This is a three-credit course.
According to the formula 1 credit-hour = 3 hours of work,
you should be spending about 9 hours a week on work related to this
course. If you are consistently having to spend more time than
this on it, please let me know.
The course consists of three lectures and a tutorial every week.
The text of each lecture can be found, usually with additional detail, in the second edition of the course text, "The Betterment of the Human Condition".
Copies of the Powerpoints used in each lecture will be made available, shortly before each lecture is given,
at this website. However, it may be difficult to follow the thread of the lecture just by looking at the Powerpoints.
Your assigned work for the course comprises 4 components:
Grading Scheme
- Research Paper: Counts for 40% of final grade.
- Project: Counts for 20% of final grade.
- Tutorial Participation: 10% of final grade
- In-class quizzes (three of them): Count for 30% of final grade.
There is no final exam.
Independent Research
The lecture part of the course covers a variety of topics,
but does not treat any of them in depth.
Moreover, some of the material presented in lectures may be
deliberately or accidentally biased, misleading or false.
40% of your final grade for the course will be based on your
independent research into one of these topics, the results of
your research being presented as a report of
about 2,000 words in length (depending on your line spacing and
font size, this comes out to between 4 and 7 pages.)
We can distinguish between factual reports and persuasive reports.
A factual report limits itself to presenting what is known about a topic,
supporting its assertions with references to published work.
An example might be ``A History of the Transistor''.
For almost any topic, you will probably be able to find some published work
that contradicts other sources -- the fact that you've seen something in
writing isn't enough to establish its truth.
So even in a factual paper, you have to exercise your
personal judgement in deciding the relative credibility of different sources.
A persuasive report goes beyond the facts to present a particular point of
view. One example would be ``Genetic Engineering Should be Banned''.
This kind of report should also contain facts, but to establish your conclusion,
you will have to use persuasive argument as well.
From my point of view, persuasive papers are more fun to read, whether or not I
agree with them. So I will require your paper to be of this
type.
A helpful resource for composing an essay is the Bibliography at the end of the course textbook.
Note that you are not expected to read everything in the Bibliography, but it provides a lot of material that you could use as a basis for an essay.
The items in the Bibliography should be seen as starting points
for independent research, not as offering a complete and objective
coverage of a topic.
Your research reports will be graded according to the following criteria:
In recent years, an increasing fraction of the references in papers
refer to Web-based material. You are encouraged to use the Web
as a resource, but you should bear in mind that materials found
on the Web are of very variable quality. Whatever source you use for
your information, you should be prepared to answer the question,
``What grounds do you have for believing this is true?''
(``I read it on the Web.'' is not a completely satisfactory answer.)
A Few Suggestions
You are encouraged to select your own topic for independent research,
and to discuss it with your tutor in advance.
This link, to a resource at SFU's Philosophy department, gives some excellent advice on persuasive writing: How to Write a Persuasive Essay
Participation in Tutorials
The class is divided into tutorial groups, and each group is assigned a
TA as a tutor. The purpose of these groups is for you
to discuss any ideas presented in lectures, or arising from your independent
research, and also to work on the group Project (see below). The tutor may also assign reading or other work.
10% of your final grade will be based on your tutor's assessment of your
participation in the tutorials. This assessment will be based on the following
criteria:
- Does the student show up to tutorials?
- Does the student participate in discussion? Are the student's contributions
to the discussion relevant, constructive and well-informed? Does the student
treat the other participants in the discussion with respect?
- Has the student done the required reading?
Project
Each tutorial group will select a project to be completed by the penultimate
week of the semester. This project is to be completed by the group as a whole,
with some guidance from the tutor. The results of the project will be presented as
a `poster session' on Tuesday December 4. A couple of weeks before that, the group will give a
ten-minute oral presentation on what the project is and how it's progressing.
I would also like some
kind of written or electronic record of the project; the purpose of this
record is just to help me remember what I saw in the poster presentation,
so you shouldn't put too much effort into it -- a hard copy of your poster
materials would be adequate. You can build a website to accompany the project
if you like, though you don't get extra credit for this.
The work should be shared equitably among the members of the group, and each member of
the group should be prepared to report on the project and defend its conclusions.
This project will constitute the remaining 20% of the grade for the course.
The group can make up its own project, or choose one from the
list below. If you choose your own project, it should be something that
your group has a reasonable chance of completing in a semester.
You should have a project proposal ready to defend by October 1.
This proposal should state clearly what your project will achieve,
and give quantitative criteria by which its success can be judged.
For example, ``Design a spaceship'' is not an acceptable proposal;
``Design a spaceship which can carry a one-ton payload and two
crew members from the Earth's surface directly to low earth orbit,
at a capital cost of not more than $500,000 and a per-trip cost of
less than $50,000.'' is an improvement.
A good general rule in deciding on a project is,
``When we've finished, how can we tell if we've succeeded or failed?''
If there's no way to tell if you've succeeded or failed, then
you probably didn't choose the right project.
For example, ``Let's collect some facts about solar energy''
is not a proposal that can succeed or fail; ``Can we power and heat a
house in North Burnaby, using only solar power, more cheaply than
we can power and heat it using electrical power from BC Hydro?'' is
an acceptable proposal, because it asks a sharply defined question,
to which you'll come up with an answer that's either right or wrong.
Here is a list of some possible projects, though you may wish to suggest your own.
Projects
General preamble:
Your group has been assigned the project described below.
You have approximately three months to develop a solution
to the given problem, or to show why no solution is possible.
It is not expected that you will be able to specify all the
details of the solution, but you should indicate what further work
would be needed to determine these details.
Where significant uncertainties exist, you should describe them,
and suggest means for resolving them.
Your presentation of the solution should show that you have
considered alternatives, and justify your choice of one
alternative over the others.
Projects for Engineers without Borders
Chaos
Locate or develop a simple physical system that displays
chaotic behaviour. (For the purposes of this project,
software running on a computer does not qualify as a
simple physical system.) If possible, demonstrate that
varying a system parameter can change the system's behaviour
from orderly to chaotic. How can you tell that the behaviour
is chaotic rather than random?
Perpetual Motion
Your group has been hired by a newly formed company.
The company is selling stock on the VSE, based on their claim
to have developed a source of perpetual motion. You are
required to develop a demonstration which will convince sceptical
investors that perpetual motion is indeed possible.
A suitable demonstration would show energy being consumed with no
obvious source of power -- for example, an eternally lit bulb
inside a hermetically sealed glass case.
A mobile demonstration would be best, but a stationary one
would be acceptable.
The demonstration should be visually appealing and should survive
examination by all but the most sophisticated audience.
Strange Plastic Objects
I have two small plastic objects with peculiar mechanical properties.
Explain their behaviour, if possible. Build another one, twice as
big, that has the same properties.
World Science Council
In the near future, a world government is set up.
The government creates a body, the World Science Council,
whose task it is to monitor new scientific and technological
ideas, and to prevent or control the development of technologies
whose consequences would be undesirable.
There are two possible projects here, and it might be interesting
to split the group and let different members pursue each project.
The first project would be to develop guidelines that the Science
Council could use to make and enforce its judgements, based on historical developments.
The second project would be to formulate a case for the abolition of
the World Science Council, on the grounds that science and technology
should be allowed to develop freely.
The group(s) choosing this project will be presented with three (or more)
examples of new technologies during the semester, and asked to make the
case either for controlling the technology, or for allowing it to develop freely.
Example: A major chemical company has produced a pill. The pill comes in two
colours, pink and blue. By taking a pill of the appropriate colour, a woman
can fix the gender of her next child -- pink for a girl, blue for a boy.
What are the probable consequences of this technology becoming widely
available? Should the company be allowed to market the technology?
Turing Test
Write a program that can pass the Turing test. If this is too difficult,
can you restrict the scope of the Turing test to make it easier, while
still being interesting?
Other Projects
You are encouraged to suggest additional projects. Some guidelines and pitfalls:
- It is more satisfying to work on a project that can be completed.
Excessively ambitious or open-ended projects can be quite frustrating.
A good question to ask in the early stages is, ``How will we know we have
solved the problem?''
- For projects that involve building things, small amounts of money
(less than $100) may be available from the Wighton Fund.
Quizzes
The quizzes consist of multiple choice questions, divided into two sections of 24 and of 16 questions.
The first section, `Ephemera', will consist of general questions about what you've read in the text
up to that point. You're not expected to memorise the text, so you can get full marks on this section by answering 16 or more questions (out of 24) correctly.
These questions will be similar in difficulty to those listed on
the mock exam papers:
Mock Exam 1
and
Mock Exam 2
To see the recommended answers to the mock exam, go to
Mock Exam 1 Answers
and
Mock Exam 2 Answers
The second section of each exam, `Essentials', will consist of multiple-choice questions about key topics in the text. A `key topic' is something that you need to know, either because it'll be useful in subsequent courses or because it's important in its own right. Examples would include the lectures on thermodynamics, AI and information theory. In this section, you need to get all the questions right in order to get full marks.
Textbook
The textbook for this course is `The Betterment of the Human Condition', 2nd edition, available from the bookstore. Unscrupulous students from previous offerings of this course may attempt to sell you the First Edition, but this is not a satisfactory substitute -- the cover art is much uglier, there are more typos and errors of fact, and a lot of important material is missing, particularly from the sections on Communications and AI. The Second Edition has a proper index and a lengthy Bibliography, which you can use to get useful source material for your essays.