Schedule for CS104T: Cognitive Science Fiction

Fall 2013
Hampshire College
Lee Spector (lspector@hampshire.edu, http://hampshire.edu/lspector)

This is subject to change, with changes announced in class and/or by email. Assigned readings/listenings should be read/listened to prior to the indicated classes.


Tuesday 9:00-10:20 AM
Tuesday 7:00-9:00 PM Thursday 9:00-10:20 AM
September 3
First class
Syllabus

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September 5
Read: "Beyond lies the wub"
September 10
Read: "Animal Consciousness: What Matters and Why"
September 10
TV: Outer Limits: The Human Factor
TV: Star Trek: Spock's Brain
September 12
Listen: Radiolab: Who Am I?
Read: "Liking What You See: A Documentary"
September 17
Read: "First Person Experience of Body Transfer in Virtual Reality"
September 17
Film: Being John Malkovich
September 19
Paper discussion
September 24
ADVISING DAY (no class)
September 24
Film: Memento
September 26
Listen: Radiolab: Memory and Forgetting
Due: Paper #1 (5-8 pages on a topic discussed in class)
October 1
Read: "Islands of memory: Autobiographical remembering in amnestics"
October 3
Film: The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
October 3
Listen: Radiolab: Deception
Listen: IT Conversations: Dan Simons - The Invisible Gorilla
October 8
Read: "The persistence of false beliefs"


October 8
Film: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

October 10
Paper discussion
October 15
OCTOBER BREAK (no class)
October 15
OCTOBER BREAK (no class)
October 17
Div I, II, III, IV
Due: Paper #2
(5-8 pages on a topic discussed in class)
October 22
Read: The Futurological Congress
Listen: All in the Mind: Brave New Mind: Smart drugs and the ethics of neuro-enhancement

October 22
TV: Star Trek the Next Generation: The Measure of a Man
TV: The Twilight Zone: The Lonely
October 24
Read: "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"

October 29
Read: "Minds, Brains, and Programs"
October 29
Film: Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control
October 31
Read: "Evolution of Artificial Intelligence"
Read: "Seventy-Two Letters"
November 5
Listen: Radiolab: Emergence
November 5
TV: Star Trek the Next Generation: Emergence
November 7
Paper discussion
 

November 12
Listen: All in the Mind: Michael Gazzaniga: Split brains and other heady tales
Listen: All in the Mind: The Master & his Emissary - the divided brain and the reshaping of Western civilisation.
November 12
TV: The Prisoner: A, B and C
November 14
Read: "The Role of Sleep in Memory Consolidation and Brain Plasticity: Dream or Reality?"
Read: "Sleep and Dream Patterns of Political Liberals and Conservatives"
Optional: Listen: All in the Mind: Dreams: the stuff memories are made of? (Part 2 of 2)
Due: Paper #3 (5-8 pages on a topic discussed in class)
November 19
Read: "Understand"
Listen: Philosophy Bites: David Chalmers on the Singularity
 
November 19
Film: Limitless
November 21
Read: "The Evolution of Human Science"
Listen: IT Conversations: Ray Kurzweil - The Future is Near
November 26
Read: "Talk of genetics and vice versa" Read: "From Squeak to Syntax: Language's Incremental Evolution"
Listen: Radiolab: Musical Language
November 26
Film: Waking Life
November 28
THANKSGIVING (no class)

 
December 3
Paper discussion
Read: Discussion questions on the Waking Life page of the Philosophical Films website
December 3
Film: A Scanner Darkly

December 5
Read: "Story of Your Life"
December 10
Discussion
Due: Final Paper (10-12 pages, may be a revision/expansion of an earlier paper) and Portfolio
December 10
?
December 12
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