Topics, Readings, and Assignments

Enrollment: (Update 1/28): The EECS department has submitted the expansion request to the College of Engineering and things seem reasonably positive; we are waiting for final approval to allow all waitlisted and concurrent enrollment students, as well as those non-EECS students.

In the meantime, if you are still waitlisted/not enrolled in the class, please email Ethan so we can manually add you to bCourses. Thanks for your patience and understanding. You can also join the Ed for further course announcements: Ed join link This will be refreshed after the final course adjustment deadline passes.

Date	Lecture	Topic	Slides	Readings
01/17	1	Free Speech	link	jump
01/24	2	Social Connection and Time Well-Spent	link	jump
01/31	3	Privacy	link	jump
02/07	4	Software Risks	link	jump
02/14	5	Framing Society: Capitalism	link	jump
02/21	6	Memes and Viral Content	link	jump
02/28	7	Government Censorship and Surveillance	link	jump
03/07	8	Algorithmic Bias and Fairness	link	jump
03/14	9	Jobs, Automation, and Labor	link	jump
03/21	10	Education	link	jump
03/28	-	Spring break: No Class!
04/04	11	Framing Society: Individual Responsibility	link	jump
04/11	12	Guest Speaker TBD	link	jump
04/18	13	Guest Speaker TBD	link	jump
04/25	14	Closing/Guest Speaker TBD	link	jump

Readings

Readings are "required", "recommended", or "extra". Required readings should be done before class for the discussion to make sense. Recommended readings will be used as sources in lecture, but we won't assume you've read them.

More information about the assignments, including the essays, can be found on the Assignments page in the sidebar.

02/07 Lecture 04: Software Risks

Fill out this survey by Monday 02/06 at 11:59 PM.

Readings:

• Required: Fabio, "Killed by a Machine: The Therac-25"
• Required: Peter G. Neumann, "A Holistic View of Future Risks", 2020. Inside Risks.
• Recommended: Travis, "How the Boeing 737 Max Disaster Looks to a Software Developer"
• Optional: Branam, "Learning from Engineering Failures"

01/31 Lecture 03: Privacy

Slides: link

Please fill out Weekly Survey 03 by Monday 1/30 at 11:59 PM.

Readings:

• Required: Theilman, "Apple v the FBI: what's the beef, how did we get here and what's at stake?", 2016. The Guardian.
• Required: Newman, "Apple Kills Its Plan to Scan Your Photos for CSAM. Here’s What’s Next", 2022. Wired. (references child abuse).
• Recommended Follow Up: Clark, "Here’s how the FBI managed to get into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone", 2021. The Verge.
• Recommended: MacMillan, Anderson, "Student tracking, secret scores: How college admissions offices rank prospects before they apply", 2019. Washington Post.
• Extra 1: Rachels, "Why Privacy Is Important", 1975. JSTOR.
• Extra 2: Hill, "A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal.", 2022. New York Times. (references child abuse).

01/24 Lecture 02: Social Connection and Time Well-Spent

Slides: link

Please fill out the Weekly Survey 02 by Monday 01/23 11:59pm PT.

Readings:

• Required: Pew Research Center, "Social Media Use in 2021"
• Recommended 1: New York Times Opinion, "This Is Our Chance to Pull Teenagers Out of the Smartphone Trap"
• Recommended 2: BBC, "The people deciding to ditch their smartphones"
• Recommended 3: NPR, "New Research Casts Doubt On Connection Between Smartphone Use And Teen Mental Health"
• Extra 1: "How TikTok Holds Our Attention"
• Extra 2: "Tristan Harris: How better tech could protect us from distraction"
• Extra: "Lil B - The Age Of Information MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTED BY LIL B"

01/17 Lecture 01: Free Speech

Slides: link

Survey: Please fill out the welcome form by Friday 1/20 11:59pm PT.
Attendance: No lecture attendance will be taken for this lecture, though relevant content will be covered.

Optional readings:

• Motherboard Tech by Vice. The History of Twitter's Rules, 2016.
• The New Yorker. "Inside the Making of Facebook’s Supreme Court", 2021.
• United Nations. Hate speech versus freedom of speech.
• TIME. What Is #GamerGate and Why Are Women Being Threatened About Video Games?. 2014.
• Wikipedia. Gamergate).
• Electronic Frontier Foundation. Section 230: Key Legal Cases.