LIB 200
Cosmology, Consciousness, & Computation
Spring 2013
 THIS IS A WRITING INTENSIVE COURSE
Instructor: Dr. Richard Brown
Office: Humanities Complex E202 Office phone: x5738
Email: onemorebrown@gmail.com Web: http://onemorebrown.com
Office hours: Monday 10:30-11:30, 11:45-12:45, 1:00-2:00
The easiest way to get in touch with me is through email.
Required text:
Richard Brown & Kevin S. Decker Terminator and Philosophy: I’ll be Back Therefore I
am
Course work:
 Staged 10-12 page essay=45% of semester grade
 Weekly Writing Assignments=40% of semester grade
 Participation=15%
Academic Integrity;
Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. The first time I catch you, you fail the
assignment. The second time I catch you, you fail the course. For more info on CUNY’s
policy see: http://library.laguardia.edu/files/pdf/academicintegritypolicy.pdf
Reading Assignments:
Week I: Intro & Pre-Socratic Phil
 Pre-Socratic Philosophy- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/presocratics/
 Ancient Theories of the Soul- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ancientsoul/
 Parmenides- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/parmenides/
 Zeno’s Paradoxes- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/paradox-zeno/
 Ancient Atomism- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atomism-ancient/
 Democritus- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/democritus/
 Intentionality in Ancient Philosophyhttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intentionality-ancient/
Writing Assignment 1: Pick one of the above entries and write a (less than one
page) reaction to it.
Week 2: Modern Philosophy and Modern Science
 Terminator Ch 2 –Animal consciousness, Descartes, and Emotions
 Descartes’ Physics- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/descartes-physics/
 Other Minds- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/other-minds/
 Animal Consciousness- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousnessanimal/
 Newton’s Philosophy- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newtonphilosophy/
 Isaac Newton- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton/
 Newton’s Views on Space, Time, and Motionhttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-stm/
Week 3: Relativity Physics
 Terminator Ch 8: paradoxes of time travel
 Terminator Ch 10: The Nature of Time and the Universe
 Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe on NOVAhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/elegant-universe.html#elegantuniverse-einstein
 Time Travel and Modern Physics- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/timetravel-phys/
 Time- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time/
 Time Machines- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/time-machine/
 The Equivalence of Mass and Energyhttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/equivME/
 Singularities and Black Holes- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetimesingularities/
Week 4: Quantum Mechanics
 Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos on NOVAhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fabric-of-cosmos.html
 Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-copenhagen/
 Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanicshttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm-manyworlds/
 The Uncertainty Principle: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-uncertainty/
 Quantum Entanglement and Information:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-entangle/
 The Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Argument in Quantum Theoryhttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-epr/
 Measurement in Quantum Theory: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qtmeasurement/

Quantum Mechanics- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qm/
Week 5: Cosmology
 The Scale of the Universe- http://htwins.net/scale2/
 Cosmology and Theology- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmologytheology/
 Atheism and Agnosticism- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheismagnosticism/
 Religion and Science- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/religion-science/
 Teleological Arguments for God’s Existencehttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/
 Cosmological Argument- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmologicalargument/
Week 6: Consciousness
 Consciousness- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/
 Functionalism- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/
 The Mind/Brain Identity Theory- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mindidentity/
 Dualism- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dualism/
Week 7: Consciousness II
 Eliminative Materialism- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialismeliminative/
 Folk Psychology as a Theory- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/folkpsychtheory/
 Zombies- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/zombies/
 Panpsychism- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panpsychism/
Week 8: A.I. and The Singularity
 Terminator Ch 1: A.I., Chinese Room, Transhumanism
 Terminator Ch 3: Why always with the killing?
 The Chinese Room Argument- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/chineseroom/
 The Turing Test- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-test/
 The Frame Problem- http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frame-problem/
 The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysishttp://consc.net/papers/singularity.pdf
Week 9: The Simulation Argument


Nick Bostrom’s Simulation Argument Website- http://www.simulationargument.com
The Matrix as Metaphysics- http://consc.net/papers/matrix.html
Week 10: Transhumanism
 Terminator Ch 4: Extended Mind, Transhumanism
 A History of Transhumanist Thoughthttp://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/documents/journal_publications/al/nick_bostrom
 The Philosophy of Neurosciencehttp://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neuroscience/
Week 11: Catch up
Week 12: Catch up and review