The human intelligence enterprise

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session

The term 6.xxx is used in the syllabus to jointly refer to the undergraduate (6.803) and graduate (6.833) versions of the course. A calendar of topics is presented below.

6.xxx is designed to help you learn about progress toward the scientific goal of understanding human intelligence from a computational point of view. The foundations for 6.xxx were developed by a group that styles itself as The Human Intelligence Enterprise, from which this subject draws its name.

6.xxx complements 6.034, because 6.xxx focuses on long-standing scientific questions, whereas 6.034 focuses on existing tools for building applications with reasoning and learning capability.

Because of the emphasis on reading and discussion, and the limitation on enrollment, regular attendance is obligatory, along with commitment to reading the papers. If you cannot picture yourself in class at 9:30 am, every Monday and Wednesday, you should not register, so as to make room for others who would otherwise be excluded because of the enrollment limitation. A corollary is that you probably should not register for 6.xxx if you are taking five subjects or course equivalents, such as UROP. You definitely should not register if you are involved in a startup or you are taking six or more subjects or subject equivalents.

Believing that both mind-stretching and near-miss learning are educationally useful, some of the papers I have selected are boring, stupid, or nearly unintelligible. One goal of the subject is to develop the skill of gleaning useful ideas from such papers, but if you have little or no interest in understanding human intelligence, you should not subject yourself to the necessary reading. For more detail on what you will need to read, have a look at the readings section.

About one-third of the subject is devoted to discussing how to package ideas orally and in writing. You need to be enthusiastic about practicing the skills taught with a positive attitude. For more detail on what will be covered in the communication dimension, have a look at the assignments section.

Alas, advanced AI subjects are scarce, and fairness dictates that they should be offered as broadly as possible. This fairness goal must be balanced, however, against the need to keep some of them small. If you are just generally interested in AI, you should take one of the graduate lecture-based subjects.

6.803 is the undergraduate version of 6.xxx, and 6.833 is the graduate version. The two differ in that 6.833 may require you to attend some extra classes and will require you to complete a substantial term project. Both meet together ordinarily.

The graduate, H-level subject forms a bridge between 6.034 and design/project/thesis work in Artificial Intelligence.

The content of 6.xxx is largely based on papers identified in an informal survey of representative AI leaders, who were asked what has most influenced the way they think about human intelligence. The papers mentioned tend to fall into the following categories, ranked by frequency:

The following mechanisms are used to ensure that you read the papers and absorb the material:

Because of the emphasis on reading, discussion, and presentation, enrollment is limited.

Doing a substantial project is required for graduate H credit. More details are available in the projects section.

"Discussion" refers to the introductory first half hour of class that is spent discussing communication heuristics.

Paper Decoding

Broken Glass Diagrams

Broken Glass Diagrams (cont.)

Purpose of Abstract and Conclusion

Contributions

Vision, Steps, News

Talking Points

How to Get Famous: Winston's Star

Abstract/Conclusion

How to Write a Press Release

Press Release

Discovery Through Knowledge Engineering

Cover Letter

10 to Inform, 10 to Watch

Tenure Letter

How to Write Recommendation Letters

Recommendation Letter

Slide Shows

Slide Shows (cont.)

How to Interview and be Interviewed

Email Critique

Spider Web Evaluations

Interview

Dialog Emulation (Galileo, Plato, Mao, Watson, McPherson)

Letter to Author(s)

How to Change a Decision

Journal Review

How to Write a Journal Review

How to Construct a Quad Chart

Study Report

How to Run a Study: Terms of Reference

Trip Report

How to Run a Conference

Proposals

How to Write a Letter Proposal

Textbook Chapter Opening

How to Write a Book

Endorsement Letter

How to Stay in Touch-lifetime Lists

Talking Points

How to Run a Panel Discussion

Getting the Message to Garcia

Courtesy Calls

Recommendation

How to Speak

Recommendation, Presentation, Suggestions

How to Applaud, Kabuki Style

Recommendation, Presentation, Suggestions (cont.)

A Boyfriend in a Box

Don't show me this again

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