Philosophy 101D

Our final screening will be this Thursday at 7pm in Wohler Hall rm 24. Wohler is directly behind DKH.

We will be watching the documentary Love Machine by Peter Asaro and Doug Matejka. From the press release:

Love Machine considers the social and moral implications of building humanoid robots sophisticated enough to participate in social and emotional roles that are traditionally considered exclusively or even essentially human: friendship, sex and love. The film examines the actual technologies being developed in these directions, and discusses these issues with the people who are pursuing these technologies as well as those who seek to profit from them. It also confronts various social critics, commentators and philosophers of different perspectives in a effort to open a dialogue on what implications these technologies might have for human relationships in the future.

Among those interviewed are:

Roboticists:
Rodney Brooks, Director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Hans Moravec, Carnegie Mellon University
Gill Pratt, Cynthia Breazeal, and Brian Scassellatti, MIT
Ken Goldberg, University of California, Berkeley.

Philosophers:
Daniel Dennett, Tufts University
Hubert Dreyfus, Univesity of California, Berkeley
Manuel DeLanda, Columbia University and Institute of Advanced Study-Princeton

Sex & Culture Commentators:
Carol Queen, Robert Morgan Lawrence and Lisa Palac
Ernest Green, Editor of Taboo Magazine

Childhood technology-use advocates:
Joan Almon, and Colleen Cordes

and the entrepreneurs building such products as the Sybian and Real Doll and others . . .

Anyone, please feel free to answer my questions. If the Internet is so good at giving us the information that we want, why are most of the people on this website bringing up the same exact issues and examples? If we were in class would this also happen? While I like how this website is employed in class, does it hinder us when it comes to the responsibilities as students? Are we encouraged to participate more or less in class? Could this be attributed to embodiment and distant learning? Please give me some feedback.

Here’s your final. I will hand out a paper copy tomorrow at the end of class, and we will review for the final on Thursday. The final is due on May 7th, and you have until May 3rd to come meet me in office hours to discuss any questions you might have, or to read over any drafts.

Please read over the final and prepare any questions you might have for Thursday’s class. Also, remember: you have your 4th post due this Thursday at midnight. Lastly, please prepare for the debate tomorrow between Dreyfus and Clark. The debate will center around: the nature of telepresence, the success of the Internet, the proliferation of information in the technological age, and other related topics.

Final (HTML)

Final (.doc)

I will post a R&L thread on Thursday, so keep an eye out for that.

Also, there will be a screening on Thursday in Arch 302 at 7pm. We will be looking at a series of short clips from various places around the Internet, including music videos by Bjork, Aphex Twin, Beck, Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, Daft Punk, and many others. As always, I will bring snacks and drinks, give extra credit to attendees, and you are welcome to bring friends.

Remember to read Heidegger’s article in the course packet for next week.

Also remember that you have post 3 due by Thursday at midnight.

I will be holding a screening this Thursday at 7pm in Arch 302. We will be watching the first episode of James Burke’s “Connections” series, which is roughly an hour long. As always, you will get extra credit for attending the screening, and I’ll bring snacks.

Here’s your midterm. Please come to class tomorrow with questions. We will spend most of the time reviewing for the midterm.

Midterm (.html)

Midterm (.doc)

Class has been canceled today, by order of the Chancellor.

I’ll see you all on Thursday. Be sure to read the Haugeland and Turing articles from the course packet for Thursday.

A few course announcements:

1) There will be a screening this Thursday at 7pm in Lincoln Hall rm 106. We will be screening the Richard Linklater film Waking Life. Bring your friends. As always, I will be giving extra credit to anyone who shows up, and I will bring snacks.

2) Please read the excerpt from Darwin’s Dangerous Idea I passed out in class today. If you did not get a copy of this reading, you can pick on up outside my office (Greg 400E). We will discuss this reading on Thursday.

3) Please read “Semantic Engines” and “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” from the course packet for next week.

A few course announcements:

Make sure you read Descartes’ Meditations 1 and 2 this week.

There will be a screening this Thursday at 7pm in 302 Architecture Building. The architecture building is just south of DKH on the South Quad. Here’s the campus map if you get lost.

Remember, I will be bringing snacks, and you will get extra credit for attending. It will be a fairly relaxed atmosphere, and although I hope you learn something I wont be lecturing. I am planning on showing a documentary about the Bowerbird. I promise it will be interesting.

If you cannot make it for the screening for whatever reason, don’t panic. It wont count against you. If Thursday at 7 is a bad time for you, please email me or comment in this post so we can discuss a time that accommodates more people.

This is your course website. Please spend some time getting familiar with it, because you will be using it a lot during the semester.

I have set up some tutorials to help you get started. The links to the tutorials are on the sidebar to the left, or you can go here:

How to register

How to write a post

How to make a comment

Please use your full name (and not your NetID) as your username!

Remember, each student is responsible for making at least 4 posts and at least 20 comments over the course of the semester, so the sooner you learn how to do it, the better. The 4 posts/20 comments is the minimum requirement; however, you are encouraged to engage in more detailed debates and discussions on this board about any issue pertaining to the course material. If some topic interests you, write about it! Its an easy way to get a good participation grade, and you might just earn some extra credit.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment on this post or send me an email: djestrada@gmail.com