CS 195, Social Implications of Computing
Brian Harvey
781 Soda Hall
642-8311
bh@cs.berkeley.edu
Office hours: Wed 10-11:30, Thu 4:10-5
General Course Information - As indicated below, each week has a topic, more or less. This first week is a general
overview of the course and the topics.
This semester is the pilot test of a new course organization, prompted by a likely "ethics course" requirement for EECS
majors. This will change the course from a small seminar to a large lecture, but I don't want to lose the
discussion time for those students who are really interested, hence the two versions. The non-honors version (1 unit) meets
once per week, Monday 4-5:30, in 306 Soda. The honors version (3 units) has the same lecture, plus an additional meeting
Wednesday 4-5:30, in 373 Soda.
This syllabus is online at http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs195a.
READINGS –
There are two course readers, although with a lot of overlap, one for each version of the course. Be sure to get the right
reader! They're at Copy Central on Hearst Ave. FOR THE NON-HONORS (CS 194 SECTION 11) STUDENTS, ALL
ASSIGNED READINGS ARE EITHER IN THE COURSE READER OR ONLINE. The honors version (CS 194 section
12) has two textbooks in addition to the reader:
[ES]
Computers, Ethics, and Society (Third Edition)
edited by M. David Ermann and Michele S. Shauf.
Oxford University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-19-514302-7
[Lud]
High Noon on the Electronic Frontier: Conceptual Issues in Cyberspace
edited by Peter Ludlow. MIT Press, 1996, ISBN 0-262-62103-7
Each week I cull news articles relevant to the course; these will be posted in the class bSpace page and are also part of the
week's reading assignment. You don't have to read every word of every article, but skim them and read the interesting ones.
PLEASE READ THE INDICATED PAPERS BEFORE EACH WEEK'S DISCUSSION. Most of the readings should be
easy going, with only a few exceptions. (I'll try to warn you about those in advance.) But if you don't do the reading, the
quality of the discussions will suffer. You are expected to attend class and participate in discussions.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS - The course is graded P/NP. In addition to attending all class sessions and doing the assigned
reading, the requirement for credit includes three writing assignments. In the non-honors section, these will be short (one
or
two page) papers on assigned topics, based on the readings and lectures, due Monday of weeks 6 (9/28), 10 (10/26), and 13
(11/16).
Each student will pick one topic for more intensive study, leading to a term paper and perhaps a presentation to the class.
(Your topic may or may not be the same as one of mine.) Since the term paper is your only written work in this course, I
want it to be good -- scholarly, honest, articulate, well-organized. To this end, you will prepare the term paper in three
stages:
* A one-page proposal (including initial bibliography) due week 5.
* A first version (your best effort!) due week 11.
* A revised version due week 14.
I'll respond to each of these stages within a week. THESE ARE FIRM DEADLINES; they are chosen to allow time for
recovery if what you turn in is not of acceptable quality. (Last year I required post-final versions from three out of about 30
students.) Typical papers are 5 to 10 pages, but don't pad; quality counts much more than quantity.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
I have strong opinions on some of these topics, and I believe that the road to academic integrity is for me to make my biases
clear, rather than to pretend not to have opinions. But it's also my job to be sure that the full range of opinion is fairly
presented and taken seriously; if, as sometimes happens, most of the class agrees with me about some point I'll do my best
to argue the other side of the question. The same standards apply to your papers: You don't have to agree with me; what
you have to do is show that you understand and take seriously points of view different from your own, and try to explain
why your arguments are better than theirs. (But not every paper is necessarily an opinion paper!)
Schedule:
Week
Dates Topic
Readings
1
1/23
(for Fri) ES 190-202
Williams, "Ethical..." (handout)
2
1/28,1/30
Privacy
3
2/4,2/6
Intellectual Property
4
2/11,2/13
Ethics
5
2/20
6
2/25,2/27
Self
ES 74-81, 101-110
Turkle, _The Second Self_ and
_Life on the Screen_ (reader)
7
3/3,3/5
Community
ES 85-90, 231-249; Lud 311-457
8
3/10,3/12
Computers and Education
ES 171-183
Papert, "Mathophobia..."
Schank/Cleary, "What Makes..."
Sewell, "Software Styles"
Goodman, "The Present Plight.."
Buber, "Education" and
"The Education of Character"
(reader)
9
3/17,3/19
Risks
Intro
ES 137-152; Lud 173-249
Rachels, "Why Privacy..."
Hausman, "Your..." (reader)
ES 3-20;
ES 153-162, 202-214; Lud 1-121
MacIntyre, _After Virtue_ (reader)
Computers and War
ES 214-231 Chapman, "A Moral Project..."
Page, "Star Wars..." (reader)
(PAPER PROPOSAL DUE Wednesday 2/20)
The Nature of Work
ES 110-122
Neumann, "Illustrative Risks..."
Levenson/Turner "...Therac-25.."
Collins et al, "How Good..."
Gladwell, "Blowup" (reader)
10
3/31,4/2
ES 184-190; Hochheiser,
"Workplace Database.."
Barbour, "Computers Transform..."
Pearson&Mitter "Computeriz..."
Dedrick et al, "Computing in..."
Forester, "Whatever..." (reader)
11
4/7,4/9
12
4/14,4/16
Cracking
13
4/21,4/23
Professional Ethics
14
4/28,4/30
student presentations
(REVISED PAPER DUE Monday 4/28)
15
5/5,5/7
Pornography and Censorship
Lud 251-310; Goodman,
"Pornography, Art..." (reader)
(FIRST PAPER VERSION DUE Monday 4/7)
ES 64-74; Lud 123-163
Wright, "Hackwork" (in reader)
student presentations, summary
ES 23-54