Week 1: INTRO TO COGNITIVE AUGMENTATION

Required Readings :

• Three Ways to Advance Science — Nick Bostrom
• Augmenting Human Intellect and Amplifying Perception and Cognition – Albrecht Schmidt

Supplemental Readings :

• Licklider – Man-computer symbiosis (link)
• Doug Engelbart – Augmenting human intellect: a conceptual framework (link)
• Vanevar Bush – As we may think (link)
• Pattie Maes – Agents that reduce work and information overload (link)
• Andy Clark – Natural Born Cyborgs (book)
• Steve Mann – Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer (book)
• Yuval Noah Harai – 21 problems for 21st century (book)
• Jaron Lanier – You are not a gadget (link)

Week 2: AUGMENTING MEMORY

Required Readings :

• Augmenting Human Prospective Memory Through Cognition-Aware Technologies

Supplemental Readings/Videos :

[Post-class note: Added a video on Andy Clark’s Extended Mind theory and readings on security and privacy implications memory augmentation.]

• Andy Clark – Extended Mind
• Security and Privacy Implications of Pervasive Memory Augmentation
• Memory Augmentation Through Lifelogging: Opportunities and Challenges
• Remembering through lifelogging: a survey of human memory augmentation
• Black Mirror, The entire history of you – a dystopian view of memory augmentation – Available on Netflix
• Alive Inside – documentary on music and dementia – Available on Tubi (free)
• NeverMind: Using Augmented Reality for Memorization – Rosello et al. 2016
• The Memory Glasses: Subliminal vs. Overt Memory Support with Imperfect Information – Devaul et al. 2003
• Memory editing from science fiction to clinical practice

Week 3: ENGINEERING SLEEP

Week 4: ENHANCING REASONING AND DECISION MAKING

Summary of cognitive biases – Tversky and Kahneman 

Heuristics and biases: The Science of Decision making – Steve Dale

Optional:

Don’t Just Tell Me, Ask Me: AI Systems that Intelligently Frame Explanations as Questions Improve Human Logical Discernment Accuracy over Causal AI explanations – Valdemar Danry et al. 

Wearable Reasoner – Valdemar Danry et al.

 

Week 5: SOMATIC INTERFACES

Enhancing human emotions with interoceptive technologies

Affective Touch as Immediate and Passive Wearable Intervention

Pick 1 from below

emotionCheck: leveraging bodily signals and false feedback to regulate our emotions

Virtual reality for pain management

 

Week 6: INTERFACING WITH THE BRAIN

Review of neuromodulation techniques

Closed-loop brain training: the science of neurofeedback

 

Week 10: AUGMENTING THE SENSES AND PERCEPTION

Week 12: Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues

Submit reflections here!

Papers (read both):

Cognitive Enhancement: Methods, Ethics, Regulatory Challenges

A Comprehensive Analysis of Neurotechnologies in the Context of Human Rights: Consequences, Challenges, and Successes (This mentions neurotechnology, but the issues discussed are broadly relevant to cognitive augmentation in general)

Case studies: (read at least one)

The Social Context of “Do-It-Yourself” Brain Stimulation: Neurohackers, Biohackers, and Lifehackers

School of Shock (Content warning for descriptions of institutional abuse and suicide)