I'm NOT a Robot: The Contemporary Politics of Man and Machine

3 units

Our lives today are full of smart machines that appear to deliberate, make judgements, and interact socially. Yet unlike humans, they are bound to their programming, unable to improvise, feel, or ethically value- what one pioneering computer scientist called the imperialism of instrumental reason. What role does this rigid computer reason play in real-life projects of imperialism, of racial and class domination, and other forms of social inequality? How does it work with or against existing power structures? We will examine a variety of human-computer encounters across military and government, law and policing, science and medicine, and media and entertainment. Course materials will include ethnographies of computer science and robotics, readings about the history and philosophy of computing, as well as news articles and films related to pop culture and current events.