ECS 188 - Ethics and the Information Age - Syllabus and Assignments - Spring 2004
There are 19 class meetings this term, each 50 minutes.
This page will grow to contain
a very brief description of how we spent each class meeting, and what was
assigned for the coming class meeting.
- Class #18 - Mon Jun 7 -
The class was spent on presentations 12 and 13.
Reading for next class:
Read student reports
14.pdf.
- Class #17 - Wed Jun 2 -
The class was spent on presentations 10 and 11.
Reading for next class:
Read student reports
12.pdf and
13.pdf.
- Class #16 - Wed May 26 -
The class was spent on presentation 9 and discussing the "indoctrination essays".
Reading for next class:
Read student reports
10.pdf and
11.pdf.
- Class #15 - Mon May 24 -
The class was spent on presentations 7 and 8.
Reading for next class:
Read student report
9.pdf.
- Class #14 - Wed May 19 -
The class was spent on presentations 5 and 6.
Reading for next class:
Read student reports
7.pdf and
8.pdf.
Also read Ermann and Shauf, Chapter 16.
- Class #13 - Mon May 17 -
The class was spent on presentations 3 and 4.
Reading for next class:
Read student reports
5.pdf and
6.pdf.
Also read Ermann and Shauf, Chapter 19.
- Class #12 - Wed May 12 -
The class was spent on presentations 1 and 2.
Reading for next class:
Read student reports
3.pdf and
4.pdf.
Then spend an hour reading something interesting that you wouldn't
normally make the time to read.
- Class #11 - Mon May 10 -
We discussed the reading from the Schmidt book.
Reading for next class:
Read student reports
1.pdf and
2.pdf.
Read Ermann and Shauf
Chapter 17 and Chapter 22.
- Class #10 - Wed May 5 -
We discussed the reading for today -- the articles on UI design,
on Bhopal, and the UN report. But I think the discussion
didn't seem to go anywhere today.
Reading for next class:
Read Schmidt chapters 3,6,8,9,13.
Writing for next class:
Have we indoctrinated you? Write an essay, about two pages,
about whether your years of education, particularly at UCD,
have trained you to be an original, creative thinker; a dumb sheep;
or something else. What is the main message you have learned
from your educational experience?
- Class #9 - Mon May 3 -
We discussed the Therac-25 article, and just started to touch on Bhopal.
Reading for next class:
Read Chapter 8 from Ermann and Shauf (is this at all related to the Therac-25 case?).
Read the two-part article "Bhopal Lives" / "After Bhopal" from the Village Voice.
Then read what you can --you can graze, but please read at three chapters of your
choice -- of the UN's
Human Development Report 2003.
Writing for next class:
Collect a page of interesting facts from the UN article that you read.
- Class #8 - Wed Apr 28 -
We discussed individualism and the tendency of many of us to
appeal to it in rejecting a more sociological analysis of ethical decision making.
Then we started to discuss the reading from Schmidt, asking question
like whether professionals are more or less conservative than non-professionals.
Readings for next class:
read about the
therac-25 accidents,
read about the
Bhopal accident, and read
Chapter 7 from the Ermann and Shauf book ("The Morality of Whistle-Blowing").
(You can also listen to one of the authors of Five Minutes Past Midnight in Bhopal
from To the Best of Our Knowledge/start index: 24 mins.
- Class #7 - Mon Apr 26 -
We discussed the reading by the Dreyfuses and the reading by Bereano.
Reading for next class:
Read Chapters 1 and 2 from Schmidt.
- Class #6 - Wed Apr 21 -
We signed up for presentation slots and took a quiz.
Then we discussed the two readings by Neil Postman.
Reading for next class:
If you have gotten behind in the reading, catch up!!
Then read Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 from Ermann and Shauf, too.
- Class #5 - Mon Apr 19 -
We discussed the articles from Chapters 14 and 23.
Reading for next class:
A couple of readings by
Neil Postman:
Chapter 13
from our book by Ermann and Shauf,
and a lecture entitled
Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change.
Also an article by
Ian Barbour that I passed out.
- Class #4 - Wed Apr 14 -
Why have a code of ethics? Is there anything interesting in the ACM's?
We discussed scenarios
1, 2, and 8 from Baase's book.
Reading for next class:
Chapter 14 and
Chapter 23 from Ermann and Shauf.
Writing for next class:
Analyze one of the scenarios
that we did not yet discuss.
Spend two pages. Make your analysis as deep and insightful as you can.
- Class #3 - Mon Apr 12 -
Discussion of utilitarianism and Kantian ethics.
Reading for next class:
Chapter 4 and
Chapter 5 from Ermann and Shauf.
- Class #2 - Wed Apr 7 -
We took a very short quiz, and then we discussed ethical relativism.
Reading for next class:
Chapters 1 and 2 from Ermann and Shauf (pp. 3-16) (utilitarianism and
Kantian ethics), and an article
by O'Neill, "Kant's Formula of the End in Itself and World Hunger".
- Class #1 - Mon Apr 5 -
Professors Reynoso and Rogaway introduce themselves and their view of this class.
Is computer technology supportive of human interactions or antagonistic to it?
Reading for next class:
Article by Louis Pojman, "A Critique of Ethical Relativism".
Phil Rogaway's homepage