Debate/Paper Topics

  1. We should(/n't) ban the use of autonomous AI/robots in domestic and international military conflicts.(Dean, Noah) (4/12)
  2. We should(/n't) ban the use of autonomous AI/robots in "self driving" cars.(Nichole, Brady) (4/12)
  3. We should(/n't) consider access to the Internet a positive right, and the US government should(/n't) provide it free or cheap to every household.(Katie, Amelia)(4/15)
  4. Books, music, and games that are out of print, and whose owners have gone out of business, should(/n't) be considered "abandonware" and released into the public domain.(Alan, Kyle)(4/19)
  5. School districts that distribute laptops to their students have(/n't) got a legitimate interest in tracking their location and verifying that they're used in permitted ways, so the districts should(/n't) be able to remotely access and view images from the laptops' webcams.(Alex)(4/26)
  6. One's socio-economic status, sex, medical history, and genetic markers represent information that can be statistically predictive of healthcare needs, (and/but) this information should(/n't) be taken into account when assessing healthcare premiums.(Jared, Madeline) (4/10)
  7. Software patents are fundamentally (beneficial/problematic), and Congress and the USPTO should (keep or only mildly tweak/abolish or radically restrict) them. (See also: "non-practicing entities", "patent troll", "prior art", "novelty")(Teagan, Masa)(4/29)
  8. On-duty police officers should(/n't) be required to wear body cameras turned on at all times, with the recordings saved for at least a few weeks after each shift.(Michael,Travis)(4/22)
  9. Voter registration databases should(/n't) be linked among jurisdictions and to state ID databases, with matches (showing multiple registrations) and mismatches (showing nonexistent people) automatically removed from the voter rolls.(Royce, Harry)(4/17)
  10. The government should(n't) mandate that Internet service providers handle all transmitted data in the same way without privileging certain platforms over others or charging extra for some content. (See also: "net neutrality")(Jonathan,RJ)(4/15)
  11. The government should(n't) ban Internet service providers from editing transmitted content to inject advertisements into the users' data downloads and web pages.(Kevin, David)(4/17)