mas.964 no representation without explanation
   
Brian K Smith
MIT Media Laboratory
E15-020G
617 253 6537
bsmith@media.mit.edu		 Friday 10-12
Room E15-095
Prereq: 6.001 or equivalent
G (Spring); undergraduates welcomed
0-12-0
Description got a feeling inside (can't explain)
it's a certain kind (can't explain)
i feel hot and cold (can't explain)
yeah, down in my soul, yeah (can't explain) - Peter Townshend Pete has a problem. Two hallmarks of common-sense intelligence are the abilities to interpret the world around us and to articulate and explain our views and understandings.  Poor Pete.  Most people try to put him down (talkin bout his explanation). We'll see if we can't get him on the magic bus of explanation.

This course focuses on human and machine explanation and interpretation. How do we make sense of our environments? How do we assemble thoughts into explanations of the world? We will examine the issues of explanation and interpretation through three disciplinary lenses: artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive science, and education. Each of these fields has considered explanation from different perspectives, and our goal is to integrate some of these ideas into a unified framework. Having said that, the focus will be on technology and its use in mimicking or enhancing explanation.
 
 
 

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