INFO 4260 - Computing On Earth: Planetary Dimensions and Consequence of Computing

(crosslisted) STS 4260

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only (no audit).

Prerequisite: INFO 1200 or INFO 1260 or CS 1340 or permission of instructor. Co-meets with INFO 5260.

S. Jackson.

This experimental, collaborative and seminar-based class will explore the material ethics of computing – the ways in which computing rests upon, emerges from, and ultimately returns to the earth, with deep and sometimes negative implications for sustainability, equity and justice in a rapidly changing world. Drawing on journalistic sources and academic fields ranging from anthropology, philosophy, public policy and environmental ethics to law, science and technology studies and human-computer interaction, the course will examine problems of computing-related sourcing and extraction, energy and consumption, and waste and repair, and how these are distributed and experienced in vastly different ways by different social groups and actors. Cases and examples will be drawn from near-to-hand and around the world.

Outcome 1: Explain and critically assess the material foundations and implications of computing, including as these relate to locations and communities around the world.

Outcome 2: Examine and explain your own values and policy preferences around the material ethics of computing, and offer reasoned arguments to support them (including in dialogue with the potentially differing positions of others).

Outcome 3: Discuss and appraise the key institutional, regulatory, and legal processes shaping questions of computing and sustainability in the U.S. and in other jurisdictions.