CSE 490ab: Undergraduate Computers, Ethics, and Society Seminar
Autumn 1999
Seminar time: Fridays 3:30-4:20, Loew 114
Organizer:
Alan Borning
In this seminar we'll look at a wide range of topics related to computers,
ethics, and society. The focus for autumn quarter is primarily on impacts
of computing on the economy and education. The seminar will be a mix of
guest lectures and discussion.
Autumn Quarter Topics and Schedule
I'd like to take advantage of several relevant distinguished lectures this
fall, as noted on this schedule, and students in the seminar should plan to
attend these.
Plan for the Year
The plan is to continue this seminar, assuming things go well.
Other potential topics for subsequent quarters include:
- professional ethics (including working through some scenarios)
- universal and differential access
- impacts on social capital (e.g. the HomeNet results from CMU)
- free speech online
- distance learning
- the impact of the internet on the political process
- reliability and risk
- privacy
- participatory design
- value sensitive design
- issues of trust and responsibility for automated systems
- modelling and simulation and its limits
- computer crime
- virtual reality
- artificial intelligence implications
- international perspectives on all of the above
Administrivia
CSE 490AB is 1 credit pass/fail. The required work for credit is showing
up and participating, some reading, and helping with a presentation
sometime during the year. One credit of the 490 seminar can be used as
senior elective credit. You can participate for multiple quarters (and
this is encouraged), but the additional credits are only available as free
electives.