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 19 | jan 20 | jan 21 SEM 1: Introduction First day of classes |
jan 22 | jan 23 |
| jan 26 SEM 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: Project #1 (Critical Analysis: Content Moderation) |
jan 27 | jan 28 SEM 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 |
jan 29 Section for project 1 (Connor) |
jan 30 |
| feb 2 SEM 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 3 Section for project 1 (Jiayi) |
feb 4 SEM 5: Disciplinary approaches: critical approaches Preparation: Coeckelbergh and Reijers, Cryptocurrencies as Narrative Technologies |
feb 5 | feb 6 DUE: Sun, February 8: Project 1 (Critical Analysis: Content Moderation) |
| feb 9 SEM 6: Data: privacy Preparation: Eubanks,The digital Poorhouse Preparation: Véliz, Privacy is Power, chapters 3 & 4 (chapters 1 & 2 recommended) Assigned: Project 2 (Specification: Smart Thermostat) |
feb 10 | feb 11 SEM 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 12 | feb 13 |
| feb 16 Long Weekend |
feb 17 | feb 18 SEM 8: Data: transparency Preparation: Pasquale, The Black Box Society, pp. 59-80, pp. 140-165 Preparation: Nguyen, Transparency is Surveillance |
feb 19 | feb 20 DUE: Sunday, February 22: Project 2 (Specification: Smart Thermostat): |
| feb 23 SEM 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 Assigned: Project 3 (Implementation: HireSense) Assigned: Final Project |
feb 24 | feb 25 SEM 10: Data and AI: fairness and justice Preparation: Kleinberg et al., Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores Preparation: Green, Escaping the Impossibility of Fairness |
feb 26 | feb 27 |
| mar 2 SEM 11: Individuals: autonomy and consent Preparation: Simmons, Tacit Consent and Political Obligation Preparation: Solove, Privacy Self-Management and the Consent Dilemma schedule mentor TA meeting #1 |
mar 3 | mar 4 SEM 12: 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 5 | mar 6 DUE: Sunday, March, 8: Project 3 (Implementation: HireSense) |
| mar 9 SEM 13: 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 10 | mar 11 SEM 14: Individuals: flourishing and the attention economy Preparation: Williams, Stand Out of Our Light, (short) chapters 3, 4, 7, 8 |
mar 12 | mar 13 |
| mar 16 SEM 15: project research workshops Preparation: Farmer et al., Collaborators in Creation schedule mentor TA meeting #2 |
mar 17 | mar 18 SEM 16: project research workshops Assigned: Project 4 (Agentic Coding) |
mar 19 | mar 20 DUE: Final project proposal |
| mar 23 Spring Break |
mar 24 Spring Break |
mar 25 Spring Break |
mar 26 Spring Break |
mar 27 Spring Break |
| mar 30 SEM 17: The public sphere: democratic engagement and public discourse Preparation: Cohen, Procedure and Substance in Deliberative Democracy Preparation: Christiano, Algorithms, Manipulation, and Democracy |
mar 31 | apr 1 SEM 18: 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 2 | apr 3 DUE: Sunday, April 5: Project 4 (Agentic Coding) |
| apr 6 SEM 19: 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 7 | apr 8 SEM 20: 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 9 | apr 10 |
| apr 13 SEM 21: Simulation: social and political engagement |
apr 14 | apr 15 SEM 22: Simulation: social and political engagement |
apr 16 | apr 17 |
| apr 20 SEM 23: project presentations |
apr 21 | apr 22 SEM 24: project presentations |
apr 23 | apr 24 |
| apr 27 SEM 25: project presentations |
apr 28 | apr 29 SEM 26: project presentations |
apr 30 | may 1 |
| may 4 DUE: Final project |
may 5 Last day of classes |
may 6 Exam period |
may 7 Exam period |
may 8 Exam period |
| may 11 Exam period |
may 12 Exam period |
may 13 Exam period |
may 14 Exam period |
may 15 Exam period |