Research

The Genesis Group

The home page for an active group of faculty and students working toward the goal of understanding intelligence

Why I Am Optimistic

An essay about the future of inquiry into the computational explanation of intelligence

Why We Should Start Over, material use in keynote address, conference of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, July, 1999

The EWall Project

I work with people in the Department of Architecture (buildings, not computers) and Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) on the EWall project, which focuses on new ways to visualize information, making that information easier to comprehend, analyze, and communicate to co-workers. One simple EWall example is the NewsView presentation of the news of the day.

Teaching
In the fall, I lecture in 6.034, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, a large class.

Grades are calculated in accord with several student-oriented principles. For example, because we want to encourage each student to compete with himself/herself and not with each other, we no longer compute a class average. Because anyone can have a bad day, each segment of the material is tested both in a quiz and on the final, and we only count the higher grade.

In the spring, I teach 6.xxx, The Human Intelligence Enterprise, a class in which I focus on contributions that visionary thinkers have made toward developing a computational explanation of intelligence.

During the Independent Activities period, I present a lecture titled How To Speak, intended to help people do a better job in lectures, theses defenses, and job talks. The next offering will be at 11:00 a.m. on Friday (note change from original time), January 29, 2010. If you can't wait, an aging version, lacking the latest material, is available from the Harvard Bok Center.

Books


I maintain a web site for these books that provides sample chapters, tables of contents, and software.

Also, I have completed an online version of On to Java.

Pensée

Quiz Rage

Every once in a while, a student group invites me to a free dinner, which pleases me, not only because faculty salaries were frozen last year, but also because I enjoy getting to know students in an informal setting.

This past week, I went to the Hillel Faculty Night dinner, where the students have a tradition of asking the faculty attending to introduce themselves and answer a surprise question, such as, “What is your favorite building on campus?” This time, it was, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I didn't have a good answer to that question, so I decided to use a trick I learned in humanities classes. I ignored the question asked and answered another one, “What is the strangest incident you have experienced involving a Jewish student?”

“Without a doubt, that would be the amazing case of Louis Lamon,” I said, responding to my own question.

Louis Lamon^* was one of my all-time favorite teaching assistants in 6.034, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. One year, when Louis was a teaching assistant, our final examination was on a Monday morning, so on Monday afternoon the staff, about eight or ten of us, were sitting at a big table working away through a stack of 250 examinations. We were just getting started at the time the conflict exam was scheduled over in a distant classroom. We decided to take turns proctoring. I took the first turn.

When I returned from proctoring, I was feeling pretty goofy, it being the end of the term, so I decided to hack the staff.

“Wow, I just had my first experience with quiz rage,” I said as I sat down at the grading table.

“What's that?” asked Louis.

“It's a little like road rage, I guess. A student seemed to be having trouble with the exam, and then, about 20 minutes in, he started cursing and swearing loudly. I couldn't calm him down. I finally had to call the campus police and have him taken away. They told me it happens once or twice each semester.”

“Who was it?” said Louis.

I thought it would add realism to describe one of Louis's students, an Israeli named Ben Brotsky^*, who happened to be taking the conflict exam. “I don't know,” I pretended, but some of the cursing and swearing was in a language unfamiliar to me, maybe Hebrew.”

“You know,” said Louis. “I think it might be one of mine, is he [physical description]?”

“Yes,” I said “that's what he looks like.”

Then, a few minutes later, Louis said, “He once told me a scud landed a few doors from where he lived in Israel; maybe it is some form of post-traumatic stress syndrome.”

“Yes, Louis,” I replied, “Maybe it's post-traumatic stress syndrome.”

Then, it came time for Louis to go off to the conflict-exam room for the final shift. About half way through his shift, I decided I should go and make sure he was ok with the hack and not too sore about getting snookered. But, when I arrived, he grabbed my arm and whispered into my ear, “He's back.”

“Oh my god,” I said, improvising rapidly. “Louis, don't do anything to upset him. I talked to his advisor, and he has a history of violence. He was a commando in the Israeli army. He could kill you in seconds with a wire...like that power cord attached to his laptop.”

“Ok,” said Louis. “I'll be careful.”

A little while later, Louis returned to the room where we were all grading, looking highly upset, and said, “I confronted Ben after the exam.”

“Oh, oh,” I thought to myself, “now I'm in trouble.”

So, I started to explain, “Listen, Louis...,” but he interrupted me. “We've got to do something,” said Louis with emphasis. “The guy is so psychotic, he didn't remember a thing about the incident.”

Amazing.

^* Not their real names, of course.

22 November 2009

Where I am
My office is room 32-251 in MIT's Stata Center, which was designed by Frank Gehry

Curriculum vitae
You can learn more about what I'm up to from both the Curriculum vitae and the rest of this home page.

Several friends and I started Ascent Technology, Inc., a company that develops products that solve complex resource-planning, resource-scheduling, resource-allocation, and situation-assessment problems.

I am serving my third term as a member of The Naval Research Advisory Committee, which advises the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chief of Naval Research on technical matters.

I chaired the committee from 1997–2000 when I hit the statutory 6-year limit on continuous service. During my term as chair, NRAC focused on manning and on the concept of an all-electric Navy. One high-impact NRAC study, Reduced Ship Manning, led to the Smart Ship Program. Another, CVX Flexibility/Integrated Electric Power emphasized the need to move toward electric drive on our carriers.

Miscellanea
A record of the resolution, writings, and speeches written by Professor Kenneth R. Manning and me in connection with MIT's press statement labeling Ms. Star Simpson as "reckless."

The Great 2008 Latke-Hamantashen Debate

A guide to materials prepared in behalf of latke. A video is also available on You Tube

MIT FSILG Task Force

I also have strong views about MIT's system of fraternities, sororities, and independent living groups. During 2002–2004 I co-chaired, with Stephen Immerman, the MIT Task Force on FSILGs: Status and Future Development. The work of the task force led to a detailed report recommending a six-step plan and the creation of Project Aurora.

What MIT should do
I believe technology will take university education through a period of instability—what Andy Grove would call a 10X period—as new educational technology is introduced for the first time since the invention of movable type. This period of instability coincides with a window of global scientific opportunity and engineering challenge.

Accordingly, I believe that technical universities that want to be important in 2050 should chart a new course now, which I lay out, somewhat telegraphically in a sample mission statement and in a fanciful interview, recorded in 2050.