Schedule for CS 4001 HP: Computing, Society, & Professionalism

Readings are subject to change. Check the online syllabus before reading.

Date	Topic	Readings	Assignment
8/21	Welcome & Overview
8/23	Case Study: Therac-25	"Medical Devices: The Therac-25" by Nancy Leveson Quinn 8.5 Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to Do Harm (New York Times, January 23, 2010) Optional reading: Incident reporting and learning in radiation oncology
8/28	Do Artifacts Have Politics?	"Do Artifacts Have Politics?" by Langdon Winner (electronic reserve)
8/30	Utilitarianism	Quinn 2.1-2.3, 2.7-2.8
9/4	Deontology & Social Contract Theory	Quinn 2.6, 2.9	Reflection on the politics of a technological artifact
9/6	Stakeholder Analysis & Virtue Ethics	In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan, pp. 25-39 (electronic reserve) Virtue Ethics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Quinn 2.10-2.11 Ethics of Worksplace Surveillance, a 4001 term paper, 2014 (shared with permission)	Please come to class with a short quote from one of the readings that you find interesting.
9/11	Freedom of Speech & Networked Communications	Quinn 3.2, 3.5-3.8 Skim the rest of the chapter	Applying Ethical Frameworks to a Dilemma
9/13	Professional Ethics	Quinn Chapter 9 Revised ACM Code of Conduct
9/18	Privacy	Quinn Chapter 5, Chapter 6 through 6.5, 6.7	Analysis of New ACM Code
9/20	Privacy and the Government	Quinn Chapter 6.8-end Understanding the General Data Protection Regulation: A primer for global publishers
9/25	Term Paper Proposals		Term Paper Proposals Come to class prepared to tell everyone about your term paper topic.
9/27	Intellectual Property	Quinn Chapter 4, through end of 4.6
10/2	Software as Intellectual Property	Quinn Chapter 4, continued (4.7-end)	Group presentation proposals
10/4	Computer Reliability & Software Warranties	Quinn Chapter 8.1-8.4, 8.7-8.8
10/9	Fall break (no class)
10/11	Midterm Review
10/16	Midterm
10/18	The Patriot Act	Quinn 6.6 Wikipedia Articles (skim, except where otherwise noted): The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) FISA Amendments Act The USA Patriot Act National Security Letters EFF's NSA Spying Timeline (skim, bottom up) Brandon Mayfield (read more carefully) Start watching United States of Secrets, Part One What you need to know for the final about this
10/23	The NSA and Edward Snowden	Finish watching United States of Secrets, Part One Watch United States of Secrets, Part Two	Add the name of a person involved in these events to the class discussion on Canvas. Pick someone no one else has chosen yet. Take notes on what is said about them as you watch the Frontline documentary, and supplement that by doing some research online (Wikipedia is adequate in most cases). Come to class prepared to tell the class: Who is this person? What is their background and what is their job? What role did they play in these events? Tell their story. What important choices did they make? What happened to them as a result? How would you evaluate their choices? Relevant people include NSA employees, politicians, lawyers, journalists, etc. This counts towards your class participation grade.
10/25	Group Presentations I: Filter Bubbles; Deep Fakes	Introduction (pages 1-20) of The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser (electronic reserve) Avoiding the Echo Chamber about Filter Bubbles by Guess, Lyons, Nyhan, and Reifler Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security (Sections I and II) Face2Face: Real-time Face Capture and Reenactment of RGB Videos (video, just first two minutes) Optional: Here Come the Fake Videos, Too by Kevin Roose in The New York Times
10/30	Group Presentations II: Net Neutrality; Voting	Point/Counterpoint: Network Neutrality Nuances What Everyone Gets Wrong in the Debate Over Net Neutrality Quinn 7.5, 8.2.1, 8.4.7 EFF on Evoting Find an article about the security of voting, and post it on the discussion on Canvas. Make sure no one else has picked the same article. Come to class prepared to present your article.	Term Paper Outline
11/1	Group Presentations III: Automation of Labor; Face Recognition	Automation and anxiety - The impact on jobs Facial recognition: is the technology taking away your identity?
11/6	Visual Argument (Guest lecturer)	Visual & Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Decision Making by Tufte
11/8	Work and Wealth (Guest lecturer)	Quinn 10.1-10.4, 10.6 The Planet Money T-Shirt Project (podcast, please listen to all parts, a bit more than an hour total)
11/13	Term Paper Discussion	Come to class prepared to talk about your term paper	Term Papers
11/15	Group Presentations IV: International Intellectual Property; Privacy and DNA	Basics of International Intellectual Property Law International Intellectual Property Rights: Is China Serious About Enforcement?" 7 Things You Should Know about the Future of Your Genetic Data 'Glaring Gap' Seen in DNA Privacy Pledges by 23andMe, Ancestry
11/20, 11/22	No class--Happy Thanksgiving!
11/27	Two topics: Ariely & Simulation	Chapter "The Context of our Character, Part 1: Why We Are Dishonest, and What We Can Do About It" from "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely (electronic reserve) Seductions of Sim by Paul Starr Quinn 8.6
11/30	Should you believe Wikipedia?	"Should you believe Wikipedia?" draft chapter by Amy Bruckman (handout)
12/5	Final Exam Review

Readings and assignments are subject to change.