Material
The course material will be broad, open-ended, and possibly controversial.
Most of the class time will be spent with you guys talking.
We'll also read a lot. You might not be used to all this; it's certainly
not a typical ECS classs.
I'd you to think, deeply and significantly, about the ethical issues
that you face in general, and with respect to the exercise of your livelihood.
I want you to think about big, sociological questions tied up with
the technology that we work on.
I want you to write about, and speak about, these things.
Prerequisites
Willingness to read a lot; an open mind;
the ability to write reasonably well;
the ability to prepare a reasonable lecture.
Academic Honesty
As a course in ethics, it would be particularly ironic if people
are dishonest.
But let me say some things anyway.
All writing you do must be your own (you can ask a friend
to proofread your work, but it shouldn't go beyond that).
The talk you prepare must be all your own work.
Please acknowledge all ideas and quotations.
Obviously you may not purchase papers, or your presentation, from any service.
The above does not imply that you can't talk to people
about what you're reading and thinking about. You are most certainly
welcome to do so.
Typesetting and Presentation Tools
All writing assignments done outside of class must be typeset.
Use a program like Word (ick!) or LaTeX (yum!).
(A nice LaTeX implementation for PCs is The presentation you prepare can be done using any presentation tool.
Invariably, most everyone will use PowerPoint.
I don't see the topic of this course as an entirely "academic" undertaking.
I, for one, would like to come out
of this class not only being more knowledgeable about the subject matter,
but in some way being a better person than I am now.
Perhaps you might consider a similar goal.
That's a lot to wish for from a class;
let's see if it's possible to do anything in that direction.