ENGL-380-01-2214 - Literary Themes

TECHNICALLY

HUMAN:

THE ART AND THE ETHICS OF TECHNOLOGY

 

Email: ddonig@calpoly.edu

Office Hours: Tuesday 1-3pm https://calpoly.zoom.us/j/81521741253

Office Hours Meeting ID: 815 2174 1253

Class Meeting Link: https://calpoly.zoom.us/j/6484871456

Meeting ID: 648 487 1456

 

Google. Facebook. Twitter. Uber. Tinder. The way that we navigate our world and our lives has been fundamentally changed by the ideas, the decisions, the designs, and the developers of 20^th and 21^st century technologists. The products of those decisions, designs, and developments have changed how we understand and relate to each other.

Throughout the history of technological production, fiction has played a central role, collaborating with technologists in market production and fueling the desire for technological creation and futuristic environments. How do works of imagination—namely science fiction—help us understand the ethical questions that technological innovation poses? Science fiction is often engineered in conversation with consulting technologists; technology is often engineered in conversation with the visions created by imagineers, including writers, artists, and filmmakers. What is the dynamic between imagining as a practice of building fictional worlds, and imagining as a practice of building real technologies? What does science fiction’s vision of the future tells about the culture of technological innovation, and what does science fiction about how we understand as “the human,” even as science changes what it means to be human?

In this course, we will look critically at the concept of “the good’ and “the human” in relationship to tech, in order to understand the hopes, the challenges, and the consequences of technological production. We will also investigate the structure and the culture of the tech industry to consider how the passions, the biases, and the blind spots of those who govern and participate in its culture are built into seemingly neutral forms of technology. We will read art that engages with the complexities of technological design and its global distribution. Finally, we will investigate the relationship between art and tech to consider how humanists might participate in--and perhaps alter--the course and the culture of technology in today’s world.

In addition to exploring the genre of science fiction, this course will consider the place of humanistic inquiry, specifically literary inquiry, in the sphere of technological production. How can a humanistic inquiry like literary studies live and work alongside technological production, and what would a humanistic approach to technology look like, accomplish, enable, or perhaps block? How might humanists, and a type of culturally critical and particularly literary way of thinking, intervene into conversations about the ethics of technological production?

 

Required Texts:

George Orwell, 1984

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants

Manjula Padmanabhan, Harvest

Dave Eggers, The Circle

Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus

 

PDFs Available on Canvas:

George Saunders, “The Braindead Megaphone”

Andrew Marantz, “Antisocial”

John Cassidy, “Me Media”

E.M. Forster The Machine Stops

Plato, Republic

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

Wole Talabi, “Necessary and Sufficient Conditions”

Jean Luc Nancy “The Intruder”

Rebecca Roanhorse “Welcome To Your Authentic Indian Experience”

Homer G. Wells War of the Worlds (broadcast version)

 

Film/TV:

“Westworld” is currently available on HBO, which is streaming the show free of charge. “Star Trek” is streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and available for purchase. Wall-E is streaming on Disney+ and is available to rent on Amazon Prime for $2.99.

 

Reading Schedule and Assignment Due Dates:

Please note: Material should be read by the date listed on the syllabus. So, for example, please read the material listed next to 4/12 by the time we meet on 4/12.

 

Unit 1: Humans + Tech Today: The State of the Union

3/29: John Cassidy “Me Media,” George Saunders “The Brain-Dead Megaphone” Tim Wu The Attention Merchants (p1-7,108-122, 289-302, 308-317, 335-339, 348-353)

Podcast episode 6, 11

SELF INTRODUCTION DUE BY 3/31, 9 PM.

4/2: New Podcast Episode 37 Released 

Unit 2: The Culture of Technology and “The Good”

4/5: Plato Republic (selections); Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics

Andrew Marantz Antisocial (Excerpt)

Yuval Noah Harari Homo Deus (“The New Human Agenda,” 1-21, “The Storytellers,” 155-178, “The Data Religion,” 372-402)

Podcast Episode 2

4/9: New Podcast Episode 38 Released

4/12: George Orwell, 1984

            Podcast Episode 3

            Podcast Episode 29

4/16: New Podcast Episode 39 Released

 

Unit 3: Intergalactic: Planetary
4/19:  Wole Talabi, “Necessary and Sufficient Conditions”

Kodwo Eshun, “Further Notes on Afrofuturism”

Podcast Episode 4

PICK MANIFESTO GROUPS DUE

4/23: New Podcast Episode 40 Released

4/26: Manjula Padmanabhan Harvest

          Jean Luc Nancy “The Intruder”
          Podcast Episode 13

4/30: New Podcast Episode 41 Released

               
5/3: Homer G. Wells War of the Worlds (broadcast version)

Podcast Episode 7

5/7: Podcast Episode 42 Released

Unit 4: Utopia/Dystopia 

5/10: Westworld

          Rebecca Roanhorse “Welcome To Your Authentic Indian Experience”

Podcast episodes 8

GROUP MANIFESTO DRAFT DUE

5/14: New Podcast Episode 43 Released

Unit 5: The Social Network

5/17:   E.M Forster The Machine Stops

           Star Trek: The Next Generation The Measure of a Man (season 2, episode 9)

             Podcast Episode 1

            MANIFESTO REVISION COMMENTS DUE

5/21: New Podcast Episode 44 Released
 

5/24: Dave Eggers The Circle

Podcast Episode 5 

5/30: New Podcast Episode 45 Released

THE NEXT GENERATION
5/31: No Class, Memorial Day

6/2:    Wall-E

Podcast Episode 10

 6/4: New Podcast Episode 46 Released     

6/7:     Portfolios Due by 11:59 PM

         Final Manifesto Due by 11:59 PM

 

Office Hours:  

 

I will hold virtual office hours on Zoom, on Tuesdays from 1-3PM, and by appointment. Meeting ID appears above. I’m also happy to find a time to connect outside of office hours, if that time won’t work for you. Just email me.

 

Overview:

Our mission this quarter is to take a deep dive into what I’m calling “ethical technology.” I did not plan to be teaching a course where we investigate the ethics of technology and what it means to be human in virtual environments in an environment solely characterized by virtual environments and technology, but here we are. And there is no better time to start thinking about these things, because how we come to understand our humanity at this tipping point will characterize how we move forward as much of the world’s interactions take place in virtual space.

 

I invite you on this journey with me. I understand that for many of you, this has been, and continues to be, a scary and uncertain time. I imagine that many of you have much on your minds beyond this class or even any of your classes.

 

To that end, I invite you to engage in this class as it is meaningful for you. Don’t do it for the grade. Don’t do it for me. Do it for you, because what we will learn in this class go beyond classroom knowledge. I hope, and I expect, that this class will help you gain a framework for understanding the moment we are in. We’re going to be reading about the utopic hopes of technological imagination, and some of the ways that those aspirations can go terribly wrong. We will think about how technology impacts our imagination and our ability to imagine. Conversely, we will also think about how our ability to imagine and our imaginative products—particularly science fiction—impacts and directs our technological production.

 

I hope you’ll take the time to learn and think with me, and together.

 

Expectations: Here are some of the expectations of this class. If you don’t think you can meet these expectations, or if this class is not interesting to you, please drop the class now. If you do stay, I expect you to contribute to the community fully by:

 

-Journaling 2x / week, and responding to peer journals. We will be investigating stoic philosophy in this class as we interrogate the idea of “the good” when it comes to technological creation. The stoics believed, and I believe, that we don’t know what we think until we read what we have written. Writing is hard, because it pushes us to articulate and clarify the things going on in our mind. I’ll ask you to journal twice a week and respond to a peer’s journal 2x a week. Journals will be graded as complete/incomplete, and due every Monday evening at 9pm and every Thursday evening at 9pm. Journal entries should be 450-600 words, and should be NO MORE THAN 650 words, max. Responses should be greater than 300 words and NO MORE THAN 500 words. At the end of the quarter, you will select your top 3 journal entries for grading. For these journals, you can write about anything that is related to the material that we are reading THAT WEEK ONLY. For example, you might write about a character or a theme in Dave Eggers’s book The Circle. You can write about how the ideas in the work relate to our current circumstances. You can write about how the tech or the philosophical approaches discussed in that week prompt your thinking about your life or the state of our world.

 

You will also respond to a peer’s journal 2x/week. Responses to your peers should be posted online, and are due Monday and Thursday by 9pm. Responses should be to a post from the day before. So, for example, if a post appears on Monday, April 19, your response should appear Tuesday, April 20, by 9pm.

 

Journaling shows us what we are actually thinking. Writing isn’t about having an idea and putting it out on the page. Writing is about figuring out what you actually think, which is what the process of writing allows. When you sit down to journal and just free write, you discover things that you didn’t know that you thought. Your brain is working on things ALL THE TIME, but often we don’t stop to understand what it is. When you give yourself the opportunity to let your brain speak to the page, (or screen) you start to see what you’ve got going on in there, and THAT is the creative act. You’re putting something out into the world that even you didn’t know existed. It is so rare in our lives that we have situations where we can kind of let our minds happen, and I hope that this opportunity to journal will allow you insight into what you are thinking, which is what we discover when we start writing about it. Don’t write what you think you already know, write to discover, like you’re playing jazz or practicing scales. Improvise. Play. Imagine.

 

I won’t grade these journals individually, but I will ask you to select the three that you think are your best and submit them as a portfolio, which I will grade. You can revise these 3 entries for grading, or leave them as they were. 

 

Submitted entries that meet the length requirement, attend to the relevant material, and are submitted on time will be given full credit. No late assignments will be credited. Late means any point in time after the deadline.

If you want to read more about the benefits of journalism, including its ability to clarify thoughts, calm anxiety, helping develop and progress learning from one day to another, setting intentions, reviewing experiences, manifesting goals, and helping prepare for and launch a meaningful, intentional day, you can read this: https://dailystoic.com/journaling/#header1.

 

-Listening to the podcast. I will release for this class, on the topic of Ethical Technology. Guys, I thought that instead of setting you guys up for long Zoom presentations where you have to be at your computer, I’d get some major thinkers in the area of ethical tech/science fiction, and release a podcast for you. I ask that you listen, and I promise to make these podcasts relevant, exciting, and entertaining. You can listen to them while taking walks, cleaning, playing video games, or while you’re in the bath! Just listen to them. I’ll make it worth your while. If you would like to submit questions to our guests, you can submit questions to me, and I’ll ask them on the podcast, which will then be released publicly. Podcasts are released on Fridays. You can write your Friday journal responses on the podcasts.

 

-Weekly discussion participation. I am planning to hold bi-weekly Zoom meetings where I’ll give a presentation on the material and then open it up for your comments and questions. This is your time to provide your ideas about the reading and to ask me questions you might have. I’ll talk about the texts and provide insight into some ways of thinking about what we are reading.

  

-Ethical Technology Manifesto. At the end of the quarter, we will write a “Manifesto for Ethical Technology” together. We’ll discuss the idea of a “manifesto” and you will work in groups to write one, which we will publish together on the Cal Poly Ethical Technology website (www.etcalpoly.org).

 

Folks, I am expecting this is going to be a hard quarter as many of us try to navigate tech, and the usual unexpected disasters and challenges, and a lot of things won’t go as planned. I’m asking for your help, for your full effort, and for you to do the best you can. I’ll send out more information as things come together.

 

This class will use Canvas. You can log on to the course website and read the class overview. You will also see that I have set up weekly responses

 

In the meantime, I’d like you to help me launch this class by writing a quick introduction to you, your interests in the class, your current thinking about the ethics of technology, and how our current moment has inflected that thinking and your use of technology. Longer directions are up on the website, and I have included them below as well:

Please read the course description on the homepage. Then, please write between 250-500 words about your interest in this course, your understanding about the ethics of technology, your thinking about the interaction between humans and technology, your concerns about technology, and your hypothesis about how science fiction can help us understand, or how sci-fi interacts with, technological innovation.

 

This is an introductory assignment. All submissions completed on time will receive full credit. One way I will use this assignment is to check in to see who is actually committing to this class. Course introductions are due by WEDNESDAY, March 31, BY 9PM, I will use this assignment to get to know you all and start to adjust the syllabus so I can best address your interests. You can also “like” responses by your peers that you find interesting or that you connect with.

 

Grading Breakdown:

Journaling:                                                       20%

Journal Portfolio:                                              20%

Ethical Technology Manifesto Group Draft:       10%

Ethical Technology Manifesto Peer Review:       10%

Ethical Technology Manifesto Final:                  20%

Participation and Attendance                            10%

Ethical Tech Manifesto Group Sign-Ups:            5%

Introductory Assignment:                                  5%

 

List of Previous Podcast Episodes:

1. Phoning Home: Using Social Media to Help the Homeless with Kevin Adler and Jessica Donig
2. The Good Place: Talking Ethical Tech and Philosophies of the Good with Dr. Ryan Jenkins
3. Ethical Tech Goes to College: Humane Technology on Campus with Dr. Matt Harsh
4. Tech Represents: Black Millennials Go Digital with Blavity COO Aaron Samuels
5. Data Dystopia: Dave Eggers Discusses Digital Human Rights
6. Cultural Revolution: Chris Ategeka Calls for a Paradigm Shift in Tech
7. The Meaning of Life: Professor Arthur Caplan Discusses Medical Tech and the Rise of

Bioethics

8. Making Up Our Minds: How AI is Rewiring Our Brains with Professor De Kai
9. Science as a Human Endeavor: Carl Zimmer Explains the Meaning of Life, and What it Means to Write About It.
10. The Next Generation of Technologists: a Roundtable with the Future of Ethical Tech
11. California Dreaming: Silicon Valley’s Moral Vision with Dr. Morgan Ames
12. Linking In: Hireclub Founder and CEO Ketan Anjaria Breaks Down Getting Hired in the Tech Industry
13. Biotechnically Human: George Estreich on Disability, Biotechnology, and How Technologies Are Defining Who Counts as “Human”
14. Tech Stands Up: Talking Tech Leadership with Dex Hunter-Torricke
15. Podcast Takeover Series 1
16. Podcast Takeover Series 2
17. Podcast Takeover Series 3
18. The Way Way Back Machine: A Dive Into the Archive with Dr. Jason Lustig
19. The Ethics of the Algorithm: Digital Innovation & Humanistic Computation with Dr. Todd Presner
20. Of the People, By the People, For the People: Public Interest Technology With Hana Schank
21. Technically Legal: Professor Jeff Ward Explores the Relationship between Law and Tech
22. The Impact of Impact: Todd Johnson Discusses Ethical and Socially Responsible Tech Investing
23. Server Technology: Ret. Col. Robert Gordon III on Tech and Service
24. Block Power: Marcus Miller on Mobilizing Black Voters, the 2020 Election, and Grassroots Organizing in the Age of Tech
25. Active Imagination: Malka Older Talks Humanitarianism, Science Fiction, and the Future of Democracy
26. Tech Stands Up: Brad Taylor Builds the New Technological Revolution
27. How Tech is Changing Democracy Around the Globe: Mohamed Abubakr on Democratic Revolutions, Here and Abroad
28. The American Dream Goes Digital: The Myths and Technologies that Bind Us with Dr. Julie Albright
29. Protecting Our Tech: Dr. Bruce DeBruhl Breaks Down Cybersecurity and What That Means for the World, the Country, and YOU
30. The “Changing Minds” Series: Episode 1 With Daryl Davis
31. The “Changing Minds” Series: Episode 2 With Daryl Davis
32. The “Changing Minds” Series: Episode 3 With Bill Ottman
33. Virtually Human: Living in Jaron Lanier’s Virtual Reality
34. Mark Jacobson Revolutionizes Climate Science: How Tech Can Save the World From Climate Change and What YOU Can Do to Help
35. World Building: John Maeda Designs the Future of Art, Tech, and Architecture
36. Haley Pavone Reinvents the Heel: Fashion Is an Ethics and Equity Issue