Class Photos          Class Roster.    Assigned Reading      Notes for First Half of the Course.  Notes for Second Half of the Course.   GRADES.

The links on this page are to illustrative material that will be used in class.  Not all this material is to be read for the exams.  The required reading will be posed on the Assigned Reading Page.

Tuesday, May 29 -  After discussing the organization and requirements for this WEB-enchanced course, we will view the Global Brain Video.  We will organize into Support Groups based on student's majors or other interests.

Thursday, May 31 -   The History of the Computer and  Who Are These Nerds?  Networking the Nerds.  Vannevar Bush's article about the Memex Machine is available from the Atlantic Monthly.  J.C.R. Licklider's classic articles "Man-Computer Symbiosis" and "The Computer as a Communication Device" are available from Digital.  These are discussed in the "From Two Small Nodes, a Mighty Web Has Grown."    Film: Triumph of the Nerds:  Part One.

Sunday, June 3, 17:00:  Assignment One due in the WEBCT Dropbox.
 

Plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use of other people's work without giving credit, and it is a violation of academic norms.  This is a separate issue from copyright - it is plagiarism even if you copy from a source in the public domain.  All assignments submitted to the course must be your own original written work.  Any text copied from the work of others must be properly cited, and a link to the original source should be given if it is online.  Graphics should also be credited, which can be done by including a link to the original source if it is online.  The Internet has made copying easier, but it has also made detecting it easier. We will make use of Internet-based anti-plagiarism technology as needed.  For further information and guidelines, check the Sociology Dept Plagiarism Policy.

Monday, June 4 - The Metaphysical Club.    Pythagoras and the divinity of numbers (audio tape to be played in class).  Chaos and Complexity. Examples of Strange Attractors.  Web Sites on Chaos Theory. Talk by Allan Combs at the Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences conference (streaming video).  An example of the mathematical modeling of chaos:  the Logistic Equation.  An Excel Program Using the  Logistic Equation.    Better Living Through Chaos from The Economist.
Instructions for Assignment Two: Posting Home Pages and STS Pages on clam.
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Tuesday, June 5    Brains and Computers:  The Structure of Intelligence.  The Brain May Grow New Cells Daily.  The Turing Test. The Turing Machine. Chatterbots. Some excellent pictures of brain cells, including the 3-d rotating image you see on this page, are available from Mark Goldberg's laboratory at the Washington University School of Medicine. The Use of Presentation Software, suggestions for Assignments Three and Four.  Discussion of Assignments Three and Four.  Preparing a Technical Report: Graphic ("Power Point" Version and HTML Text Version.

Thursday, June 7 - Review for Midterm. Notes. Sample Test Questions.

Note:  the Rutgers computer center and the clam computer will be down Saturday morning, June 9, from 8 to 10 or later.  The computer center is also down on Sunday, although clam should be running for access from home.  I recommend getting Assignment Two done on Thursday or Friday, but in case anyone is inconvenienced by the closing on Saturday morning, I have extended the deadline to Monday at 17:50.

Monday, June 11, 17:50.  Assignment Two due in the WEBCT Dropbox.

Monday, June 11 - Midterm Examination promptly at 6 p.m.  Bring a pencil with an eraser.  At 7:00 we will view Triumph of the Nerds (Parts Two and Three).  Methods of Future Studies.  Pixar Animation Company's new Headquarters.  AOL Plans Digital Smorgasboard.  WEB Sites Begin to Self-Organize. Global Brain Conference in Brussels July 3-5.

Tuesday, June 12. The Advent of the Algorithm (for example, an algorithm created by uncle Gerald, the renowned Goertzel Algorithm).   Three Artificial Intelligence Algorithms: Recursive (rule-based),  Neural Net, and   Evolutionary (or genetic).  The Webmind Project.  A story about Webmind's Financial Crisis.   A lot of interesting material on this, including an essay called "Waking Up from the Economy of Dreams" is on Ben Goertzel's Website.

Thursday, June 14.   Recent Developments in Computers and Society. Focus on science and technology, especially bioinformatics. All Science Is Computer Science.Bioinformatics. The New Genetics:  Computer Technology Leads the Way to Post-Genomic Biology. U.S. Losing World Status as a Leader in Climate Research.  Microsoft Begins Campaign Against Free Code.  IBM Plans New Computer to Work at the Speed of Life.  Toady's Bioinformatics Bonanza!!! (a student WEB page, killed by a terrible background.)  We will go over Assignments Three and Four, and end with some time in the lab.  Jon'a Meyer's presentation on Computers in Criminal Justice.

Sunday, June 17 17:00.  Assignment Three due in the WEBCT Dropbox.

Monday, June 18 -  The Use of Power Point to prepare presentations.  Jon'a Meyer's Power Point Demonstration File. (to view this you need to have Power Point or Power Point Viewer, a free program provided by Microsoft, installed on your computer.)   Andrew Toy's Presentation on Artistic Freedom (in html).  Lab work.

Tuesday, June 19:   Recent Developments in Computers and Society.  Thomas Middlehoff Has a Hunch.  AOL Plans Digital Smorgasboard.  The Movie Business Seeks its Fortune on the WEB.  The Premature Obituary of the Book:  Why Literature?  by Mario Vargas Llosa. The WEB as a Dictator of Scientific Fashion.   WEB archive transforms scientific communication.  Words and Pictures Combined to form new "Infoimaging" industry.  Dreams of WEBZINES fizzle out.  Forget Footnotes, Hyperlink.  Gene Chips Accurately Diagnose Four Complex Childhood Cancers; Artificial Intelligence Used With Gene Expression  Microarrays For The First Time.  Ben's article on Genomics (I decided to take this off the Assigned Reading page).
 -   Review for Final Examination.

Thursday, June 21 -
6 to 7: Final Examination.  The exam will be from 6 to 7 and will be similar to the midterm.  It will cover the entire semester, including the material covered on the first exam.  Review notes are at the top of the page - the review notes for the secon part of the course will be updated.
7 to 9:30:  lab help available for working on Assignment Four.

Monday, June 25, 10 p.m. . Assignment Four due in the WEBCT Dropbox.

Thursday, June 28, 10 p.m.  The "Second Chance" Dropbox closes.  This dropbox is for anyone who misses the deadline on any ONE assignment.  However, you only get ONE second chance during the term.  Once you use it, the Second Chance Dropbox will close for the rest of the course.  There is no penalty in points for using the Second Chance dropbox.