6.868/MAS.731J: Society of Mind 2008

6.868/MAS.731J: Society of Mind

Spring 2008

Professor: Marvin Minsky
Teaching Assistants: Bo Morgan (bo@media.mit) and Dustin Smith (dustin@media.mit)
Administrative Assistant: Betty Lou McClanahan (bl@media.mit)
Lecture: Wednesday 7-9:00 PM
Location: 32-155 on first floor of Stata.

Course Information

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. Readings and discussions will focus on Marvin Minsky's "Emotion Machine", parts of "Society of Mind", and how these relate to key works from many disciplines: artificial intelligence, integrative neuroscience, cognitive science, and linguistics.

You will learn about theories of intelligence with an emphasis on designing and building general problem solvers that do not get stuck on any particular problem. We will focus on questions like:

How do children learn about morality and social goals?

How does one learn a new way to think to handle a new type of situation?

How do minds switch between different representations and methods of reasoning?

Why do we like music, jokes and pleasure?

What is Pain and why does it Hurt?

What are Ideas?

What is Consciousness?

What use are Emotions?

How does an agent represent and reason about itself?

What controls the subjects you think about?

Our goal is to replace ill-defined folk theories of 'consciousness', 'self' and 'emotion' with more concrete computational concepts. Enrollment is limited and an application is necessary. Paperback copies of Professor Minsky's books are available at the Coop.

Schedule & Assignments (RSS)

Reading and homework assignments will be listed here. Email assignments to tsom2008@gmail.com at the beginning of class.

Feb. 6th: Introduction
- Course application due Feb. 8th (midnight) [pdf] [txt]
Feb. 13th: Chapter 1
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 1 [Preface, Ch1]
Feb. 20th: Chapter 2
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 2 [Ch2]
Feb. 27th: Chapter 3
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 3 [Ch3]
Mar. 5th: Chapter 4
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 4 [Ch4]
- Homework #1 assigned. Due Mar. 19 at 7pm. [pdf]
Mar 12th: Chapter 5
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 5 [Ch5]
- Optionally, read chapter 1 of Push Singh's PhD Thesis, EM-ONE: An Architecture for Reflective Commonsense Thinking [pdf] [html]
Mar 19th: Chapter 6
- Homework #1 due at 7pm.
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 6 [Ch6]
Mar 25th
- Spring break -- no class.
Apr 2nd
- Reading catch up. Emotion Machine through chapter 6 [Ch6]
- Optional additional readings on commonsense:
- Programs with common sense, John McCarthy, 1958 [pdf]
- The challenge of knowledge soup, John Sowa, 2005 [pdf]
- The Open Mind Common Sense: Knowledge acquisition from the general public., Push Singh et al. [pdf]
Apr. 9th: Chapter 7
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 7 [Ch7]
- Homework #2 assigned. Due April 16 at 7pm. [pdf]
- Final Project Proposal Assigned. Due anytime before April 23.
- Final Project due May 14th.
Apr. 16th: Chapter 8
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 8 [Ch8]
- Homework #2 due.
Apr. 23rd
- Final project proposals due.
Apr. 30th
- Lecture by Josh Tenenbaum.
- Read this brief introduction.
- Optionally, read this longer introduction.
May 7th: Chapter 9
- Read Emotion Machine through chapter 9, the end [Ch9]
May 14th: Final Class
- Final projects due Monday May 19th

Grading

There is no final exam in this class. Your homework will consist of a short essay, two problem sets, a brief proposal for a final project (not graded) and a final project.

20% Discussion Participation
20% Homework Assignments (2)
10% Essay/Final Project Proposal
50% Final Project

Caveat Emptor

This course is for students who have already read The Society of Mind. Without that background, it will be hard to learn from the lectures. This subject is still highly speculative, and many students find that it lacks the precision found in more mature areas. Furthermore, people have different learning styles, and you may find my teaching style to be too experimental and improvisatory for you. Do not hesitate to drop the subject early if you find such an incompatibility. In any case, to help make the class seminar interactive, you should always come prepared with some issue to discuss.

Miscellaneous

Course Mailing List: som-students@media.mit

Push Singh's PhD Thesis, EM-ONE: An Architecture for Reflective Commonsense Thinking [pdf] [html]

Bob Hearn's homepage. Read his Master's thesis for ideas concerning the SoM application.

Commonsense Computing at the MIT Media Lab.

Commonsense Bibliography is a reading list of several works related to commonsense reasoning and knowledge prepresentation.

Page last updated 5/14/2008