6.803 | Spring 2019 | Undergraduate

The Human Intelligence Enterprise

Schedule of Activities

Minsky gets emotional

Paper

Marvin Minsky, The Emotion Machine Part IV

Estimated reading time: 55 min

Marvin Minsky, The Emotion Machine Part V

Estimated reading time: 45 min

Assignment

[Note: If you discuss the paper or the assignment with another student—which we encourage—indicate whom you have talked with in your submitted composition. Of course your submitted composition must be written entirely by you.]

On a total of one side of one sheet of paper, using 10 pt type or larger, with standard interline spacing and margins, respond to all the following:

The editors of Mind, a philosophy journal, have noted the recent interest in AI. Having published Turing’s paper 69 years ago, they have decided their readers could use an update, so they have started running a series of op ed articles reviewing the work of Minsky, McCarthy, and Newell and Simon, all widely considered to be the founders of AI.

They have asked you to write the article dedicated to Minsky’s work.

With finals coming up, you decide to focus your piece on Part IV and Part V of Minsky’s The Emotion Machine.

Arranged according to your own choice, you will:

  • Include a VSN-C treatment of the the ideas.
  • Offer your own view on the work and its importance in 2019, mentioning connections to deep learning, if any, and/or connection to ideas in the Berwick-Chomsky book, if any.

Title your article Minsky and X, where X is a single word, but not emotion.

In your article, attribute to Minsky at least one memorable slogan, at least one memorable salient, and at least one memorable surprise.

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2019
Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments