All the readings for the weeks ahead will be available on Canvas, unless they are available online without access restrictions or as an ebook from the library. In that case, you can access them via a link on the schedule.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| jan 23 | jan 24 | jan 25 LEC 1: Introduction First day of classes |
jan 26 | jan 27 |
| jan 30 LEC 2: Disciplinary approaches: ethics and political philosophy: moral perspectives Preparation: Mulgan, How should utilitarians think about the future? Preparation: Aylsworth and Castro, On the duty to be an attention ecologist Assigned: Lab #1 (Critical Analysis) |
jan 31 | feb 1 LEC 3: Disciplinary approaches: ethics and political philosophy: political perspectives Preparation: Alcázar et al., Do Automated Vehicles Face Moral Dilemmas? A Plea for a Political Approach Preparation: Young, Taking the Basic Structure Seriously |
feb 2 | feb 3 |
| feb 6 LEC 4: Disciplinary approaches: critical approaches Preparation: Hull, Infrastructure, Modulation, Portal: Thinking with Foucault about how Internet Architecture Shapes Subjects Preparation: Sheehey, Ethics Beyond Transparency: Resisting the Racial Injustice of Predictive Policing |
feb 7 | feb 8 LEC 5: Disciplinary approaches: critical approaches Preparation: Coeckelbergh and Reijers, Cryptocurrencies as Narrative Technologies Preparation: Introna (in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Phenomenological Approaches to Ethics and Information Technology, sections 1 and 2 |
feb 9 | feb 10 |
| feb 13 LEC 6: Data: privacy Preparation: Eubanks,The digital Poorhouse Preparation: Véliz, Privacy is Power, chapters 3 & 4 (chapters 1 & 2 recommended) |
feb 14 | feb 15 LEC 7: Data: privacy Preparation: Rouvroy and Poullet, The Right to Informational Self-Determination and the Value of Self-Development: Reassessing the Importance of Privacy for Democracy Preparation: Rosen, The Right to be Forgotten Preparation: De Baets, A historian's view on the right to be forgotten |
feb 16 | feb 17 DUE: Lab #1 (Critical Analysis: Content Moderation) |
| feb 20 Assigned: Lab 2 (Specification: Smart Thermostat) Presidents' Day |
feb 21 | feb 22 LEC 8: Data: transparency Preparation: Pasquale, The Black Box Society, pp. 59-80, pp. 140-165 Preparation: Nguyen, Transparency is Surveillance |
feb 23 | feb 24 |
| feb 27 LEC 9: Data and AI: fairness and justice Preparation: Kent and Hoberman, Data & Reality, pp. 21-59 (Preface to 1st edition, chapters 1 & 2) Preparation: Lemov, Big Data is People Preparation: Anderson, The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete |
feb 28 | mar 1 LEC 10: Data and AI: fairness and justice Preparation: Narayanan: 21 fairness definitions and their politics Preparation: Kleinberg et al., Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores Preparation: Green, Escaping the Impossibility of Fairness |
mar 2 | mar 3 DUE: Lab 2 (Specification: Smart Thermostat): due Sat, March 4 |
| mar 6 LEC 11: Individuals: autonomy and consent Preparation: Simmons, Tacit Consent and Political Obligation Preparation: Solove, Privacy Self-Management and the Consent Dilemma Assigned: Lab 3 (Implementation: HireSense) |
mar 7 | mar 8 No class! |
mar 9 | mar 10 |
| mar 13 LEC 12: Individuals: flourishing and the attention economy Preparation: Carr, The World Wide Cage Preparation: Lyngs et al., “So, Tell Me What Users Want, What They Really, Really Want!” Preparation: Crawford, The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction, chapter 10 |
mar 14 | mar 15 LEC 13: Individuals: flourishing and the attention economy Preparation: Williams, Stand Out of Our Light, (short) chapters 3, 4, 7, 8 |
mar 16 | mar 17 DUE: Lab 3 (Implementation: HireSense) |
| mar 20 LEC 14: Individuals: autonomy and consent Preparation: Schmidt and Engelen, The ethics of nudging: and overview Preparation: Ienca and Vayena, Digital Nudging: Exploring the Ethical Boundaries Preparation: Bartmann, The Ethics of AI-Powered Climate Nudging—How Much AI Should We Use to Save the Planet? |
mar 21 | mar 22 LEC 15: project research workshops: talk to domain experts Preparation: Farmer et al., Collaborators in Creation |
mar 23 | mar 24 DUE: Final project proposal |
| mar 27 Spring Break |
mar 28 Spring Break |
mar 29 Spring Break |
mar 30 Spring Break |
mar 31 Spring Break |
| apr 3 LEC 16: The public sphere: democratic engagement and public discourse Preparation: Cohen, Procedure and Substance in Deliberative Democracy Preparation: Christiano, Algorithms, Manipulation, and Democracy Assigned: Lab 4 (User Centered Design) |
apr 4 | apr 5 LEC 17: The public sphere: democratic engagement and public discourse Preparation: Gillespie, Content moderation, AI, and the question of scale Preparation: Sunstein and Vermeule, Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures |
apr 6 | apr 7 |
| apr 10 LEC 18: The public sphere: regulation Preparation: Pasquale, The Black Box Society, chapter 6 Preparation: Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights Preparation: Petropoulos, A European Union Approach to Regulating Big Tech |
apr 11 | apr 12 LEC 19: The public sphere: regulation Preparation: Zetter, Of Course Congress Is Clueless About Tech Preparation: Chomanski, The Missing Ingredient in the Case for Regulating Big Tech Preparation: Balkin, How to Regulate (and Not Regulate) Social Media |
apr 13 | apr 14 DUE: Lab 4 (User Centered Design) |
| apr 17 LEC 20: Simulation: social and political engagement |
apr 18 | apr 19 LEC 21: Simulation: social and political engagement |
apr 20 | apr 21 |
| apr 24 LEC 22: project presentations |
apr 25 | apr 26 LEC 23: project presentations |
apr 27 | apr 28 |
| may 1 | may 2 | may 3 | may 4 | may 5 DUE: Final project |
| may 8 | may 9 Last day of classes |
may 10 Exam period |
may 11 Exam period |
may 12 Exam period |
| may 15 Exam period |
may 16 Exam period |
may 17 Exam period |
may 18 Exam period |
may 19 Exam period |