Credit: Anna Logue
AI and Data Science in Fiction and Society (HWS 2018)
The aim of this seminar is to reflect on how AI and data science influence the world we live in. We will discuss fictional works (i.e., novels) and analyze which developments are described therein and how realistic we deem them.
Goals
In this seminar, you will read and analyze a fictional work (i.e., novel) of your choice, and identify parallels between (a) AI technology described in fiction and actual technological developments, and (b) interactions between technology and society. In particular, we will discuss the societal and ethical impact of AI on modern societies.
Each participant will read a fictional work, present it to the seminar participants, and participate in the discussions. Each presentation is accompanied by a seminar paper, which will undergo a peer review process. Note that you are supposed to also read the novels for which you are peer reviewing the reports, which makes for a total reading workload of several novels throughout the semester. Presentations are supposed to be about 25 minutes long.
Organization
This seminar is organized by Prof. Dr. Heiko Paulheim
Available for Master students (2 SWS, 4 ECTS)
Prerequisites: none
Schedule
- Kick off meeting on 7 September, 10:15 – 11:45 (room B6 26, A3.01) Slides
- 28 October: Deadline for seminar report drafts
- 11 November: Deadline for peer review on seminar report drafts
- 21 and 28 Novemberth, 13.45 – 17.00: block seminar (tbc, room tba)
- 9 December: Deadline for final seminar papers
Registration
- Registration will be available in Portal2 (tba)
- After getting a confirmation from Portal2, please send a ranked list of three works you would like to read and present in the seminar to Bianca Lermer
- Final assignment of topics will be made in the kick off meeting
Possible Topics
(Note: you are kindly invited to propose other works as well)
Author Title (en) Title (de) Andreas Brandhorst -- Das Erwachen Cory Doctorow Little Brother Little Brother Dave Eggers The Circle Der Circle Marc Elsberg Blackout Blackout Marc Elsberg -- ZERO Andreas Eschbach Lord of all Things Herr aller Dinge Robert Harris The Fear Index Angst Marc-Uwe Kling -- Quality Land Stephan Meier -- Now Daniel Suarez Kill Decision Kill Decision Daniel Suarez Daemon Daemon Daniel Suarez Freedom TM Darknet Juli Zeh The Method Corpus Delicti Additional Lecture
(You may use those as background material, but you are kindly asked to conduct some further literature research yourself)
Books:
- Nick Bostrom. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. 2014
- James Hendler, Alice M. Mulvehill. Social Machines: The Coming Collision of Artificial Intelligence, Social Networking, and Humanity. 2018
Articles:
- Giorgio Buttazzo: Artificial Consciousness: Utopia or Real Possibility?, 2001
- Bruce G. Buchanan: A (Very) Brief History of Artificial Intelligence, 2005
- Colin Allen et al.: Why Machine Ethics?, 2006
- Yudkowsky, Elizier: Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk, 2008
- Ethan Fast and Eric Horvitz: Long-Term Trends in the Public Perception of Artificial Intelligence, 2016