Ethics and Politics of Technology

3 units

Will technology set us free, or will it ruin everything? From bikes to biometrics, technologies are often framed in terms of their hyped promises and perils. But what exactly counts as technology, and what is good, bad, ethical, or political about it? How should we evaluate technology’s consequences in spheres like work, medicine, or intimate relationships? Who is responsible for its benefits and harms, and how these are distributed? How can technological developments reproduce or resist social hierarchies such as gender or race? In this course, we will critically examine how technologies reflect and shape human values. Our discussions will draw from a variety of historical and contemporary contexts in which these questions are particularly salient; possible topics may include algorithmic bias, surveillance, dating apps, genomics, and policing. The overarching goals of the course are for students to build habits of constructive engagement with these questions and to improve their abilities to think and act in ways that are sensitive to the ethics and politics of technology. Students of all intellectual and personal backgrounds are enthusiastically welcomed to the course. It might be particularly interesting to students who are interested in careers in engineering and computer science.