This class consists of:
- Lectures
- Discussion
Lectures
Most lectures include a required reading assignment that is to be completed before class. In class, we will discuss the topic first in small groups and then as a class. I will provide a PDF version of the paper to be read and/or a link to a web version of the paper.
To signup to lead a discussion, please add yourself to this Google Doc for the lecture that you'd like to lead (there should be two students for each lecture). I sync the Google Doc and the course website periodically, so it might take a little bit of time for your addition to show up on the course website.
| Date | Topic | Slides | Required reading and assignment | Optional reading and comments | Discussion leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday 4/2 | [gdoc] | Why ethics in technology? | None | Read on next entry what you need to do for Friday Watch an interesting video on the progression of information technologies. Do compare the Did you know? (2008) version with the Did you know (2016) version! | Sam |
| Wednesday 4/4 | [gdoc] | Discuss the Terrell Bynum paper | Read the History of Computer and Information Ethics [pdf] by Terrell Bynum | Additional reading material:
|
Sam |
| Friday 4/6 | [gdoc] | Discuss if we should allow students to take smart drugs | Come to class prepared to debate both positions: "Yes, students should be allowed" and "No, students should not be allowed". Read Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy (Greely et al, 2008). | Possible reading to support your arguments:
|
Sam |
| Friday 4/6 Discussion | No discussion | ||||
| Monday 4/9 | [gdoc] | Influence of socail media and advertising platforms | Read How Mark Zuckerberg Can Save Facebook — and Us | Sam | |
| Wednesday 4/11 | [gdoc] | Discuss if Apple should comply to the FBI | Read the Apple letter to its customers about the case and the article from Wired magazine on The Apple-FBI fight is not about privacy versus security. Do not be misled.
Come to class prepared to debate both positions: "Yes, Apple should comply" and "No, Apple should not comply" |
Possible readings to support your arguments:
|
Sam |
| Friday 4/13 | [gdoc] | Gender and bias in tech | (a) Read Why Is Silicon Valley So Awful to Women? [pdf] by Lizy Mundy (2017). (b) Read Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber by James Damore (2017). (c) spend an hour or so to research reaction to (b) and to form your own opinion on it. | Listen to The Edge of Gender by Shankar Vedantam (2017). | Sam |
| Friday 4/13 Discussion | No discussion | ||||
| Monday 4/16 | [gdoc] | AI | (a) Read Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us (2000) by Bill Joy. (b) Read a response to this, Promise and Peril (2001) by Ray Kurzweil. Final Paper: Milestone 1 due |
Watch this Ted Talk by Sam Harris | Richard Boehm, Alex Butterfield, Kai Yan |
| Wednesday 4/18 | [gdoc] | Dangers of tech: smartphones | Read: (a) Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? by J. Twenge (2017); (b) Your Addiction to Social Media is No Accident by J. Morgans (2017); (c) How Technology is Hijacking Your Mind by T. Harris (2016); and listen to the Fresh Air audio (d) ‘Irresistible’ by Design (2017). Required reading report due |
Read: The Eight Dangers of Excessive Smartphone Use by Angel Chang | Anushka Singh, Svetana Vanzina |
| Friday 4/20 | [gdoc] | Dangers of tech: Google | Read the paper "Is Google making us stupid?" by Nicholas Carr as well as the article: How Google is making us smarter by Carl Zimmer. | Christie Frush | |
| Friday 4/20 Discussion | No discussion | ||||
| Monday 4/23 | [gdoc] | Money: cryptocurrencies | Read Cryptocurrency Might be a Path to Authoritarianism by Ian Bogost in The Atlantic | Louie Shi, Itzel Hernandez | |
| Wednesday 4/25 | Money: 2007 financial meltdown | In class: watch "The Big Short" | None | ||
| Friday 4/27 | Money: 2007 financial meltdown | In class: watch "The Big Short" | None | ||
| Friday 4/27 Discussion | Money: 2007 financial meltdown | In class: watch "The Big Short" | Lucille Cao | ||
| Monday 4/30 | [gdoc] | Student selection: E-gambling | Read the How data changed gambling What is online gambling addiction | Chris Lopez, Dongzhao Jiang | |
| Wednesday 5/2 | [gdoc] | Student selection: Autonomous Cars | Read Driverless cars safety and How safe is safe enough to put driverless cars on the nations roadways | Read Uber fatality and ethics of autnomous vehicles | Asrar Ali, Kirtanpal Ghoman,Chetan Malhotra |
| Friday 5/4 | [gdoc] | Student selection: 3D printed guns | Read Forbes article on 3d printed guns and Read another article | Watch this video and Watch this video | Julius Ramos, Garrett Boseck |
| Friday 5/4 Discussion | No discussion | ||||
| Monday 5/7 | [gdoc] | BlackMirror1 | S1E3 "The Entire History of You" Final Paper: Milestone 2 due |
Bishal Thapa, Sahana Melkris, Hammad Zahid | |
| Wednesday 5/9 | [gdoc] | BlackMirror2 | S4E2 "Arkangel" | Read Should you spy on your kids? and Ethics of tracking children | Priyanka Shah, Imani Rodney, Sunil Ramakrishnan |
| Friday 5/11 | BlackMirror3 | S4E1 "USS Callister" | https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ec2e/5cc752693539c640347450882509e1d32653.pdf | Sarmad Farooq, Karishma Tangella | |
| Friday 5/11 Discussion | No discussion | ||||
| Monday 5/14 | [gdoc] | Privacy | Read Privacy and Information Technology, an article from the Stanford encyclopedia of phylosophy, 2014. | Read Survey of Various Homomorphic Encryption algorithms and Schemes and Intel® Enhanced Privacy ID (EPID) Security Technology | Soo Hyung Kim, Gwen Hoang, Bryan Smiley |
| Wednesday 5/16 | [gdoc] | Big data | (a) Watch Haunted by Data by Maciej Ceglowski (2015) (20 mins). (b) Watch The era of blind faith in big data must end by Cathy O’Neil (2017) (13 mins). (c) Watch Slaughterbots by Stuart Russell (2017) (8 mins) (fiction). (d) Read The Anxieties of Big Data by Kate Crawford (2014). Required reading report due |
Otto Chen, Joel Moens | |
| Friday 5/18 | Bad company | (a) Read What was Volkswagen Thinking? by Justin Renteria (2016). (b) Spend half an hour more to read something you find online about the Volkswagen emissions scandal. | Abishek Gollapudi, Alex Kong, Andy Yao | ||
| Friday 5/18 Discussion | Guest speaker | None | None | ||
| Monday 5/21 | No class | Start reading the paper for 5/23, it's long | |||
| Wednesday 5/23 | Surveillance | Read The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work (endnotes instead of footnotes) by Phillip Rogaway (2015) | Kyle Wong, Parushi Sharma, Va Vong | ||
| Friday 5/25 | [gdoc] | Anonymous | In class: Watch "We are Legion" | None | |
| Friday 5/25 Discussion | Anonymous | In cass: Watch "We are Legion" | None | ||
| Monday 5/28 | no class | Memorial Day | |||
| Wednesday 5/30 | Bad company | Was Facebook unethical for publishing research without the consent of the users? Possible reading/links to support your arguments:
Final paper due |
Optional Reading: Don’t fear Facebook’s emotion manipulation experiment | Spencer Grossarth, Chance Stewart | |
| Friday 6/1 | Presentations |
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None | ||
| Friday 6/1 Discussion | Presentations |
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None | ||
| Monday 6/4 | Presentations |
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None | ||
| Wednesday 6/6 | Presentations |
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None |