Instructor:
Bruce MacLennan, PhD
Phone: 974-0994
Office: Min Kao 550
Office Hours: TBA, or make an appointment
Email: maclennan@utk.edu
Suppose we could make a robot with the intelligence of a human. Would it be conscious? Feel emotions? Have free will? How could you tell? In this seminar we will look at these questions carefully and discuss how they could be answered. In the process of investigating the robot question, we will get a deeper understanding of our own minds. We will also view some videos of recent sociable robots.
We will meet on Wednesdays, 3:35–4:25. You are expected to attend
most of the classes, and you will not pass if you miss more than
three (unless you have very good excuses!). You will be expected
to do, on the average, two hours of out-of-class work before each
meeting (most of this will be reading). If you do the readings and
the assignments, and participate at least a little in class
discussions, you will pass the class.
Usually you will be expected to read one chapter of the text for
each class. Usually I will give you a couple of questions to think
about while you are reading the chapter.
I want most of the class to be devoted to informed discussion of what we have read. By informed I mean informed by the readings and careful thinking. Depending on the topic, I might begin by discussing some issues to get the discussion started. I expect everyone to participate, but it is OK if some people participate less than others. There is nothing wrong with considering broader issues, so long as we don't get completely off-topic.
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Send mail to Bruce
MacLennan / MacLennan@utk.edu 
This page
is web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/FYS129