Week 1: Wed, Jan 8
Each generation of technologies is accompanied by both utopian and dystopian visions. These perspectives are worth considering as you develop your own perspectives on the relationship between technology and society:
- Will the Internet, Big Data, AI, IoT, ubiquitous computing, etc. save us all?
- How should we be think about what computing applications can and cannot accomplish?
- In what ways does computing make the world better?
- In what ways does it make it worse?
To think about such things, please read a “classic” HCI text: Do Artifacts Have Politics?. You will be drawing on this article, the Morozov interview, and others for your second homework assignment.
Readings
- Winner, Langdon (1980). Do Artifacts Have Politics?. Daedalus.
- Morozov, Evgeny (2013). We are abandoning all the checks and balances. The Guardian.
Optional
-
Jenkins, Holman W. Jr.
(Dec, 2019).
Pilots not the plane keep the Boeing MAX grounded.
The Wall Street Journal.
Note: NU students get a free Wall Street Journal membership. https://wsj.com/northwestern