CSC 191/291, first class, Jan 13/22 ``````````````````````````````````` Instructor/TA introductions Len Schubert, WH 3003, http://www.cs.rochester.edu/~schubert/ CSC 191/291 course page http://www.cs.rochester.edu/~schubert/191-291/ Lane Lawley, http://www.cs.rochester.edu/~llawley email: "first initial""last name"@cs.etc. Lane's course page http://www.cs.rochester.edu/llawley/cs291/ Elana Elman, https://www.linkedin.com/in/elana-elman/ email: "first initial""last name""2""@u.etc. Catherine Giugno, email: "first initial""last name"@u.etc. 191 prerequisites: a programming course; sophomore or higher standing (or consent of instructor); a prior course in AI, cognitive science, linguistics, or philosophy is an advantage. 291 prerequisites: 173, one of 200, 240, 242, 212 (HCI), 249 (computer vision), 260 (topics in NLU) (or perhaps a theory course -- 280 or 282). Course logistics - see web pages; classes TR 11:05-12:20pm, online Office hours: LS: Tue. and Thu. 5:00-6:30 pm, (alert me by email); TAs: to be determined - texts: (covered selectively, & supplemented with some articles, handouts) McDermott, Mind & Mechanism Blackmore, Consciousness, Baars, I the Theater of Consciousness, Fellous & Arbib, Who Needs Emotions % weight 191/291 - approx. 5 homework assignments (answer questions, write essays) 40 35 - 2 staged Lisp exercises (oriented towards "self-awareness") 26 16 - midterm test and noncumulative final test 34 24 - Gridworld projects (teams of 1-3) 25 Course description and tentative schedule: See the above CSC 191/291 website. Goals of the course: • Know how to represent basic self-knowledge in a machine, and enable QA • (esp. CSC 291 students) Develop skills in self-aware agent design, symbolic programming • Understand (as far as current knowledge allows) the meaning of "consciousness" (both phenomenal & access consciousness, including self-awareness) • Develop an informed, reasoned view of the basic issues concerning consciousness, in humans, animals and robots (from philosophical, cognitive, and AI perspectives) • Acquire basic understanding of the biological basis of consciousness and emotion in people (& animals) • Acquire basic understanding of AI/robotics efforts to endow machines with consciousness and emotions • Hone skills in philosophical and scientific writing/argumentation • Stir up interest in one of the most intriguing topics of all time -- which is now being explored in new ways (neuroscience & AI) to be read for Tuesday: Pinker, "Could a computer ever be conscious? (a talk) [Sci fi, "raw feels" vs self-monitoring, independence of materials used, duplication, matter-transporter; can you murder a robot, inflict pain on a baby or a lobster or a worm? We won't know for quite some time.] https://users.manchester.edu/Facstaff/SSNaragon/Online/100-FYS-F15/Readings/Pinker,%20ConsciousComputers.pdf Introductory remarks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Consciousness used to be something of a taboo subject, in both psychology and AI, perhaps because it seems like a *subjective* phenomenon, and isn't the point of science to be totally *objective*? But in the last decade or two of the 20th century it became clear from brain scans (PET & fMRI) that there's a clear connection between various types and degrees of consciousness reported by subjects and brain activity, so studying consciousness in people became an important topic in cognitive neuroscience. At the same time, AI was advancing sufficiently fast for researchers to talk seriously about the question of machine consciousness, without being scoffed at. It seems more likely than not to me that conscious machines will become a reality in your lifetimes (assuming that we don't first devolve into chaos, mass destruction, and autocracy in an overheated, overpopulated, overwrought world). This could lead to prodigious changes in society and would raise many questions about ownership, autonomy, ethics, laws, and humanity's future. The Twilight Zone story cited by Steven Pinker, about the planetary exile Corry and his robot companion Alicia, poignantly illustrates some of these questions. Kinds of consciousness `````````````````````` To be conscious is to be conscious/aware *of* something" -- (i) our own physical and mental characteristics, our personal history, who our family, friends, and other associates are, what possessions we have, etc.; or (ii) a sensory impression (redness of a rose, its fragrance; the sound of a bell; a pain in the foot); an emotion or a thought or mental image; (these are called "qualia" -- plural form of "quale"). Self-awareness (i.e., (i)) is often called (or at least closely related to) *access consciousness*, while experiencing qualia (i.e., (ii)) is called *phenomenal consciousness*. We want to understand how consciousness of types (i) and (ii) might "work", in both people and machines. Our strategy will be to begin by thinking about self-awareness/ access consciousness in machines. If we can figure out how to engineer machines that show self-awareness, this might also give us ideas how self-awareness might work in people. This seems a lot easier than trying to start with the question of how self-awareness works in people, because we can't tell by introspection -- somehow, we can just "automatically"" get at information about ourselves, but the retrieval process iteself is unconscious. Self-awareness (and self-knowledge) ``````````````````````````````````` "Self-awareness" is a frequently used term in discussions of consciousness, but it is a somewhat ambiguous term. On one hand it might refer to your current bodily sensations, but on the other hand it might refer to your ability to "access and retrieve" information about yourself -- self- *knowledge*, which you may convey to others or use for your own reflection, reasoning, and planning. We set aside bodily sensations here because they really belong with phenomenal consciousness, which we postpone till quite a bit later. A vivid illustration of our awareness of our own characteristics and life stories is provided by autobiographical narrations, such as this one from Bertrand Russell's autobiography: "When I try to recall as much as I can from early childhood, I find that the first thing I remember after my arrival at Pembroke Lodge is walking in melting snow, in warm sunshine, on an occasion which must have been about a month later, and noticing a large fallen beech tree which was being sawn into logs. The next thing I remember is my fourth birthday, on which I was given a trumpet which I blew all day long, and had tea with a birthday cake in a summer-house. The next thing that I remember is my aunt's lessons on colours and reading, and then, very vividly, the kindergarten class which I began just before I was five and continued for about a year and a half. ... I can still remember almost all the lessons in detail, but I think what thrilled me most was the discovery that yellow and blue paints made green." Could machines have this kind of self-awareness? ```````````````````````````````````````````````` That is the question we'll concern ourselves with, for the next little while -- which will require some delving into the basics of how we can represent knowledge in a computer, retrieve it, and express it in langauge (perhaps also acquiring it through language, as for example when your parents tell you something about what you were like when you were one or two years old, or when your doctor tells you (heaven forbid) that you have the Corono-19 virus. The fact is, knowledge about yourself is really no different from knowledge about anything else, in terms of how to store and use it -- it just happens to be about a very important entity: yourself. Basically, we need to do a little of CSC 244 and 247. I'll be providing some relevant writings/readings very soon.