HCOL 195E
Fall 2009
Instructor: Josh Bongard
329 Votey Hall
656-4665
josh.bongard@uvm.edu
Required textbook: Pfeifer & Bongard (2007)
How the Body Shapes the Way We Think
Course description
What do we really mean when we say that someone (or something) is intelligent? Is it some process that resides in the brain, or is intelligence rather something that emerges out of the way in which we interact with the world? In this course we will investigate these and related questions, which will take us on a journey through seemingly disparate fields such as linguistics, psychology, philosophy, evolutionary biology and robotics. Much of the course will explore emerging work in trying to create robots that exhibit seemingly intelligent behavior, although students are not expected to have a technical background.
Classes will take the form of instructor- and student-led seminars, in which assigned reading will be discussed. A significant portion of the student’s grade will be derived from their contribution to in-class discussion. There will also be one written assignment per class, and will summarize the reading and discussion from the class before. There will also be a research paper, and a final exam.
General course
characteristics (from the
· Academically challenging: this course will require students to broaden their academic horizons, and gain an appreciation for the basics of seemingly unrelated disciplines (such as robots and philosophy) that contribute to our understanding of intelligence.
· Interactive: students will be expected to contribute to the discussion in class, as well as lead their peers through an assigned reading item.
· Writing intensive: students will be expected to submit a written response paper for each class. Students will also submit a major essay based on the reading material they use to lead one of the seminars.
· Creative: students will be responsible not only for appreciating the links between disparate disciplines, but also for discovering and articulating connections beyond those discussed in seminar.
· Multidisciplinary: Material will be drawn from a spectrum ranging from the sciences to the humanities.
Course Calendar:
Week 1: Course logistics, Chapter 1, How the Body Shapes the Way We Think (HTB)
Additional reading:
Mon (8/31): Course Logistics (discussion leader: Josh Bongard)
Wed (9/2): Selections from Descartes’ Discourse on Method (discussion leader: Josh Bongard)
Fri (9/4): Selections
from Herrnstein and
Week 2: HTB, Chapter 2: Artificial Intelligence: The Landscape
Additional reading:
Mon (9/7): Labor day
Wed (9/9): Selections from Hans Moravec’s Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind (discussion leader: Evan Yandell)
Fri (9/11): Selections from Ray Kurweil’s Age of Spiritual Machines (discussion leader: Jason Scott)
Week 3: HTB, Chapter 3: Prerequisites for a Theory of Intelligence
Additional reading:
Mon (9/14): Brooks, R.: Elephants Don’t Play Chess (discussion leader: Austin Underwood)
Wed (9/16): Selections from Feyerabend, Against Method (discussion leader: Gordon Clark)
Fri (9/18): Selections from Braitenberg’s Vehicles (discussion leader: Chelsea Emond)
Week 4: HTB, Chapter 4: Properties and Principles
Additional reading:
Mon (9/21): Selections from Lakoff and Nunez, Metaphors We Live By (discussion leader: Frederick Naumann)
Wed (9/23): How The Body, Chapter 4 (discussion leader: Clara Pedley)
Fri (9/25): Selections from Dewey’s The Reflex Arc in Psychology (discussion leader: Elizabeth Fuccillo)
Week 5: HTB, Chapter 5: Development: From Locomotion to Cognition
Additional reading:
Mon (9/28): How The Body, Chapter 5 (discussion leader: Chris Dramstad)
Wed (9/30): Harnad, The Symbol Grounding Problem (discussion leader: Aaron Lehman)
Fri (10/2): Meltzoff, ‘Like me’: a foundation for social cognition (discussion leader: Clara Pedley)
Week 6: HTB, Chapter 6: Evolution: Cognition from Scratch
Additional reading:
Mon (10/5): Selections from Dawkins, Climbing Mount Improbable (discussion leader: Jason Scott)
Wed (10/7): Sims, Evolving 3D morphology and behavior by competition (discussion leader: Evan Yandell)
Fri (10/9): [No class; Columbus Day]
Mon (10/12): [CLASS CANCELLED]
HTB, Chapter 7: Collective Intelligence: Cognition from Interaction
Wed (10/14): Lipson & Pollack, Automatic design and manufacture of artificial lifeforms [commentary]
(discussion leader: Chelsea Emond)
Fri (10/16): Selections from Epstein and Axtell, Growing Artificial Societies
(discussion leader: Frederick Naumann)
Mon (10/19): [Self-reproducing machines] [Why The Future Doesn't Need Us] (discussion leader: Brian Crucitti)
HTB, Chapter 8: Ubiquitous Computing and Interfacing Technology
Wed (10/21): Selections
from
Fri (10/23): Selections
from
Week 9: HTB, Chapter 9: Building Intelligent Companies
Mon (10/26): Selections from Benkler, The Wealth of Networks [entire book] (discussion leader: Brian Crucitti)
Wed (10/28): Selections from Barnard, Functions of the Executive [introduction; optional] (discussion leader: Chris Dramstad)
Fri (10/30): How The Body, Chapter 9 (discussion leader: Jason Scott)
Week 10: HTB, Chapter 10: Where is Human Memory?
Mon (11/2): How The Body, Chapter 10 (discussion leader: Elizabeth Fuccillo)
Wed (11/4): Selections from Baddeley, Essentials of Human Memory (discussion leader: Austin Underwood)
Fri (11/6): Gemmel, Bell & Lueder, MyLifeBits: A Personal Database for Everything (discussion leader: Clara Pedley)
Week 11: HTB, Chapter 11: Robotic Technology in Everyday Life
Mon (11/9): How The Body, Chapter 11 (discussion leader: Evan Yandell)
Wed (11/11): Jones, Robots at the Tipping Point: The Road to the iRobot Roomba
Forlizzi, DiSalvo, Service robots in the domestic environment:
A study of the Roomba Vacuum in the Home (discussion leader: Elizabeth Fuccillo)
Fri (11/13) Levy, D. Love and Sex with Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships
(discussion leader: Gordon Clark)
Week 12: HTB, Chapter 12: How the Body Shapes the Way We Think
Mon (11/16): Class cancelled; instructor away
Wed (11/18): How The Body, Chapter 12 (discussion leader: Chelsea Emond)
Fri (11/20): Bongard, Zykov & Lipson, Resilient machines through continuous self-modeling
(discussion leader: Josh Bongard) [Opinion article; Robots dreaming?]
Week 13:
Mon (11/23): Essays due; first class of oral presentations
Chelsea Emond; Jason Scott; Aaron Lehman; Brian Crucitti
Wed (11/25): No class; Thanksgiving
Fri (11/27): No class; Thanksgiving
Week 14:
Mon (11/30): Second class of oral presentations
Evan Yandell; Clara Pedley; Elizabeth Fuccillo; Gordon Clark
Wed (12/2): Third class of oral presentations
Austin Underwood; Frederick Naumann; Christopher Dramstad
Fri (12/4): Brooks, Intelligence without Reason (discussion leader: Frederick Naumann)
Week 15:
Mon (12/7): Open discussion
Wed (12/9): Open discussion
Tues (12/15): Final examination
Grade structure:
Response papers: At the beginning of each class, each student will hand in a two-page, double-spaced written summary of the discussion from the class before. This short paper will include (1) a summary of the main points; (2) how the student contributed to the discussion; and (3) their opinion regarding the main points.
Leading of seminar: One student will be responsible for leading each seminar. Depending on class size, students may be required to lead two seminars. This requires the student to read the assigned reading for that seminar carefully, prepare a 10-minute introduction, provide questions to get the discussion going, and moderate the discussion. Students will be graded for this based on their demonstrated knowledge of the assigned reading, and their ability to stimulate and guide a discussion around the associated topics.
Research paper: Each student will submit a critical review of the literature on a topic of their own choosing related to the course. The suggested format is 10 pages, 1.5 spacing, and 12pt font (between 2000-3000 words). Please cite at least 10 sources not including direct citing of webpages. The final papers will be due in November.
As a guideline, the paper should include:
· a description of your chosen topic;
· a critical discussion of the existing literature on the topic;
· key questions/issues/problems related to this topic; and
·
future directions based on your literature
review.
Each student will give a short (10-minute) oral presentation of their paper in seminar.
Final exam: The final exam will test students’ basic grasp of the main themes that were explored in the course. The exam will be a mixture of short answer and brief response questions, will last two hours, and will be closed book.
Class attendance and participation: 10%
Response Papers: 15%
Leading of seminar 20%
Research paper 20%
Research paper presentation 10%
Final exam: 25%
Cooperation: Although students are expected to help one another learn, all assignments are single author. For details of the University policy on academic integrity, see the student handbook.
Participation: Class participation counts toward your final grade. Students are permitted to miss up to and including three classes without being required to provide justification. Missed classes beyond that must be cleared with the instructor. Students are also required to meet at least once, during office hours, with the instructor.