Topics, Assignments, and Readings

For many of the linked readings you need to have your UC Berkeley library proxy server enabled on your web browser, or install the Berkeley VPN on your computer (better privacy).

4/24 Conclusion

We'll discuss the course as a whole, as well as the future of humanity. No survey this week (free survey points).

4/17 Income Inequality and the Bay Area

Please complete the Income Inequality Survey by Monday night.

• Barrera, Jeff, "In Search of Cheaper Housing, Silicon Valley Workers Face Long Commutes"
• Dougherty, Conor, "In Cramped and Costly Bay Area, Cries to Build, Baby, Build"
• Singer, "The Singer Solution to World Poverty"
• Dalai Lama, The, "Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded"

Optional readings:

• Spencer, Keith, "The Three Bay Areas" (satire, short)
• Boyce, Christopher, "However you spend it, money isn't the key to happiness (optional)"
• Rotman, "Technology and Inequality (optional)"
• Cutler, Kim-Mai, "East of Palo Alto's Eden"

4/10 Copyright and IP

Please complete the Copyright Survey before Tuesday Night

Cardenas, "Patent vs. Copyright Protection for Computer Software" (very short, read first)

Stallman, "Misinterpreting Copyright"

Mullin, ""Your criticisms are completely wrong": Stallman on software patents, 20 years in"

Optional: Stallman, "The Dangers of Software Patents" (or watch Video)

Optional: Heckel, "Debunking the Software Patent Myths" (pro-patent piece)

4/3 Education

Please complete the Education Survey before Tuesday Night

Maria Konnikova, "Will MOOCs be Flukes?"

Kevin Carey, "An Online Education Breakthrough? A Master's Degree for a Mere $7,000"

3/20 Privacy

Required:

• Abelson, Ledeen, Lewis, "Blown to Bits, chapter 2"

Optional, but interesting:

• Powazek, "I'm Not The Product, But I Play One On The Internet"
• Rachels, "Why Privacy Is Important"

3/13 Professional Ethics

ACM, "Professional Code of Conduct"

Systems of Ethics (Videos):

• Consequentialism
• Virtue Ethics
• Paul Stearns (Blinn College), Kant's Morality part 1, Kant's Morality part 2 (optional)

3/6 Software Risks and Algorithmic Bias

Software Risks:

• Fabio, "Killed by a Machine: The Therac-25"
• Neumann, "Risks of Automation: A Cautionary Total-System Perspective of Our Cyberfuture" (need to read on campus or through campus VPN)

Algorithmic Bias:

• Angwin, "Make Algorithms Accountable."
• Davies, Pierson, Feller, Goel, "A computer program used for bail and sentencing decisions was labeled biased against blacks. It’s actually not that clear."

2/27 War

Future of warfare:

• PBS Newshour, "Is America completely unprepared for a power grid cyberattack?" (read the comments too!)
• "Autonomous Weapons: An open letter from AI & Robotics Researchers"
• Optional, also we haven't read this but it seemed topical: "Trump, Putin, and the new cold war"

Drones:

• Michael Hayden, "To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare"
• Matt Peterson, "Is Obama's Drone War Moral?"
• Pratap Chatterjee, "Our Drone War Burnout" (heads up: first two paragraphs are a bit brutal)

Election:

• Putin's Response to Russia Election Hacking

2/13 Government Censorship and Surveillance

Governments Around the World:

• Kelly, Truong, Shahbaz, Earp, "Freedom on the Net 2016"

United States Government (three short readings):

• Gao, "What Americans think about NSA surveillance, national security and privacy"
• Kayyali, "FBI's "Suicide Letter" to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Dangers of Unchecked Surveillance" and Gage, "What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals"

Optional extra readings/watching:

• Der Spiegel, "Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit"
• Snowden, "I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things"
• Nisbet and Mikati, "Russians don't trust the Internet - and it's making the country worse"
• Greenwald, "XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'"

2/6 Jobs and Automation

CGP Grey, "Humans Need Not Apply"

Bernstein, Raman "The Great Decoupling: An Interview with Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee"

McKinsey Global Institute, "Harnessing automation for a future that works" and the "Appendix"

1/30 Free Speech

How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet

The History of Twitter's Rules

Chancellor's message on campus appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos

Optional: "This Is the Site Redditors Are Migrating to Now That r/FatPeopleHate Is Banned"

1/23 Politics and Media

Political Polarization:

• CGP Grey, "This Video Will Make You Angry"
• Alexander, "The Toxoplasma of Rage"

Elections:

• Bertoni "How Jared Kushner Won Trump The White House"
• Center, Carr, Finn, Volpe "Is Social Media Ruining Politics (excerpts) (25 minutes) (if you have time)"

Optional Political Polarization Reading:

• Garrett, Resnick "Resisting Political Fragmentation on the Internet"