6.868 / MAS.731

Society of Mind

Spring 2013

 

Instructor Prof. Marvin Minsky
Teaching Assistants Dylan Holmes (dxh@mit), Robert McIntyre (rlm@mit), Heikki Ruuska.
When and where Wednesdays from 7-9pm, in 32-141
Office hours
Mon (6 May)Tue (7 May)Wed (8 May)
3p-5p3p-5p6p-7p
Outside 32-251 [directions]. Outside 32-251. Student hwy @ Stata.
Mon (13 May)Tue (14 May)Wed (15 May)
3p-5p3p-5p6p-7p
Outside 32-251 [directions]. Outside 32-251. Student hwy @ Stata.
, and by appointment.

Note (30 Apr) Prof. Minsky will be attending office hours as time permits. Moreover, we may hold an additional session of office hours on either Thu or Fri, depending on your preference.

About the course

The subject of this course is to discuss theories about how minds work. We will emphasize aspects of thinking that are so poorly understood that they are still considered to be more philosophical than scientific. Our goal is to replace ill-defined folk theories of ‘consciousness’, ‘self’ and ‘emotion’ with more concrete computational concepts.

This course centers around two books, Society of Mind and The Emotion Machine. Both books are available in paperback at the Coop, and the full text of The Emotion Machine is also available on Prof. Minsky's homepage.

There are no course prerequisites for 6.868. However, you are expected to have read Society of Mind in advance.

Expectations (yours and ours)

This class takes the form of an interactive seminar, in which you will be able to actively discuss and debate ideas. We expect that you will be thoughtful, inquisitive, and prepared.

Now about your expectations:

Other Resources

You can watch the video clips from the interactive Society of Mind Voyager CD-ROM here.

You can read a summary of your responses to Chapter 6 here.

Course topics

Week Lecture Preparation Assignment
1 Feb 6 Why it's important to understand intelligence Read the introduction to The Emotion Machine— and, of course, bring your questions to class. Fill out the registration survey. (The lottery has been concluded.)
2 Feb 13 Applications of common sense (Henry Lieberman) Optional background reading: Beating Common Sense into Interactive Applications and AnalogySpace: Reducing the Dimensionality of Commonsense Knowledge -
3 Feb 20 EM 1: Falling in Love Read Chapter 1 of The Emotion Machine. Emotions and rationality
4 Feb 27 Preparing for intelligent machines (Ed Fredkin) Read about the important issues, and of course bring your questions and criticisms to class. -
5 Mar 6 EM 4: Consciousness Read Chapter 4 of The Emotion Machine— and, of course, bring your questions to class. Unpacking consciousness
6 Mar 13 Learning how to learn (Mike Hawley) Evaluate how learning how we learn can empower us to improve and control our mental lives. -
7 Mar 20 EM 5: Levels of Mental Activities Read Chapter 5 of The Emotion Machine, and submit your questions to the staff. Levels of Mental Activities + Project Proposal
Spring vacation
8 Apr 3 Designing common sense systems (Danny Hillis) Optional background reading: Danny Hillis's thesis on the Connection Machine, and The Clock of the Long Now. -
9 Apr 10 EM 6: Common Sense Read Chapter 6 of The Emotion Machine, and submit your questions to the staff. Common Sense
10 Apr 17 Implementing the Society of Mind (Dustin Smith & Heikki Ruuska) Read Chapter 7 of The Emotion Machine, and submit your questions to the staff. Implementing the Society of Mind + Thinking
11 Apr 24 EM 7: Thinking Read, rank, and review the class responses to Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Read & Review