We will explore issues on the interface between technology, science, and society, with a special focus on information technology. Topics will include privacy, the internet and the web, spam, electronic commerce, chat rooms, ethics, requirements engineering, public policy, actor-network theory, Kuhn's theory of paradigms, post-modernism, neo-classical economics, virtual reality, and more.

For more detail, see the class OUTLINE; also be sure to read the notes on lectures as they are posted on this website; they are linked to the outline page. All this will evolve as the class develops.

Prerequesites are CSE 9, 10 or 11, and the ability to read basic works in the humanities, especially sociology. Open to undergraduates with permission of the instructor.

Wednesday, 3:35pm-6:25pm, Room APM 3218.

Section A00, ID 335740

• Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work, edited by Geoffrey Bowker, Susan Leigh Star, William Turner and les Gasser, Lawrence Erlbaum 1997.
• High Wired, edited by Cynthia Haynes and Jan Rune Holvevik, Michigan 1998.
• The Cultures of Computing, edited by Susan Leigh Star, Blackwell 1995.
• Computers, Minds and Conduct, Graham Button, Jeff Coulter, John Lee and Wes Sharrock, Polity 1995.
• Requirements Engineering: Social and Technical Issues, edited by Marina Jirotka and Joseph Goguen, Academic Press, 1994.
• The Scientific Revolution, Steven Shapin, Chicago 1996.
• Computation and Human Experience, Philip Agre, Cambridge 1997.
• Aramis, or the Love of Technology, Bruno Latour, Harvard 1996.
• Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcer, Michael White, Addison-Wesley 1998.
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn, Chicago 1962.
• The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA, Diane Vaughan, Chicago 1996.

Grades will be based on the first three items below, especially the first; obviously your class participation and homework should reflect your familiarity with the readings.

1. Homework assignments
2. Project
3. Class discussion
4. Class notes
5. Reading assignments