V61.0051-001 The Cultural History of Computers, Robots, and Artificial Intelligence Prof. Ray C. Dougherty Tues Thurs 11:55 - 1:10 Main 408 The course introduces students to primary source materials on the mind/body problem and on linguistic criteria for intelligence starting from about 1600 (Galileo and Descartes) to the current day. The main emphasis is on the origins of the mind/body problem and on the mechanical analogies of mind developed since 1500. Students read materials by Galileo, Descartes, Voltaire, Huxley, Darwin, Arnauld, and others. The focus of the class is on the study Cartesian Linguistics, 1966, by Noam Chomsky. We investigate his claim that the ideas about mind, language, and intelligence which are current today parallel closely those of the Cartesians in the 17th century. This course is taught in alternate years. It alternates with V61.0003 Communication: Men, Minds, and Machines, LEP3. The mind-body problem as formulated by Rene Descartes maintains that there are two "substances," one is body - which we today would call the material world, three dimensional space, and the world in which gravity functions to attract objects. The other is mind - which might be called thought or thinking, feelings, sensations, perception, or psychological objects like imagination, memory, and so on. Two groups argue that the mind-body distinction makes no sense and is a false way of formulating the issues relating to consciousness, intelligence, and human mental processes. The materialists contend that matter, properly organized into computational or logical devices, or biological systems, when it attains a certain level of complexity, will produce mental properties like thought, imagination, and prayer. They maintain that when a system attains a certain critical mass of neurons or transistors, then thought, and everything the Cartesian called mental, will spontaneously arise. The second group -which we will study in some detail (including C.S. Pierce, Woolman, Augustine, and Plato) and which we will call the neo-Platonists, argue that there is no distinction between mind and body. They maintain that thought of the appropriate type and complexity will spontaneously produce a material world. Today this second group seems to maintain an odd position, but at one time it was a, perhaps the, dominant view and presented in quotable slogans like: "In the beginning was the word." COURSE REQUIREMENTS: (A) Each student will take a midterm exam on the 14th class meeting. (B) Each student will either (1) take a final exam at the time scheduled by the registrar or (2) write a term paper on a topic approved by the professor by the 20th class meeting. The term paper is due at the hour the registrar has scheduled the final exam. A paper may include a computer program, but an undocumented computer program will not satisfy the requirements of the course. A term paper may include a program as a part, but the program must be fully documented as to (a) what problem is solved by the computer program, (b) why the problem is significant in linguistics or artificial intelligence, and (c) how the program offers some solution or clarification of the problem. Any program submitted as a final paper/project must be sent to me so I can run it in my account. Students may complete a set of HTML pages as a project. Experience shows that projects in HTML coding are time consuming, labor intensive, and can often involve obscure technical questions. Any project must be approved by the professor. COMPUTERS AND LANGUAGE: Students will be shown (a) how a computer can represent the logical and geometrical properties of language using Prolog and LISP, (b) how to use the Internet, and (c) the rudiments of how to do research using the Internet. Each student will have two accounts: an account on the NYU UNIX VAX, and an account in the IBM/Macintosh PC Lab. You will learn how to browse the Internet (World Wide Web) on the PC's. You may run Prolog on the IBM PC's, the Macintoshes, and the VAX. BACKGROUND ASSUMPTIONS: I assume students know very little, if anything, about Noam Chomsky's grammar, Prolog, the Internet (World Wide Web), artificial intelligence, animal intelligence, computers that understand English, the Cartesian and Platonist philosophers, and the 17th century. BOOKS: Chomsky, Noam. 1966. Cartesian Linguistics. New York: Harcourt. Chomsky, Noam 1986. Knowledge of Language. New York: Plenum. Dougherty, Ray C. 1994. Natural Language Computing: An English Generative Grammar in Prolog. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. Jowett, Benjamin (translator) 1986. The Republic by Plato. New York: Prometheus Books. EXAMS: Sample exams from another class are appended to this course description. The exams in this course will be in the same format. There will be a selection of possible questions, and you have to answer some subset of them. All exams are OPEN BOOK EXAMS: You can bring any written materials you want to the exams. MIDTERM = 40%, FINAL = 60% of grade. SAMPLE MIDTERM FROM ANOTHER CLASS THIS EXAM HAS FOUR (4) QUESTIONS. ANSWER TWO QUESTIONS. INDICATE THE LETTER OF EACH QUESTION. (a) What is a generative grammar? Define 'sentence,' 'language,' and 'grammar'. Give an example of a generative grammar. Define 'grammatical sentence,' 'ungrammatical sentence,' 'crucial example,' and 'neutral example.' Use any diagrams or examples you deem relevant. (b) What does Chomsky mean when he says: 'Language is a mirror of the mind'? Is the assumption that language is a mirror of the mind a brand new idea? Did any philosopher or scientist before Chomsky have this idea? (c) What are some of the main similarities and differences between Chomsky and Lorenz? On which basic assumptions do they agree? On which do they disagree? (d) What was the relevance of the example given in class which involved the coins and grabbags? Discuss briefly the coin problem, indicating the nature of the problem, and the mechanisms of its solution. How can a child learn the values of the coins? (e) What does Campbell think are Chomsky's main contributions to Linguistics? Does Campbell think Chomsky had good ideas? What are they? What do you think? (f) What are the main results of the Konrad Lorenz's research into the nature of animal communication systems? Be specific and give examples where possible. (g) What is a 'cybernetic machine'? Why is it sometimes called a finite state machine? How is it relevant to linguistic studies? (h) What do you think was the most interesting aspect of research in the communication of humans and animals that we talked about in the class? Be specific and give examples. (i) Why does Chomsky think that researchers should study how children learn language? What are some of the results of Chomsky's research into child language acquisition? (j) What is meant by neotony? Why is delayed onset of maturity studied? (k) Do you think that human language, and the human capacities which underlie language, are completely different than ?nything found in the animal kingdom? What would Chomsky and Lorenz say? (l) How does Chomsky define: language, mind, sentence, grammar, word, and language acquisition device? Give examples, diagrams, and illustrations if needed. (m) Why does Chomsky feel that the ideas of Rene Descartes are relevant to modern linguistics? What are some of the main idea of the section Past in Language and Mind? SECTION II: ANSWER TWO (2) QUESTIONS. INDICATE THE LETTERS. (n) Pick any book, article, or section of a book that you read as part of this course. Indicate (I), its main point. (II) the main argument. (III) the main data presented. (IV) your opinion. Do you agree or disagree. (o) Same as question (j), but pick another book, article, or section. (p) What is meant by 'species specific behavior'? Why do Chomsky and Lorenz focus on 'species specific behavior'? (q) Does Lorenz feel that there are releasers in the human cognitive and communication systems? Define releaser. Be specific. (r) What does Chomsky mean by 'universal grammar'? Be specific. (s) What are the basic properties of the language of bees? What kinds of information do bees communicate by their dances? SAMPLE FINAL EXAM FROM ANOTHER CLASS This exam has five (5) questions. All students must answer question (1), two questions from section I, and two questions from section II. Be SPECIFIC and ORGANIZED. Give facts, arguments, and data. (1) How would (a) Chomsky, (b) Lorenz, (c) Weizenbaum, and (d) Campbell define the main problems of 'communication', in particular as communication relates to: human beings, the study of minds (animal and human), and machine intelligence? PART I: ANSWER TWO QUESTIONS. (a) What does Weizenbaum think are some of the main moral/ethical problems involved in studying intelligence and language using computing machines? Do you agree with his assessment? (b) What is meant by 'cognitive psychology'? What are the main problems, data structures, and insights in this field? (c) Why does Chomsky refer to Rene Descartes and the Port Royale School? What ideas do they have in common, if any? What do you think about Cartesian Linguistics? (d) Since 1957 Linguistics has become increasingly dominated by computational analysis of natural language. What is meant by 'computational analysis of language'? Why do researchers develop programs in PROLOG, etc. to work on language? (e) How do Chomsky and Lorenz differ on their ideas about human intelligence, the evolution of intelligence, and animal intelligence? (f) In what specific areas do Chomsky and Lorenz agree on their ideas about human intelligence, the evolution of intelligence, and animal intelligence? Discuss maturationally emergent behavior, species specific behavior, etc. (g) What did you think was the most interesting aspect of research on communication and/or animal-human- machine intelligence? Focus your attention on materials discuss in class or in the readings listed on the syllabus. Do not write about e-mail or the internet. (h) Building upon the materials (class and readings) what do you think are some of the main problems in linguistic research? Be specific about the problem, who defined it, and try to outline the proposed solution(s). SECTION II: ANSWER ANY TWO QUESTIONS. (i) What is a 'phrase marker'? Why are they useful for language analysis? Indicate the phrase markers for the sentences: John decided on the boat. The girl saw the boy with binoculars. The girl looked the number up. The girl looked up the number. (j) What does Lorenz mean by 'releaser'? Does Lorenz think that animals have essentially a 'robotic' character? (k) Much of Lorenz' work deals with ducks and geese. Why are ducks and geese particularly interesting for animal communication studies? Sketch the basics of the duck/goose communication system. (l) Why is a 'language acquisition device'? Give examples. Why do linguists try to build them? Do they have any practical uses? (m) What is meant by 'Empiricism' and 'Rationalism'? To what extent do these terms help us to understand problems in communication, language, and mind? Name some Empiricists and Rationalists and briefly discuss their ideas. (n) For any chapter or section of the book Language and Mind, answer these questions: (I) What was the main point? (II) What was the main argument? (III) What was the main data ? (IV) Do you agree or disagree with the main ideas? (o) Describe the coin example given in class and discuss its significance. (p) What is a generative grammar and why is it considered to be a mirror of the mind? Who believes language is a mirror of the mind? The Content and Focus of the Course and Readings The course will focus discussion on the boldface terms in this essay. The main goal of this course is to enable students to overcome their temporal chauvinism, a term to be defined. The assumption of the course is simple: Our "modern ideas" about intelligence, mental capacities, and so on today in the computer age differ from those of earlier centuries mainly in purely technical ways, not in any fundamental conceptual reorganizations. What we see today are technical refinements of concepts (intelligence, understanding, wisdom, thinking, and so on) but not redefinitions or fundamental revisions of the concepts. The course is aimed at students who wish to see current studies of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, cybernetics, robotics, intelligence, and animal communication in a broad perspective covering the last four or five thousand years. This course is geared to technical students (who like to program and have some experience with UNIX) and non-technical students (who may not even use a word processor). The idea of a computer (a device that mimics some aspect of human reason, e.g., logic, algebra, arithmetic, geometry, etc.) originated hundreds (thousands) of years ago. What we today would call robots, but which our ancestors centuries ago labeled simulata, automata, rational machines, and so on, were widely known and much discussed in 1500 and 1600. To some extent (a good term paper project) one might argue that Mary Shelly's Frankenstein (about 1800) drew heavily upon the very well known robots, androids, and automata built in the 1500-1800 period. The keystone of the course - the work of Noam Chomsky (Cartesian Linguistics and Knowledge of Language) shows that Chomsky casts his ideas about language/grammar/intelligence in terms of Cartesian thought following Rene Descartes and the Port Royal School, 1600-1700. In Cartesian Linguistics, Chomsky steps back to view current research in linguistics, mentalism, intelligence, and so on in a 500 year perspective (1450-1966) that shows current work is in a Cartesian tradition. We will step back further than Chomsky to give a broader perspective (2000 B.C. - 2000 A.D.) and show that Chomsky, Descartes, Plato, E.A. Poe, C.S. Peirce, and others can be understood as developments in two related fundamental undercurrents of Western thought: wisdom literature and the Apocrypha. Concerning these, the Encyclopedia Britannica says: wisdom literature. Common Near Eastern religious literary form, found in the Bible (see Ketuvim), in the Egyptian religious literature of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2100 - c. 1600 BC), and in Mesopotamian religious literature. (Encyclopedia Britannica, Micropedia, Vol. X, p.714) apocrypha. Those writings that are included in the Septuagint (Greek) and Vulgate (Latin) versions of the Old Testament but are excluded from the Jewish and Protestant versions as unauthentic. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 12, pp. 783c) The readings can be difficult for several reasons. Many of them are thousands of years old and translated by people with strong biases. For instance, in the wisdom literature and the Apocrypha, the link between God and human beings is a female (often called Wisdom) and not a male (for instance Jesus in the Christian literature). Prayers are a main focus of studies of intelligence since, according to some (Plato, St. Augustine), humans are the most religious creatures on earth, although Pliny argues that elephants are more religious than humans and pray more effectively. Many neo-Platonist and Apocrypha prayers ask God to send down his daughter, see The Wisdom of Solomon, "Therefore I prayed, and prudence was given to me; I called for help, and there came to me a spirit of wisdom. I valued her above scepter and throne, and reckoned riches as nothing beside her..." (WoS 7:7-9) "And with thee is wisdom, who is familiar with thy works and was present at the making of the world by thee, and who knows what is acceptable to thee and in line with thy commandments. Send her forth from the holy heavens, and from thy glorious throne bid her come down, so that she may labour at my side and I may learn what pleases thee." (WoS 9:9-10) As a sample of modern wisdom studies read the pages appended to this outline describing Ms. Harriet Melusina Fay Peirce, a leading feminist of the 19th century and the wife of one of America's leading philosophers and logicians. At several points Chomsky indicates that the work of Charles Sanders Peirce influenced his studies of language and mind. We will read many excerpts from his work. One of the things that makes Peirce difficult for many students is that in his main systematic works, published after 1900, he did not wonder how or why thought (mind) could arise in a machine or brain. He did not ask how matter (body) floating around in three dimensional space could be organized, arranged, and programmed so that it might - perhaps spontaneously - give rise to thought. In his view, questions like these made no sense since they reversed the priorities: Such thinking makes matter seem primary and thought secondary, or to assume that matter in some sense precedes thought. Never! According to Peirce the basic question is: How complex and organized must thought become before it - perhaps spontaneously - gives rise to the assumption that there is three dimensional space occupied with objects, one of which is a body that the thinking object seems to occupy? How do the properties of thought - which postulate the existence of the three dimensional world and our knowledge of it - proceed to populate that space with objects, the furniture of the universe? C.S. Peirce had two favorite authors, Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe. We will not have any assigned readings to Baudelaire since we do not want to follow Plato and be accused of misdirecting the youth of a nation into a cult of Dandyism. But we will read Poe's articles on one of the most famous robots of the 18th century: The Turkish Chess Playing Machine invented by Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen, see Figure 1. LECTURES The materials you will be reading include primary source materials written by the leading experts in the field. These readings are not always easy going. In reading any article try to answer the questions: (1) What does this person want to do? (2) Why do they want to do it? It is useful? Scientifically interesting? Does it tell us about the way the mind works? It is not necessary that you understand HOW the particular computational mechanisms work. Computational theory and hardware advance rapidly. Since the books we will read are at least three years old, most authors are probably doing whatever they proposed in some new way. Almost all of the readings from St. Augustine, Plato, and others who died a hundred or more years ago can be found on the World Wide Web. They can be obtained as text files, as .pdf, and as postscript formatted files. If you download them as ascii text files, you can search them for specific words and terms, e.g., wisdom, intelligence, spirit, knowledge, understanding, belief... As part of this course, you will have a computer account that will enable you to use the World Wide Web and the Internet Browsers (Macintosh, IBM PC, UNIX) to search for subjects that interest you. Some of the materials can be printed on the NYU laser printers at 14 Washington Place and other sites. At the end of this course, if you pay attention and do the work recommended (but not required), you will be able to use the Internet as a productive tool for accessing primary source materials. Do not be misled by the small size of some of the readings. A few pages of readings by Peirce or Augustine might take several hours to figure out. Very little of this material lends itself to "speed reading." Hence, do not put off all of the readings until the night before the exam. 1. 1/23 Tue. Introduction to NeoPlatonism: Chomsky, Descartes, Plato, Peirce, St. Augustine, Pascal, Babbage, Darwin, and more. The focus of this lecture will be to introduce students to the basic ideas to be covered: Neoplatonism, Augustine, Descartes, etc. (a) Dougherty, Voltaire and Linguistics, attached to this handout. (b) Brent, Joseph. "Melussina Fay Peirce", attached to this handout. 2. 1/25 Thurs. The Main Topics of this Course. Chomsky and Descartes say the main correlate of "intelligence" is the use and understanding of language. Plato's four virtues (wisdom, justice, temperance, and courage) versus Franklin's ten. The triangle. The absolutely hardest habit to break: Change your speech habits, in particular, to stop 'taking the name of the Lord in vain,' and in general, cursing from anger or fright. The Cartesians and Pascal. (a) Dougherty, Preface. (b) Chomsky, Cartesian Linguistics, Chapter 1. (c) Plato, Chapter 1. 3. 1/30 Tues. Using the Internet Browsers (Netscape) to Access the World Wide Web. Introduction to the WWW, the Internet, and "search engines." (a) http://www.nyu.edu/pages/linguistics (b) Read the ACF documents about UNIX (c) Dougherty, Introduction and Chapter 1. 4. 2/1 Thurs. The Link Between Humans and God: Male or Female or Both or Neither. The New Testament says a man (Jesus), the Apocrapha says a woman (Wisdom). (a) Apocrypha: The Wisdom of Solomon. (b) Apocrypha: Look it up in the Encyclopedia (of Philosophy) (c) Plato, Chapter 2 People who have lasted through the first three lectures will receive a syllabus for the rest of the course at the fourth lecture. Plato: The Best Model of a Human Mind is a City-State. Aspects of mind (appetites, virtues, vices, capacities, and so on) correspond to the citizens and social organizations one might find in a city-state (like a monarchy, democracy, autocracy, oligarchy, and so on). 7. 2/13 Tues St. Augustine: How to Strengthen and Discipline the Will. The function of prayer and the role of language in prayer. (a) St. Augustine, The Master. (b) St. Matthew. 8. 2/15 Thurs. Descartes: The Cartesian View of Language and Mind. Virtues and Vices. 9. 2/20 Tues. Chomsky: Language and Mind. This is the text (a) Chomsky, Language and Mind. 10. 2/22 Thurs Swedish Lectures A bit of text and so on. (a) Reading (b) Reading 11. 2/27 Tues. Robots in 1500, 1600, and 1700, culminating in Frankenstein. A bit of something to say. (a) (a) 12. 2/29 Thurs. The Information Society. This is a small amount of information. (a) Ch (b) Ch 13. 3/5 Tues. MIDTERM EXAM This exam is an OPEN BOOK EXAM. You may bring any written materials you wish to the exam. The exam will have four questions. That is, you must answer any four questions from the list of questions (about 20) 14. 3/7 Thurs. Return Exams and Discuss Each Problem. 3/11 - 3/ 16 Spring Recess 15. 3/19 Tues Intelligence and Language. 16. 3/21 Thurs Title 17. 3/26 Tues 19 18. 3/28 Thurs 20 19. 4/2 Tues. 21 20. 4/4 Thurs. 22 (First Day of Passover) 21. 4/9 Tues. 23 22. 4/11 Thurs 24 23. 4/16 Tues. 25 24. 4/18 Thurs. 26 25. 4/23 Tues. 27 26. 4/25 Thurs 28 27. 4/30 Tues. 29 28. 5/2 Thurs 30 5/8 5/15 Spring term final exams begin