Splash Biography

Modern algebra is a fascinating field (if you're new to it, that's a pun you'll understand after taking the course!) which studies what are called algebraic structures, or sets endowed with certain operations. This class is an introduction to those structures, specifically groups, rings, and a special type of ring called a field, with an emphasis on group theory and polynomial applications. The emphases are flexible, though.

The notion of the thinking machine has captured the collective fascination since Turing wrote his seminal paper, but what, exactly, does "thinking" mean, and what does machine thought entail for human thought? And what do modern phenomena --- such as machine victories in chess, checkers, or Go --- mean for it? This class studies machine thought (and some hypotheses on human thought), with a focus on several classical philosophical objects (thought experiments, definitions, etc.). These include Block's blockhead, Davidson's swampman, some of Dennett's intuition pumps, and the Turing Test.