Historical Automata, Modern AI

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Historical automata, modern AI, and the question of machine agency (PHILOSOPHY): This is a course focused on understanding the nature of agency generally but through the lens of what it would be like for machines themselves to be agents. We start with machines that are clearly only invested with the agency of the humans who build them and use them as tools. And yet philosophical questions about the relation between humans and machines arise here. A central place is given to their use in renaissance Italy. The second part of the course considers more directly the question of what makes an agent, and what prospects there are for machines to be agents of our sort in the near or medium future. Along with the direct conceptual questions there are also questions about how such machines would be integrated into society and what it would mean to have a duty toward a machine. TRIPS We will certainly visit the Piazza del Duomo, Santa Maria del Carmine, the Leonardo museum, and if possible the remains of Villa di Pratolino. While there is little that remains of the Heaven Machinery or other automata, it is still worth making a physical connection with some of the historical sites of their use. GOALS By the end of the course students should be able to: trace the history of machines and automata from antiquity to early modern science; explore how humans attributed agency, intelligence, and lifelike qualities to machines; engage critically with my and Beba Cibralić’s Machine Agency and our account of artificial agency; display competence in philosophical argument, historical analysis, and reflective writing. EVALUATION Students will be assessed on the basis of two in class papers, each written over the course of two class sessions, an oral exam toward the end of term, and a journal comprising weekly reflections on and assessments of what we accomplished in class together with a unifying introduction and conclusion.(14 weeks, half historical, half philosophical) COURSE FLOW Part I: Early Automata 1 week on ancient theories of mechanism and automataW1 – Introduction: What is an Agent? What is a Machine? 1 week on Hero of Alexandria where we will look at parts of his Pneumatics and contemporary analyses of his automata. 1 week on dreams of machine agents: Homer (Hephaestus’ golden servants), Ovid (Metamorphoses), Jewish golem legends. 1 week on automata as spectacle in the Islamic tradition: al-Jazari; One Thousand and One Nights: Where myth ends and mechanism begins. 1 week on church automata especially Brunelleschi’s annunciation and Cecca’s ascension 1 week on the magical approach to machines. (Filson; Riskin) 1 week on the (fraught) distinction between animals and automata (da Vinci and Descartes) Part II: Philosophy of Machine Agency: Mattingly and Cibralic (M&C) 1 week on “What is Machine Agency?” M&C Ch. 1–2. 1 week on “The Nature of Agency” M&C Ch. 3–4. 1 week on “A Theory of Agency” M&C Ch. 5. 1 week on “The Machinery of Agency” M&C Ch. 6—7 1 week on “Biology and Brains” M&C Ch. 8 1 week on “Communication and Control” M&C Ch. 9 1 week on “Machine Agents and Society” M&C Ch. 10–11.