As the pace of technological change continues to accelerate, it raises questions about the impacts, positive and negative, on society. Will technology make our lives more comfortable and pleasant or will it destroy human society and lead us to a catastrophic ending? The answers largely depend on our ability to consider new technology advancements in light of desires to live good lives within just institutions. Students engage with topics of current relevance such as artificial intelligence, gene editing, virtual reality, robotics, and the internet of things. Discusses the underlying technological aspects of each and the possible implications for society. Students apply philosophical and ethical concepts and frameworks to consider how technology can become a positive force for the common good and debate possible ways to evaluate and avoid undesirable effects of current and future technologies. No prior programming experience required.

Syllabus

Mobile Devices are increasingly present in our lives. More and more "smart," they transform how we communicate, access information, experience our physical spaces, create and maintain friendships, monitor our health, and have fun. In this course, we will critically consider the consequences of these technological artifacts for how we define our personal identities, our interpersonal relationships, and the organization of our societies.

In order to deepen our discussions, within the experiential context of DCS, we will learn how the software of mobile devices is structured, how they communicate with each other, with local sensors and other wearable devices. We will also study the physical and social architectures that connect our mobile experiences, including how they are likely to change in the coming years and their possible implications. This course does not require any prior knowledge in computer science or mobile communications.

Explores how digital techniques can enhance our understanding of text. Investigates how to make sense of the burgeoning number of textual sources in a timely manner and what new questions can be raised and answered by computer-based text analysis. Students learn to apply tools for analyzing large texts to problems drawn from areas throughout the liberal arts, such as psychology, philosophy, and literature. In addition, students address questions ranging from authorship of Supreme Court opinions, to using thirty years of newspapers to reexamine historical questions, to interpreting Raphael's masterpiece “School of Athens” through an analysis of Aristotle's and Plato's works. While doing so they also study the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. No previous computer programming experience is required.