The first reading January 8, 2007
Posted by Ron in 3790 Administrivia.trackback
The first reading is an introductory chapter from Margaret Boden’s staggering 1500-page overview of Cognitive Science, The Mind as Machine, which was just published.
This chapter is a sometime-maddeningly broad and discursive overview of all sorts of questions that are raised in Cognitive Science, and you’ll be a bit dizzy by the time you get through it, but do it anyway. While your textbook does a good job of concisely defining the key metaphors and issues in Cognitive Science, Boden’s introduction conveys what it feels like to engage the Cognitive Science community. This chapter made me feel the same way that I feel after I’ve staggered through a huge poster session at the Cognitive Science Conference — disoriented, bursting with ideas, and slightly elated. Many of the questions she raises will be addressed in this course.
We’ll be following up on Boden in homework 1 (more details later). . .
Are we supposed to buy this book in addition to the course textbook?
No — the PDF is linked from the “reading schedule” page. Just go to the underlined link for the Boden, click, and viola! Please note that you only need to read pp. 1-18 (as noted in the schedule), although the PDF is much larger.