| Date |
Topic |
Readings |
Assignment |
| 1/9 |
Welcome & Overview |
|
|
| 1/11 |
Case Study: Therac-25 |
Optional reading:
|
Week 1 Section Guide
For section:
- Bring your copy of the Leveson paper (electronic or paper)
- Pick a person in the Therac controversy, and add it to the discussion on your section's Canvas (making sure no one has already picked that person). Come to section prepared to discuss what that person did or didn't do.
|
| 1/16 |
MLK Day (no class) |
|
|
| 1/18 |
Do Artifacts Have Politics? |
- "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" by Langdon Winner (electronic reserve)
|
Week 2 Secton Guide
For section:
- Call an older family member or friend, and come to section prepared to discuss it.
HW: Therac and the 737-MAX
|
| 1/23 |
Utilitarianism |
Quinn 2.1-2.3, 2.7-2.8 |
|
| 1/25 |
Deontology |
- Quinn 2.6
- "Are there absolute moral rules?" by James Rachels, in The Elements of Moral Philosophy (electronic reserve)
|
Week 3 Section Guide
HW: Reflection on the politics of a technological artifact
|
| 1/30 |
Social Contract Theory |
For additional reading:
|
|
| 2/1 |
Stakeholder Analysis |
- In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan, pp. 25-39 (electronic reserve)
- Quinn 2.12
- Ethics of Worksplace Surveillance, a 4001 term paper, 2014 (shared with permission)
|
Week 4 Section Guide
For section:
- Choose a quote from the Gilligan reading that you feel raises an interesting issue. Add it to the discussion on the Canvas for your section, making sure you have picked a quote that no one else has picked. Come to section prepared to read your quote out loud and discuss why you find it significant.
- Think of a realistic ethical dilemma that has a different answer depending on which theory you use. Come to section prepared to discuss it.
|
| 2/6 |
Virtue Ethics |
- Virtue Ethics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Quinn 2.10-2.11
- Tool to help you decide if something is peer reviewed, which we'll discuss n class today: Ulrichsweb
|
|
| 2/8 |
Freedom of Speech & Networked Communications |
- Quinn 3.2, 3.6-3.9
- Section 230, Electronic Frontier Foundation
|
Week 5 Section Guide
For section:
- Choose a quote from the Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy article on Virtue Ethics that you feel raises an interesting issue. Add it to the discussion on the Canvas for your section, making sure you have picked a quote that no one else has picked. Come to section prepared to read your quote out loud and discuss why you find it significant.
- Pick an article about free speech online, including recent changes to platforms like Twitter and deplatforming or replatforming of controversial figures. Add it to the Canvas thread on your section, making sure no one else has picked the same article. Come to section prepared to discuss it.
|
| 2/13 |
Professional Ethics |
|
HW: Applying Ethical Frameworks to a Dilemma
|
| 2/15 |
Privacy |
- Quinn Chapter 5, Chapter 6 through 6.7
|
Week 6 Section Guide
|
| 2/20 |
Privacy and the Government |
| Analysis of New ACM Code
|
| 2/22 |
Privacy and Biological Data |
Optional:
|
Week 7 Section Guide
For section:
- Write what you think would be a good midterm question, and post it on your section's canvas, making sure your question is not exactly like someone else's.
|
| 2/27 |
Intellectual Property |
- Quinn Chapter 4, through end of 4.6
- Video about trademarks: 'Don't Say Velcro' (2:14 minutes)
Optional:
|
|
| 3/1 |
Midterm |
|
Week 8 Section Guide |
| 3/6 |
Intellectual Property, continued |
|
|
| 3/8 |
Software as Intellectual Property |
Quinn Chapter 4, continued (4.7-end) |
Week 9 Section Guide
For section:
- Pick a legal case that involves fair use and computers. Come to section prepared to tell the class about your case. What did the court rule and why? How were the four fair use factors used?
Term Paper Proposals
|
| 3/13 |
AI Content Generation |
|
|
| 3/15 |
Computer Reliability & Software Warranties |
Reading:
- Quinn Chapter 8 (except Therac section already read)
Optional:
|
Week 10 Section Guide
For section:
- Find an article about AI content generators like Midjourney, Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, or ChatGPT. The article could be about any issue they raise, including copyright issues for people whose content is used as input, implications for education, or implications for jobs.
Add your article to the discussion on Canvas for your section, making sure no one has already picked the same one. Come to class prepared to present your article, and comment on whether AI content generators are fair use.
- Use an AI to generate content (art or writing), and bring that to section. Come prepared to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the thing you and the AI created.
|
| 3/20 and 22 |
Spring Break (no class) |
|
|
| 3/27 |
AI, Algorithms, and Bias
Guest lecturer: Camille Harris
|
|
|
| 3/29 |
Technology and Race |
Optional:
|
Term Paper Outline
Week 11 Section Guide
|
| 4/3 |
Work and Wealth
Guest lecturer: Xander Koo |
Optional:
|
|
| 4/5 |
Wikipedia, Truth, and Peer-Reviewed References (class online) |
No class--lecture is an asynchronous video
|
Week 12 Section Guide
|
| 4/10 |
NFTs |
A critical professional ethical analysis of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) by Catherine Flick |
|
| 4/12 |
Implications of Social Media |
| Term Papers
Week 13 Section Guide
|
| 4/17 |
Term Paper Presentations |
To volunteer to give a term-paper presentation:
- Email the professor and head TA by noon on Friday, 4/14.
- Email your slides to the professor and head TA by noon on Sunday, 4/16
Everyone who volunteers and submits slides gets +1 on their term paper. Order of presentation will be randomly selected. If you are selected to present, you will get +1 to +3 on your term paper.
Talks should be 6 minutes (strictly timed) with 2 minutes for questions.
I will give a short talk on how to give a short talk in class on 4/10.
|
|
| 4/19 |
Second-Half Test |
|
|
| 4/24 |
The Big Picture |
|
|
Readings and assignments are subject to change.