What is mind?
What is intelligence?
What makes up YOU? Do you have a soul and if so what is it and what happens when you die? If you think you have a soul how are your soul and body connected? When your body dies is that the end of it? Can YOU be transferred into a machine and be aware of it?
Does a brain produce mind and consciousness or else what does? How do you explain the fact we are conscious?
How do you know when you are awake?
What does it mean to say that you KNOW something?
Is it possible to know anything with absolute certainty? Why or why not?
Are there such things as 'self-evident' truths and if so what are they?
When is something artificial?
What is artificial intelligence?
Is artificial intelligence, intelligence?
What is a computer?
What can't a computer ever do?
Can a machine - a thing - be conscious?
Can a machine dream?
Did our ability to think and to be conscious result from a design or purposeless evolution and does the way you answer this question determine how you will answer this question: Is it possible for man to create a thinking conscious robot - a robosapien?
How old are thinking, conscious species and how long did it take for them to come to be and how did they come to be?
Did things come before thoughts or thoughts come before things?
What is a 'soulcatcher chip" and do you believe it is possible in the future to create one of these?
What evidence is there that you were designed? What evidence is there that you were NOT designed?
If you believe there was an Intelligence Designer of human beings what does that mean about our intelligence?
Why would someone believe that words are in your brain? Why would someone believe that words are not in your brain? If you believe words are not in your brain where are they?
Why would someone believe that thoughts are expressed through the brain and the thinking person receives information for thinking through the brain but that the brain itself is not the source of consciousness or of thoughts and only a conduit of thoughts? What evidence is there that brains contain thoughts? What evidence is there that thoughts are not contained in brains?
How has science fiction answered these questions? What films deal with these issues? We will watch portions of many films.
What are these scientists doing to try to create a conscious, thinking machine?
How far do they claim they have progressed?
Who are those opposed to efforts to create thinking, conscious machines and what are their reasons for such opposition?
What is a computer?
Who used the word robot first and what did it mean?
What is an automaton?
What mechanical representations of humans and animals were made before computers were invented?
How is digital watch different than a wind-up watch with a spring?
Some say that the phrase 'artificial intelligence' is an oxymoron. What do they mean?
What is 'fuzzy logic' and what does it have to do with artificial intelligence?
What is 'weak' A.I. vs. 'strong' A.I.?
Why are they seeking to create robosapiens?
If it is possible for man to create a conscious thinking machine, ought he do so?
If it is logically impossible for man to create a conscious thinking machine but scientists strive to do so, what will be the consequences?
Could non-conscious things give rise to conscious things? How?
Would this dog or something close to it be as good as a real dog? Will you buy one to show the class!!
Is a digital watch 'smarter' than a wind-up watch with a spring?