FRS 111
What Do Your DNA and Your iPod Have in Common?
September 19
Computers vs. robots. Turing machines. Universality. Church-Turing thesis
September 26
The digital nature of information.
Duality: signifier vs. signified.
Semiotics. Self-reference. Self-replication. Impossibility results:
halting problem; squaring the circle; compass and rule construction; Galois theory
October 3, 17
Genetics. Self-replication. DNA computing. Computer viruses
October 24, November 7
The web. Small world phenomenon. Data mining
November 14
Tractability. P vs. NP. Computational complexity
November 21
Cryptography. Zero-Knowledge. PCP
November 28
Algorithms. Artificial intelligence.
Games. Economics. Learning.
December 5
December 12