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Week 1: INTRO TO COGNITIVE AUGMENTATION

Required Readings :

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 :

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.]

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

Pick one of these three academic articles to read:
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep42197
https://www.nature.com/articles/221963a0
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-90829-9
Pick one of these three pop-science videos/articles to read:
https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kish_how_i_use_sonar_to_navigate_the_world
https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_eagleman_can_we_create_new_senses_for_humans
Week 11: Drugs and gene editing

Nootropics as Cognitive Enhancers: Types, Dosage and Side Effects of Smart Drugs

Cognitive Enhancement through Genetic Editing: a New Frontier to Explore (and to Regulate)?

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)