Hazards of Computing Syllabus

Below is a syllabus outline for an introductory undergraduate class about computers and society. It could be taught under the title "Social and Ethical Issues in Computing," "Computers and Society," "The Politics of Technology," and other course names. Taken together, the materials introduce students to social and ethical issues related to the internet, artificial intelligence, algorithms, social media, and more.

The course has two main goals as of writing: (1) help students analyze how technology can exacerbate societal issues, and (2) encourage long-term historical thinking in this analysis.

As a tertiary goal, I wanted to help students understand different types of sources and their impact. To that end, the syllabus includes academic articles, book excerpts, general audience news articles, documentaries, and more. It also includes different (good-faith) authors from a range of perspectives—from critics who want to burn it all down, to optimists who plan to fix everything.

If you have any suggested additions, please contact me!

Introduction 🎬

• Helen Nissenbaum, How Computer Systems Embody Values (IEEE Computer)
• Thomas Mullaney, Your Computer is on Fire (from edited volume)
• Mar Hicks, When Did the Fire Start? (from edited volume)
• Noreen Malone, Unfriended: Frances Haugen on Her Facebook Testimony and What Comes Next (Vogue)
• Jeff Orlowski, The Social Dilemma (docudrama)
• [Additional materials: computers and society in the news]

Media 📰

• Vaughan Bell, A History of Media Technology Scares (Slate)
• Ellen Wartella and Nancy Jennings, Children and Computers: New Technology. Old Concerns (The Future of Children)
• Cerniglia et al., Internet Addiction in adolescence (Neuroscience Reviews)
• Neil Postman, Informing Oursleves to Death (Speech for the German Informatics Society)

Manipulation 🕹

• Jill Lepore, How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future (The New Yorker)
• Jim Isaak and Mina J. Hanna, Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, & Privacy Protection
• Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim, The Great Hack (documentary)

Discrimination ⚖️

• Amy Hiller, Redlining and Homeowners Loan Corporation (Journal of Urban History)
• Chris Gilliard, Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy (blog)
• Safiya Noble, Algorithms of Oppression (book excerpts)
• Ruha Benjamin, Race After Technology (book excerpts)
• Search Engine Breakdown (PBS short film)
• Madeline Ashby and Farhad Pakdel, Frames (short film)
• Shalini Kantayya, Coded Bias (documentary)

Labor ⚒️

• Juliet Schor and Steven Vallas, The Sharing Economy: Rhetoric and Reality (Annual Review of Sociology)
• Jennifer S. Light, When Computers Were Women (Technology and Culture)
• Berger et al., Work and well-being in the ‘Gig Economy’ (Economic Policy)
• Cathy O'Neil, Weapons of Math Destruction (Chapter 6 and 7 - "Getting a Job" and "On the Job")
• Margot Shetterly, Hidden Figures (book excerpts)
• Mary Gray and Siddharth Suri, Ghost Work (book excerpts)
• Sarah Roberts, Behind the Screen (book excerpts)

Warfare 💣 (i.e. Planned Explosions)

• Joseph Weizenbaum, Not Without Us (ACM Computers and Society)
• Derek Gregory, Drones and Late Modern Warfare (Theory, Culture, & Society)
• Henry McDonald, Ex-Google worker fears 'killer robot' atrocities (The Guardian)
• Sam Biddle, Google is Selling Advanced AI to Israel (The Intercept)

Crashes 💥 (i.e. Unplanned Explosions)

• Larry Heimann, Understanding the Challenger Disaster (Political Science Review)
• John Uri and Kelli Mars, Remembering Challenger and Her Crew (NASA)
• Erik Fogg, How Organizational Burnout Led to the 1986 Challenger Disaster, and What Engineering Teams Can Learn from It (Prod Perfect Blog)
• Phillip Johnston and Rozi Harris, The Boeing 737 MAX Saga (Software Quality)
• Alexander Hotz and Rob Alcaraz, Inside the Boeing 737 MAX Scandal That Rocked Aviation (WSJ Video)
• Nancy Leveson, The Therac-25: 30 Years Later (IEEE Computer)
• John of "Plainly Difficult," The killer Therac-25 Radiotherapy machine (Short Documentary)
• Rory Kennedy, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing (documentary)

Health 💉

• Hanna-Attisha et al., Elevated Blood Lead Levels in Children Associated With the Flint Drinking Water Crisis (American Journal of Public Health)
• Zeynep Tufekci, The Pandemic Heroes Who Gave us the Gift of Time and Gift of Information (blog)
• Sam Schechner, Jeff Horwitz, and Emily Glazer, How Facebook Hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s Bid to Get America Vaccinated (Wall Street Journal)
• Dan Weissmann, Reversal of Fortune (podcast about Chicago sewer history)

Climate 🌍

• Bender and Gebru et al., On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? (FAccT Conference)
• Mora et al., Bitcoin emissions alone could push global warming above 2°C (Nature)
• Emma Marris, The United States Has Become a Disaster Area (The Atlantic)
• Andrew Stanton, WALL-E (Pixar Film)
• Jonathan McIntosh, WALL-E as Sociological Storytelling (Video Essay)
• Tom van der Linden, A New Philosophy of Nature (Video Essay)

Conclusions 🎬

• Bruno Latour, Love Your Monsters (The Breakthrough Institute)
• Bruno Latour, On Technological Mediation (Common Knowledge)

Other Notes

This class was originally taught as a 10-week writing seminar in which students were required to write a 20-page paper by the end of the course. As such, the priority was breadth rather than depth (increasing the chances that students will find something that piques their interest). Revised versions of this course could focus more closely on any one or two topics above.