Thought Questions

I've asked the students in CSC105 to think about a question for each class and write a short (one paragraph) response. Here, you may find the questions (and, eventually, the responses).

• 55: What were the best aspects of this class? The worst?
• 54: Are core wars just a game/challenge or do they have a practical/productive use? Could they? What, if any, are the social implications of core wars? And, in general, what are the pros and cons of core wars?
• 53: What are the criteria for determining if numbers are random numbers?

• 52: How have your views on losing jobs to computers changed (or not changed) from reading this article?
• 51: Do you think computer use would have become so widespread if OS or GUIs hadn't been created? Is there anything wrong with GUIs or what Windows has created? Must computing have a Unix-like command line to be pure?
• 50: How have operating systems broadened the horizons of what users and programmers can do with computers?
• 49: Assuming that autonomous systems (like Star Wars) could actually be made to work, what, in your mind, are the most salient issues with regard to this kind of technology?

• 48: To be determined
• 47: Pick your favorite (of 2, 4, 5, 6, and 8), or which ever one you find the most intriguing, and come up with a couple questions/personal opinions/grievances regarding a particular scenario.
• 46: Where do you stand on the continuum from total privacy to total efficiency? Do you think that either privacy or efficiency is more important, or that a balance can be achieved between the two? How do computers affect the balance between individual rights and organizational responsibilities? Are privacy and protection issues complementary or at odds?
• 45: When, if ever, is software piracy appropriate?

• 44: What chapters/topics do you plan to present? When? Please list alternatives.
• 43: What metaphors might you use for the halting problem? How might those metaphors help one understand the problem?
• 42: What implications do you see in the existence of NP-complete problems?
• 41: Summarize the most important thing you've learned from the reading.

• 40: Do you consider the Turing test a reasonable way to evaluate the the success of an AI program? Why or why not?
• 39: Find a Web site with an illustrative example of genetic programming or neural networks. Report on the success or failure of the technique to solve the problem described therein.
• 38: How might you use genetic algorithms to produce a form of intelligent program? Do you expect this to be a fruitful road to AI?
• 37: Neural networks take a different approach to artificial intelligence. Rather than trying to mimic the way we think we think, they try to mimic physical aspects of the brain. Do you expect this to be a fruitful road to AI? Why or why not?

• 36: Model some set of relationships (preferably something other than family trees) with the predicate calculus.
• 35: See question 36.
• 34: The algorithms Dewdney describes assume that both players make the best possible move. How would the min-max and alpha-beta pruning algorithms change if one player selected a move randomly?
• 33: What, in your own words, would be sufficient criteria to judge a program as "intelligent"?

• 32: What feature do you most want to see in our PacMan game? Sketch a strategy we might use to implement that feature.
• 31: How do we balance the need for formal specifications required by program proof techniques and the complexity of modern graphical applications?
• 30: What do we mean when we say a program is "correct"?
• 29: What categories of people might be to blame when a program fails, and in what way might they have contributed to the failure?

• There was no question 28
• 27: Describe a game that we might be able to write using the JavaScript we've figured out to date.
• 26: What do you consider significant implications of being able to copy JavaScript programs from the Web?
• 25: How might the control structures you learned yesterday help you write JavaScript applications?

• 24: Find a useful JavaScript script on the Web. Report on the source and how you might use that script.
• 23: Write a short JavaScript program and corresponding Web page using the techniques you've learned.
• 22: Describe an algorithm that you think would be useful for the Web.
• There was no question 21

• 20: Who do you consider responsible for the damage caused by viruses and why?
• 19: Should encryption algorithms include a back door that gives government/police access to files in appropriate situations?
• There was no question 18
• 17: What do you see as the most significant problems and benefits of open source software? Why?

• 16: Should the government have the right to access encrypted files?
• 15: Describe a technique we can use to conceal information.
• 14: How would you classify the recent Web denial-of-service attacks? What techniques might have been used to avoid them?
• 13: What implication of computing do you most want to consider this semester? Why?

• 12: Computer programmers often emphasize efficiency as the primary criterion for evaluating algorithms. What effects do you think this emphasis has?
• 11: Describe how to put a pile of books in alphabetical order by author.
• 10: Explain unambiguously how to look up a phone number in a phone book given the person's name. Also describe how to look up a person's name in the phone book given their phone number.
• 9: Suppose you've been given two sets of instructions that solve the same problem. What criteria might you use to determine whether one is better than the other?

• 8: Describe unambiguously how to find the lowest grade in a list of grades.
• 7: Unambiguously describe how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
• 6: Do cascading style sheets better support readers or authors?
• 5: What does the use of HTML as the language of the World Wide Web say about the Web's accessiblity?

• 4: Do you prefer logical or physical markup? Why?
• 3: Describe the appearance and purpose of five parts of the course front door.
• 2: What computing knowledge do you hope to get from this course?