Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

On the fifth day of the ninth week of classes we had the eighth quiz for the Mathematical Methods One class. The coverage was system of equations in two variables of degree two, remainder theorem, factor theorem, synthetic division and factoring of polynomial expressions of degree three or more.

Even though I had prepared the test papers and test booklets the day before, it wasn’t until the middle of the session (when some of the quiz takers arrived late) that I realized I did not have enough of both for all of the students. I had to ask one of the late students to call the head of security first to proctor the class for two minutes or so while I printed out a new questionnaire.

But even then, I was still one copy short. The last student to arrive late I had to ask to get lined paper instead for him to use as his answer sheet, and he would share the questionnaire with his seatmate.

It only takes one instance of relative neglect like that before I become doubly careful the next time.

In the Science Fiction Literature class afterwards, the students talked about the two movies they watched related to the current group’s theme: robots. The two movies were “Bicentennial Man” and “I, Robot”.

I asked them if they didn’t find the titles ironic, because in the first one, the title character, played by Robin Williams, was two hundred years old but was a robot, and in the second one, robots were not supposed to address themselves in the first person, which would show independent thought.

My former co-teacher David’s brother Daniel, who was one of the reporters because the class is an elective for Computer Science majors (while it is required for Communication Arts majors) answered, “Not… really.”

Just like in the previous session, there was again a line of argument drawn whether robots should or should not be allowed to be indistinguishable from humans, because Daniel, again in their report, gave the personal comment that he found it “scary” for a robot to have genitals, at the same time remarking on the therapeutic effect it gave some hospital patients.

Other students also tried to come up with ways of breaking the Three Laws of Robotics (situations where it would not apply), and beyond, which I would have preferred they did not mention because it is a twist in the end of Isaac Asimov’s series of books about robots. It was too late though, so I’ll just make up for it by not giving it away here.

I had to remind them that although several schools of thought have adapted Asimov’s Three Laws, it is not universally accepted.

Session 690 passed inspection here. Class dismissed.