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Q1, Q2, Q3, ... are quizzes; #A, #B, #C, ... are written assignments.

ECS 188 – Ethics in an Age of Technology – Winter 2013 – Phillip Rogaway

Class How we spent the class: For today you need to: Comments:
01 M 1/07 Attitudes towards technology. Intuitively held ethical beliefs. Surprise! Nothing due on our first day of class. See Wednesday’s slot for assignments due Wednesday, etc.
02 W 1/09 Watch Dekalog 1 by Kieslowski. Please come to class 2 mins early. Read the (1) Course information sheet, (2) A Brief Note to the Student, and (3) Philisophical Ethics by Johnson. (A) Write a Summary (click for what I mean by this) of the Johnson reading. More by Kieslowski: Blue, Red, The Double Life of Veronique
03 F 1/11 Q1. Discuss Dekalog I. Discuss the Johnson reading. (1) Finish the Johnson reading, if you didn’t manage to. (B) Write an Analysis (click for what I man by this) of Dekalog I. With proper attribution, you may consult secondary sources as desired. If needed, you can rewatch the film with the link to the right. Link to Dekalog 1.
04 M 1/14 Q2. Discussed ethical relativism (Pojman and part of Johnson) Read Ethical Relativism, by Pojman. .
05 W 1/16 Q3. Discussed Aaron Swartz, copyright, activism, and suicide Discuss the life of Aaron Swartz: (1) read Dotorow’s blog, Lessig’s blog, and watch a conference keynote. (2) Spend another hour investigating an issue close to Swartz. (3) Come to class prepared to give a 2-3 minute impromptu talk on it. Rest in peace,
Aaaron Swartz
06 F 1/18 Q4. Discussed utilitarianism. Began discussion on deontology. (1) Review the Johnson reading if you have have forgotten what it said of utilitarianism, deontology, or virtue ethics. (2) On your own, find an interesting & understandable article or book chapter, reasonably scholarly, on one of these three topics. Come prepared to discuss what you learned. Google scholar is a good way to locate academic readings. Many articles archived by Google-scholar will require you to be on campus or use the UCD library proxy
xx M 1/21 Holiday Martin Luther King’s birthday .
07 W 1/23 Discussed deontology and virtue ethics. Began discussion of Jonas reading. (1) Read: The Altered Nature of Human Action, by Hans Jonas. (C) Write up Quotes from the reading (click for what I mean by this). The reading is hard. Leave time; read slowly; lookup words you don’t know. Some notes on Kant.
08 F 1/25 Q5. Discussed environmental ethics / Leopold, and a bit more of Jonas. Read The Land Ethic by Aldo Leopold. A Sand County Almanac. Callicott, The Conceptual Foundations of the Land Ethic
09 M 1/28 Q6. Discussed the Barbour reading. Read Views of Technology, by Ian Barbour. .
10 W 1/30 Q7. Discussed McLuhan reading. Watched a quick video. (1) Read this interview of Marshal McLuhan. (2) Read something else—you choose—on or by McLuhan .
11 F 2/01 We watched Testament (1) Come to Discussion section. (2) Read Why the future doesn’t need us by Bill Joy. (D) Write an Analysis of the reading. 50 facts about U.S. nuclear weapons
12 M 2/04 Discussed the film Testament. Discussed student writing and swapped assignment D’s (E) Milestone 1 due (today, by email). (F) Brief essay on Testament No new reading for today.
13 W 2/06 Q8. Discussed the Hertsgaard reading. Watched part of James Hansen video Reading from Hot by Mark Hertsgaard .
14 F 2/08 Watched The Corporation (1) Watch Amory Lovins; (2) Watch Ozzie Zehner; (G) Write a one-paragraph (at most one page) essay comparing their basic views. .
15 M 2/11 Q9. Discussed The Corporation (1) Finish The Corporation (Sect 1 watched 1-19; Sect 2 watched 1-17) (H) What person who spoke in the film did you find most creepy or most likable (you get to choose)? Identify a particular and memorable quote s/he said (no more than a couple sentences) , and prepare a 3-minute talk discussing it. .
16 W 2/13 Q10. More discussion of The Corporation. Discussed the Friedman reading. (1) Read this selection from The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman .
17 F 2/15 Q11. Rant on advertising & coke. Discussed Stiglitz reading. Watched part of a video of him. (1) Read Another World is Possible from Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz. (2) Come prepared to compare Stiglitz’s view on globalization with Friedman’s. Amusing book review for Friedman’s The World is Flat
xx M 2/18 Holiday President’s Day .
18 W 2/20 Q12. Discussed the Schmidt reading. Read this selection from Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt. .
19 F 2/22 Watched Why we Fight (2005) by Eugene Jarecki (1) Read Computers, Ethics, and Collective Violence by Summers and Markusen (2) Read something on any follow-up experiment to the Milgram experiment described in the reading. Eisenhower’s Farewell Address to the Nation
20 M 2/25 We discussed Anh Duong and others from “Why We Fight”. Sect 1 discussed the Therac-25 reading. (I) Write an analysis of the moral character of Anh Duong as you understood it from Why we Fight (offsets 22:14 and 55:18 (53:46 for context)). (2) Read The Therac-25 by Nancy Leveson. .
21 W 2/27 Q13. Sect1: Giving Good Talks; New Yorker reading. Sect2: Therac-25 reading; New Yorker reading. (1) Read The Fifty-Nine-Story Crisis. (2) Read the ACM Code of Ethics and the IEEE Code of Ethics .
22 F 3/01 Q14. Sect2: Giving Good Talks. Discssed Unlocking the Clubhouse reading. Read this selection from Unlocking the Clubhouse by Margolis and Fisher. .
23 M 3/04 Q15. Discussed Boyle (patents and copyrights) (0) Learn your number i∈[1..25] from the class photo. (1) Read the Preface of The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle. (2) Then read Chapter (i mod 10)+1 from the book ( html, pdf) (J) Come prepared (bring hardcopy notes) to give a 4-min talk describing what you read. .
24 W 3/06 We continued our discussion of the Boyle reading. (1) Milestone 2 due: upload (to Resources) d101.pdf (or the like). (2) Bring your chapter from Boyle and the notes you prepared on it. .
25 F 3/08 Finished discussion of Boyle. Discussed ethical scenarios. Disc sect (1) Markup your two reviews (uploaded by the time class begins). (2) Once again, please bring your chapter from Boyle and the notes you prepared on it. .
26 M 3/11 Q16. Discussed the two videos. (1) Watch Food, Inc. (2008), by Robert Kenner. (2) Listen to Singer and Schlosser lecture (2007). The videos are about 90 mins each.
27 W 3/13 Presentation Day #1 Section 1: Read papers p101, p102
Section 2: Read papers p201, p202
(K) Write a one-paragraph assessment of each paper. Put each on a separate page. After reading them, I will cut off names and give each to that group.
Can Psychology be Taught?, by Daniel Kahneman.
28 F 3/15 Presentation Day #2 Section 1: Read papers p103, p104, p105, p106, p107
Section 2: Read papers p203, p204, p205, p206
(L) Write a one-paragraph assessment of each paper. Put each on a separate page.
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29 M 3/18 Presentation Day #3 Section 1: Read papers p108, p109
Section 2: Read papers p207*, p208
(M) Write a one-paragraph assessment of each paper. Put each on a separate page.
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yy W 3/20 Section 1 Final, 8-10 am;
Presentations Day #4
Read papers p110, p111, p112 .
zz S 3/23 Section 2 Final, 6-8 pm;
Presentations Day #4
Read papers p209, p210, p211 .