CGSC 1001Mysteries of the Mind

by Jim Daviesjim@jimdavies.org

1

Making the world better• Part of that is reducing problems

Cue:

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_

on_our_queer_universe.html

2

Problems getting

worse:• Environmental

damage

• Social capital

Read “Bowling Alone”

by Robert Putnam

3

Problems on the

decline:

War and Torture

Crime

Starvation

Disease

Short life span

Inequality

Reduce Carbon Emissions• Technological Solution: Come up with an alternate,

safe energy source. Fund science and engineering to do it. Get more people to care so our representatives will make it

happen. Market the problem. Get money to market the problem. How?

• Social Solution: Convince people to use (much) less oil. Market the problem. Get money to market the problem. How?

4

The reason we can’t solve all the problems

in the world is, ultimately, because we

don’t know how to do it.

Figuring out how to do it requires thinking

and problem solving.

Guess what field is best suited to study

thinking and problem solving?• Artificial blood vessel example

5

The human modeling side of cognitive

science studies how people actually solve

problems, and all of the other cognitive

functions it takes to do it.

The AI engineering side of cognitive

science tries to make programs that can

solve problems for us, often better than us.

6

Stock Trading

Arithmetic and Statistics

Scheduling

Search Engines and Aggregating

Many games

7

LanguagePhysical MovementCreativity (arts, science, etc.)ScienceSocial interactionVisionMany gamesMost everyday tasks, etc.

However, AIs and other programs can make humans more effective, used as tools.

8

Even if there is some other problem you

think is more important, you can apply

cognitive science to the problem solving in

that problem.

That’s what I did for a time.

9

10

Primary

Structure

Tertiary

Structure

Overall

Shape

Viewed

Without

Internal

Structure

Ordered list of amino

acid residues. Easy

to get for unknown

proteins.

Pink ribbons are alpha

helices, yellow arrows

are beta sheets, white

strings are turns

Gray cloud represents van

der Waals forces of the

side chains. Blue and

yellow lines are chemical

bonds. Magenta is the

active site.

Gray blob is an

inhibitor.

11

http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_dawkins_on_o

ur_queer_universe.html

There are currently about 220 majorsSmall classesMajors have to take some programmingHonours project or extra courseAlso a non-honours 3 year degreeAbout half of our graduates go on to graduate

school, and the other half goes to workRequired classes are 15 or 16 credits (4 year

degree; out of a total of about 20 for your entire time at Carleton)

It’s not particularly easy

12

13

All cogsci majors must take everything on the top half (3 year degree does only top)

The bottom half is split by “stream.” So if you’re a language stream student,

you must take all of the classes in the language column on the bottom half.

Direct questions to ugrad coordinator: Mark MacLeod mark.macleod@carleton.ca

14

15

General Cogsci Courses Majors must take:

CGSC 2001 Kind of like this course but

more in depth (often taught by MacLeod)

CGSC 2002 Focus on Methodologies

(Davies)

CGSC 4808 Honours Thesis. Original

research mentored by a faculty member

Philosophy Courses majors must take

Two of the following:

PHIL 1301 philosophy of mind

PHIL 2501 official philosophy of mind

PHIL 3502 Agency, free will, rationality,

etc.

One of the following:

PHIL 2001 Symbolic Logic

PHIL 2520 Logic and rational thinking

(non-symbolic)

PHIL 3306 Symbolic Logic 2

One of the following:

PHIL 3201 Analytic philosophy (how to think like a

philosopher)

PHIL 2504 philosophy of language and communication

PHIL 3104 Roots of Analytic philosophy

PHIL 3301 Philosophy of Science

PHIL 3501 Philosophy of Cognitive Science

PHIL 3502 Agency, free will, rationality, etc.

PHIL 3504 Pragmatics (language) same as LING 3504

PHIL 3506 Semantics (language) same as LING 3505

PHIL 3530 Philosophy of Language

CGSC 3004 Philosophy of mind, reliably offered

(MacLeod)

Linguistics courses majors must take:

LING 1001 introduction to linguistics

LING 2001 Phonetics

LING 2005 Linguistic Analysis

LING 3505 Semantics same as PHIL 2506

Psychology courses majors must take

PSYCH 1001 Introduction to psych

PSYCH 1002 intro to psych 2

PSYCH 2001 Research methods

PSYCH 2700 Cognitive Psychology

NEUR 2200 Biological Foundations of Behavior

Computer Science courses majors must take

CS 1005 Java programming and introduction to object-

oriented programming.

CS 1006 Creating computer applications (graphics,

user interface, etc.)

One of the following:

CGSC 4001 Artificial intelligence for cognitive

scientists (Davies)

COMP 4106 Artificial intelligence for computer

scientists (difficult)