" by Bill Joy Wired Magazine, vol. 8, no. 4, April 2000. Available online at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html. Accessed 13 February 2008.
"Computer Based Decision-Making: Three Maxims" by Jeff Robbins Crossroads, The ACM Student Magazine, vol. 2, no. 2, November 1995. Available online at http://www.acm.org/crossroads/. Accessed 13 February 2008.
"The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster (text)