Join My Graduate Seminar on Robot, Alien, and AI Consciousness

This coming winter quarter (Jan 10 - Mar 20), I'll be teaching a graduate seminar on "Robot, Alien, and AI Consciousness".  As an experiment, I am inviting up to five PhD students or postdoctoral students in philosophy from outside UC Riverside to participate remotely in the course.  If five remote students do join the course, I will convert the entire course to remote (through Zoom) so that all participants are on an equal footing.  (If fewer than five join, I will make the course hybrid.  We have good hybrid technology -- e.g., a huge projector screen -- so hybrid students will be well incorporated into the class.)

I've never done anything like this.  I am inspired by Myisha Cherry's (more ambitious) fellows program for graduate students working on emotion, which builds community across campuses among graduate students working on that topic.  We'll see how it goes.  It might be awesome.  It might be a dud.

Course Description:

We will attempt to assess under what conditions we would be warranted in thinking that a robot, AI system, or naturally-evolved space alien would, or would not, be conscious.  Readings will mostly be philosophy but will also include selections in science fiction, Artificial Intelligence research, and astrobiology.  (I haven't yet finalized the reading list and suggestions are welcome.)

Meeting Times and Requirements:

The course will meet every Friday from 2:00-4:50 pm Pacific Time on Zoom, from Jan 10 to Mar 14.  Students taking the course S/NC will submit brief written weekly reflections.  Students taking the course for a grade should also submit a final paper by Mar 20 (extensions liberally granted).

Eligibility for Non-UCR Students:

To be eligible to participate in the course, you should be fluent in English and either enrolled as a PhD student in Philosophy or working in a paid postdoctoral position in Philosophy.  It is not required that your university permit you to officially enroll in the course for credit (though I welcome such arrangements).  At least one prior upper-division or grad-level philosophy of mind class is required.

Application Procedure for Non-UCR Students:

Email me a CV (including relevant past courses), a writing sample, and a one-paragraph statement expressing your background and/or interests and/or plans on the topic.  Also, indicate whether you plan to write a graded final paper.  (My UCR email is widely discoverable; I won't risk increasing the volume of spam by printing it here.)

If there are more than five eligible applicants, I will select among them based on considerations of strength of background, diversity and relevance of interests and background, and strength and relevance of the writing sample.  If, but only if, other factors are approximately equal, students who plan to submit written work for a grade will be preferred over those who plan only to attend and write the brief weekly reflections.

Deadline

Apply by Nov 5.  I will reply with a decision by Nov 15.