CTZN 110: Inquiry into citizenship—The computers are everywhere; what now?
Fall 2018
Prof. Blaheta
The study of ethics is as old as ancient Greece, but still has the power to help us inform ourselves on how we can act, how we should act, how we must act, and how we want to act. Technologists sometimes imply or even explicitly state that their work is independent of ethical analysis or constraint; but our disciplines of mathematics and computer science give us many examples of ethical questions, some of which are old questions wearing new hats, some of which are entirely new, and some of which are long-discussed hypothetical questions that are rapidly becoming concrete.
In this course, we will learn several frameworks with which to explore ethical questions, and we will investigate case studies and policy questions with relevance to the disciplines of mathematics and computer science.
This class meets in two sections (3 and 4), at 12:30 and 2pm on TR in Ruffner 352. The book for this course will be Michael J. Quinn's Ethics for the information age, 7e. ISBN 978-0-13-429654-8. (6th edition is also generally fine.)
Course materials
- Syllabus
- Collaboration policy
- Menu of case study presentation topics (email prefs by 6 Sep)
- Case study presentation schedule
- Menu of discussion articles
- Article discussion schedule
- Menu of theses for paper/debate
- Paper thesis assignments
- Debates:
- Final paper specification
Posts and scenarios
- 30 Aug: Discovered child pornography
- Read for 6 Sep: 9.5.1 "Software recommendation", 9.5.4 "Consulting opportunity", p449 #22 "Company X wants to open a dating service". (Also still read 2.11)
- Read for 11 Sep: 2.12 as scheduled, and also "Police arrest anti-violence protesters trying to march on Kennedy Expressway near O’Hare"; separately (to prepare for my presentation), read 5.3.10 "Medical records".
- Post column (in class)
