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There will be two
sections of this class, both co-taught by Alan Cline and Elaine Rich. The two sections (one at 2:00, the
other at 3:30) will be identical.
But we will require that you come to the session for which you are
registered. If we don’t do
this, the groups will become too lopsided in size.
Course Description
In this
class, we’ll cover a collection of issues that:
- Matter to computer scientists,
and/or
- Matter to our society and that
computer scientists have some significant impact on.
We’ll
look at issues from several points of view:
- What is ethical?
- What is (or should be) legal?
- What makes sense economically?
Some
specific topics that we’ll discuss are:
- Why do new technologies create
conceptual muddles that lead to policy vaccuums?
- How can standard ethical
theories inform the decisions we make every day as professionals?
- What parts of a computer system
can be trademarked and/or copyrighted?
- Where’s the balance
between rights of artists and rights of their customers?
- Who’s legally liable if your
program has a bug and someone dies?
- Who has the right to say what?
- Is there any role for the
professional media in the Internet age?
- Is privacy a thing of the
past? Should it be?
- How do we balance the risks
inherent in complex technology?
- How can we protect ourselves
against Internet hackers?
- Are electronic voting machines
a good idea?
- Is information technology
creating/exacerbating a world of haves and have nots? Do we care?
- What’s happening to
people’s jobs?
- What’s the role of
technology in warfare?
- Suppose we could build
artificial people, should we?
- As professionals, what
responsibilities do all of us have with respect to these issues?
What You’ll Do
We’ll
read books and papers and discuss them.
You need to check the Schedule of Topics and
Assignments and come to each class prepared to discuss the reading
assignment of that day. Sometimes
there will be homework assignments that relate to the reading and to the
class discussions.
As
you’re reading the news, be on the lookout for articles that touch on
the issues that we are covering in class. Every Thursday, you should come to
class with a printout of an article that you found interesting. You should be prepared to present your
article to the class.
In
addition, everyone in the class will pick a topic for a term project. You’ll submit a final paper, as
well as a short video, which we’ll watch in class at the end of the
semester. Check the term project page for more information, including
the evaluation sheets we’ll use for grading the project.
Contact Information
Alan Cline
– cline@cs.utexas.edu
Elaine Rich
- ear@cs.utexas.edu
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