Senior Seminar Psychology 196 Jeffrey J. Wine

Dennett's robotic dog "Tati". Identify the maker and get a reward from Dennett.

Reading:
    My purpose in these sessions is to engage in a broad discussion.  That makes the choice of the perfect reading quite difficult.  During our sessions I'll ask you to suggest books or articles that have made a big difference to your thinking.  I thought of choosing chapters from Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works,  or Daniel Dennett's Consciousness Explained, but opted instead for an earlier work that I suspect influenced both of those.

    Please read the Preface and Chapter 1, "Explaining the Improbable", of The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins.
If you have time and interest, you might also read Chapters 2 "Good Design" and Chapter 3 "Accumulating Small Change".

1.      Do you think it might ever be possible to construct a machine that would be conscious?

2.      Suppose someone claimed to have constructed such a machine, and it fell to you to determine if the claim was valid or bogus.  What would you do to convince yourself one way or the other?

3.      We usually think of machines as having moving parts. Computers and other electronic devices have few and sometimes no moving parts (if you don't count electrons).  What about the brain?  Do you consider it to be more like an electronic device, or more like a mechanical device?

4.      Do you think it might someday be possible to take a pill to make you happy?

5.      What are genes, and how many genes do we have?
.........Do you know what it means to clone, sequence, and express a gene?
.........How human many genes have been cloned, sequenced, and expressed?
.........Do you think we will ever have detailed descriptions for all of our genes?

6.      Do you think some people have genes that make them smarter?

7.      What does it mean to say “so and so discovered a gene for ______  (fill in the blank)”?
.........(i.e. intelligence, schizophrenia, cystic fibrosis, sleepiness, blue eyes, red eyes, large muscles).

8.      What do you make of the phrase: “mind over matter”?