MIT 258F:
Technology
and Human Values
UWO Fall 2003 Dr. Doug Mann, UC 209.
Wed 8-10, P&A
34, Fri 11-12, TH 3101.
In
the modern world we are condemned to a technological fate that is
simultaneously troubling and enchanting. Things change so quickly: world events
enter our living rooms at the speed of light, while five-year old computers are
ready for the junk pile. Every day we come up against the cultural and
psychological effects of technology, and are forced to engage it with a variety
of human values. In this course we will examine some of the debates over the
value of technology by applying some well-known ethical, political and
aesthetic theories to technology. The course will be divided into three parts
roughly corresponding to each of these three basic types of value theories -
ethics, politics, and aesthetics. We'll watch a film in each third of the
course, and hopefully have lots of stimulating discussions.
Workload
Quizzes: 6% each, 18% total (best 3 out of 4, no rewrites for ANY
reason: see Policies for details)
Seminar Attendance and Participation: 12% total (3% per seminar:
see below for details)
Group Seminar Presentation: 15% (see below for details)
Short Essay (5 pages, due December 3 by
Final Exam (2 hours, on the readings, lectures & films): 30%
Text
Technology and Human Values Reader, ed. Doug Mann.
Synopsis of the Course
PART I. The Ontology and Ethics
of Technology
1. What is Technology? What are Values?
Just what is technology? What are the various categories of
values human being hold? Are technologies just neutral tools, or do they impose
values upon us? Holist and prescriptive technologies.
Texts: A. Ursula Franklin, "The Real World of Technology," The Real World of Technology,
B. George Grant, "Thinking about Technology", Technology and Justice,
2. Right and Wrong: Some Ethical Theory
Some basic ethical theory, from the bottom up. Subjectivism.
Egoism. Two key theories: Mill & Utilitarianism, Kant and Deontology. Is
happiness all that counts? Or do we have moral duties to each other?
Texts: A. James Rachels, Elements
of Moral Philosophy, 3rd edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999, selections
from Chapters 7 & 8 on utilitarianism and from 9 & 10 on Kant, pp.
96-98, 107-125, 128-135.
3. Technological Ambivalence
Ellul's theory of technological ambivalence: every technological
advance has a positive and a negative side. Some examples: cars, cell phones,
computers and e-mail.
Texts: A. Jacques Ellul, "Ambivalence," The Technological Bluff, trans.
Geoffrey W. Bromiley, Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
1990, pp. 34-76.
4. Our Virtual Life
A look at how technology has created a virtual reality that many
of us live in. The Internet, e-mail, video games and VR films. Are we new
"selves" because of this virtual culture? Are we still in the game?
Texts: A. Mark Kingwell, "Our Virtual Future," Dreams of Millennium, Toronto:
Penguin, 1995, pp. 137-180.
B. Heidi Hochenedel, "Love and War in the Global Village: A
Techno-Pragmatic Perspective," University of Windsor conference paper,
2000.
C. Film: eXistenZ
(David Cronenberg, 1999).
PART II. The Politics of
Technology
5. Freedom, Equality, and Justice: Some Political
Theory
Some of the central concepts of political theory: freedom,
equality, and justice. Smith on the free market and the invisible hand. Marx on
historical materialism, alienation, exploitation and the class struggle. Mill
on freedom of opinion and action.
Texts: A. Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations," Political Ideologies & Political Philosophies,
2nd edition, ed. H. B. McCullough, Toronto: Thompson
Educations, 1995, pp. 10-13.
B. "Karl Marx 's Historical Materialism": includes
selections from the Preface
to Contribution to a Critique of
Political Economy, the Economic
and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, and The Communist Manifesto.
C. "John Stuart Mill on Liberty of Thought and
Action": includes selections from On
Liberty.
6. Technology and Work
How has modern technology impacted upon the workplace? Are their
equality or justice issues surrounding this impact? Is modern technology
responsible for the rise of McJobs? Is the modern workplace a freer place than
it was a half century ago? Has
a "virtual class" risen to prominence in the modern economy?
Texts: A. Heather Menzies, "Behind the Silicon Curtain:
Perception, Management, and the Adjustment Agenda," Whose Brave New World? The Information
Highway and the New Economy. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1996, pp.
3-19.
B. Arthur Kroker and Michael Weinstein, Data Trash: The Theory of the Virtual Class.
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, Chapter 1, "The Theory of the Virtual
Class", pp. 4-18.
7. Technology and War
How technology has changed the face of modern war. The evolution
of nuclear weapons and the peril they still pose. The dangers of accidental
nuclear war. Baudrillard on why the Gulf War didn't take place. Smart bombs,
CNN, and head-up displays: has modern war become a video game? Depersonalized it?
Texts: A. Jonathan Schell, "The Unfinished Twentieth Century:
What We Have Forgotten About Nuclear Weapons", Harper's, January 2000, pp. 41-56.
B. Film: Fail-Safe (Sidney
Lumet, 1964).
8. Luddism Past and Present
Is technological civilization worth it? Has it made us happier?
Has it compromised our freedom?
A. Unabomber, Industrial
Society and its Future, 1995, edited.
B. Doug Mann and Nebosja Kujundzic, "The Unabomber, the
Economics of Happiness, and the New Millennium," Ends and Means, Vol. 3 No. 1,
Autumn 1998, 11-20.
PART III. The Aesthetics of Technology
9. The Beautiful: Some Aesthetics
Burke on the sublime and the beautiful. The romantic view of
aesthetics as tied to strong feelings, the imagination and nature. Marcuse's
view of good art as a negation of the status quo.
Texts: A. Edmund Burke, A
Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of the Sublime and the
Beautiful (1759), edited sections.
B. "The Romantic View of Art and Beauty": includes
William Blake, "
C. Robert Paul Wolff, "Marcuse and the Uses of
Negation", About Philosophy, 7th
edition,
10. Our Love Affair with Technology
Is technology beautiful? Sublime? Do we have an erotic
attachment to our technologies? Marinetti's beautiful car and the Futurist love
of speed. Kingwell's suggestion that we slow down our death drive. The merging
of sex and technology in Crash.
A. F. W. Marinetti, The
Futurist Manifesto, Le Figaro,
B. Mark Kingwell, "Fast Forward: Our High-Speed Chase to
Nowhere", Harper's
Magazine, May 1998,
pp. 37-39, 42-46, 48.
C. J. G. Ballard, Crash,
11.The Wasteland of Modern
Life
(time
permitting)
The nature of modern city life: cars, skyscrapers, hustle and
bustle, shopping malls. The extent to which we live in an artificial
environment. The single vision of science vs. Roszak's romantic perversity.
Past visions of the future of urban life - mid-20th century futurism, Blade Runner, cyberpunk.
Texts: A. Theodore Roszak, Where
the Wasteland Ends, Garden City: Anchor Books, 1973, Chapter 1,
"The Artificial Environment", and part of Chapter 12, "The
Visionary Commonwealth", pp. 3-25, 379-387.
B. Film: Blade
Runner (Ridley Scott, 1984).
Seminars
Groups and Teams: By September 26 I'll divide the
class into two seminar groups designated Groups Alpha and Beta. The two groups
will alternate meeting over an 8-week period. Then I'll divide each Group into
4 "teams" designated Teams Red, Blue, Green, and Purple (I'll
circulate lists early in the class to get your names). Each team will be
assigned 1of the 4 seminar topics listed below (unless you've already chosen
one yourself).
You'll have about half the seminar time to do your presentation in,
the rest being taken up with a general discussion of your findings. If you have
some friends you'd like to work with, tell me before September 26, and I'll do
my best to accommodate you. The same goes for topics: if you have a topic you
like, let me know early on. Only 1 team will present on each topic in each
seminar group, first come, first served.
Presentations: Once you know your team's
members and topic exchange contact information and get together outside of
class to discuss how you want to go about doing your presentation. Write a
5-page typed double-spaced report as a team (or about 1 page per team member)
on the topic listed below and hand it in at the start of the seminar. The report
should read like a single paper, and not like a series of one-page papers glued
together. Avoid long summaries of the course texts, as these will be covered in
lecture.
Your reports should represent the work of the entire team. All
active members of the team should have their names on the cover page of the
report - if you're not listed on the cover, you'll get a 0. If a person did no
work on the presentation or report, don't put their name on the cover. Your
grade will be based both on your written report and the quality of your
presentation, though mostly on the former.
Everyone on the team should be given a chance to speak. Short photocopied summaries of your team's position handed out to the rest of the seminar would be nice. The best approach is for each team member to present about 5 minutes' (1 page) worth of material to the seminar, and then ask a couple of questions to stimulate discussion. However, you're encouraged to be more creative and use a less traditional approach.
Peer Evaluations: To make sure each team member
gets credit where credit is due, each student will be asked to fill out and
hand in a peer evaluation form for your team. These will be anonymous. If I
don't get 1 evaluation per active team member, 10% will be deducted from everyone's
grade. In other cases, individual student grades will be varied from 5-25%
based on these peer evaluations or your effectiveness in the verbal part of the
presentation.
Participation and Attendance Grades: You'll be given a P & A grade for each of the four seminars your Group is scheduled to meet. Each seminar is worth 3% of your grade: 1% for attending the full seminar, 1-2% for participating. Scheme: no participation=1%; minimal participation=2%; significant participation=3%. Your grade will be reduced if you're seriously late or leave early.
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Seminar Presentation Topics and Dates |
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1. The Ambivalent Ethics of Technology (Group A - October 10; Group B - October 17): Choose a specific type of modern technology and apply one of the moral theories we studied (i.e. utilitarianism or Kantianism) and/or Ellul's theory of technological ambivalence to it, deciding whether or not we can ethically support its use. Here are some possibilities: the automobile, the computer, the cell phone, the modern office building, factory production, or television. You may compare a couple of related technologies if you feel that you can't generate sufficient discussion based on a single technology alone - although concentrating on a single technology would be best. You should do enough independent research to make sure you get your facts straight about the nature and history of the technology you're focussing on, and take a common position on the technology being assessed (though you can qualify this position). |
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2. Our Virtual Life (Group A - October 24; Group B - October 31): Discuss how selected aspects of our culture have become more and more virtual, and then evaluate this virtuality with one or two of the ethical or political theories we've discussed in the course (e.g. Mill, Kant, Smith, or Marx). You can look at computer games, the Internet, TV reality shows, science fiction films, or other related phenomena, but don't try to cover all of these in detail: focus on one that interests your group the most. As part of your presentation discuss what moral or political lessons you find in the film eXistenz. |
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3. Technology and Freedom (Group A - November 7; Group B - November 14): Discuss the main points made by the Unabomber, and then discuss whether his claim that technology has limited our freedom and autonomy is valid. Include 1 or 2 case studies of specific areas of technology that illustrate your defense or criticism of the Unabomber: the obvious ones are the workplace and the military, since we'll be doing these in class. If you do the military, make sure you discuss Fail-Safe. Hint: don't spend more than a couple of pages summarizing the Unabomber's manifesto: spend most of your essay evaluating his work and in applying it to your case study or studies. |
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4. Technology and Beauty (Group A - November 21; Group B - November 28): Briefly outline and defend one of the aesthetic theories we've dealt with in class (Burke, the Romantics, Marcuse, Futurism, Kingwell, or Roszak), and then apply it to modern city life and its connection or lack thereof to nature. You may use a couple of related theories, like Romanticism and Roszak, if you like. Is urban life beautiful? Aesthetically rich? Or is it impoverished? Is going back to nature a way of escaping the ugliness of modern technology, or is modern technology (as the Futurists say) beautiful in itself? Refer briefly to the film Blade Runner, and feel free to discuss the beauty or ugliness you find around you in local city life. Hint: spend at most a couple of pages reviewing the aesthetic theory you've chosen to use. |
Essays
Write a 5 page (typed, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 11-12
point font) paper on one of the following topics. Make sure you take a position
of some sort in your paper. See my "How to Write a Social or Cultural
Theory Paper" at
http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann for some tips. Make sure you refer to the
course readings and other materials to some degree (if you don't, expect to
lose marks). Due December 3 by
4 P.M. (Eastern Standard Time). Worth 25% of your final grade. Late penalty:
2% per day for one week, then 4% per week (see policies).
1. Discuss Franklin's distinction between holist and prescriptive
technologies. To what extent is our modern technological environment almost
entirely prescriptive?
2. Use the utilitarian idea of the greatest happiness of the
greatest number to evaluate one of the following technologies: the personal
car, the cell phone, or e-mail.
3. Use Kant's idea that we shouldn't use people as mere means to
our ends to evaluate one of the following: factory production, commercial
television, or Internet porn.
4. Analyse a specific technology in terms of Ellul's theory of
technological ambivalence. Some possibilities are the internal combustion
engine, the computer, and television.
5. Discuss one or two ways in which technology has made our
modern culture increasingly "virtual". Apply one of the moral,
political, or aesthetic theories we discussed in class to this virtuality.
6. Has e-mail (and associated technologies of communication like
Internet messenger services) improved the speed and quality of communication
between people? Has it caused a decline in the civility and quality of
communication that existed to a greater degree in letters and personal
conversations? Discuss a couple of Mill, Kant, Ellul, or Hochenedel in your
paper.
7. Discuss the film eXistenZ
as a moral parable about our modern virtual existence.
8. Has modern computer technology connected to modern management
techniques split the economy more and more between a mass of "McJobs"
and a limited number of specialized high-tech positions? Apply one of the
political theories we studied in class to this issue.
9. Does the rise to power of Bill Gates and other
techno-entrepreneurs of his type herald the arrival of a "new virtual
class"? What moral or political issues surround this social change?
10. Has modern technology made planned wars between major powers
unthinkable? Has it made accidental wars more likely? Discuss Fail-Safe in this context.
11. Discuss and evaluate the Unabomber's basic claims about
technology, using one or two examples.
12. Contrast the Futurist love of speed with Mark Kingwell's
evocation of slowness. Given the rapid pace of technological advance, are we
condemned as a culture to a perpetual speeding-up? Or are there ways we can
slow down?
13. Are we in love with our technologies (e.g. our cars, our
stereos, our televisions, our computers)? Using Marinetti and Ballard, evaluate
the extent to which people are erotically attached to their gadgets.
14. Evaluate Roszak's argument that we live in an aesthetically impoverished artificial environment. How do we see the future of this environment portrayed in the film Blade Runner? Is this picture a realistic one?
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Policies (please read these over) |
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Quizzes: There will be 4 quizzes per term, with the best 3 counting as part of your final grade. The quizzes will take about 15 minutes or less, and will be a combination of multiple choice and/or short answer (the structure may vary from quiz to quiz). They'll be as painless as I can make them, and will cover the lectures, readings, and films (the films are a full part of the course, and you will definitely be tested on them). I will announce the exact times of quizzes in class. In general, they will be timed to follow our finishing major units of the course. As you are expected to attend class on a regular basis, missing a quiz because you missed the announcement in an earlier class is not a valid excuse! They'll take place at the end of class. There will be no rewrites of quizzes for ANY reason. The extra quiz is intended to act as a makeup to cover ALL possible reasons for missing a class, including religious holidays, sickness, family emergencies, car accidents, acts of the Deity such as earthquakes and tornadoes, sports, social events, and work in other courses. So don't miss an early quiz on purpose assuming that if you're busy you can rewrite a later quiz! |
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Essays: Essays are due on Wednesday December 3. The only valid excuses for late papers are (a) serious illness (accompanied by a doctor's note) or (b) a family tragedy of some sort. In all other cases, if you hand in your paper late, please accept the minimal 2% per day late penalty with equanimity and grace (note that the late penalty increases to 4% per day after one week). I'll count Saturday and Sunday as one day combined. Your best bet is to hand it in to me directly in class, or to get it dated by the MIT office - undated papers left under my office door or in my mailbox will be dated when I pick them up. Late penalty schedule: Thurs -2%, Fri -4%, Mon -8%, Tues -10%, Wed -12%, Thurs (2) -14%, Fri (2) -18%, Mon (2) -24%, Tues (3) -28%, Wed (3) -32%, etc. |
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Plagiarism: Here's the official word: "Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar). The University of Western Ontario uses software for plagiarism checking. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic form for plagiarism checking." Here's the unofficial word: don't do it! (people do actually get caught by the way). |
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Class Attendance: All announcements having to do with quizzes, essay writing, exam structure, and so on will be given during class. You'll be tested in part on the lecture materials and class discussions (along with the readings and films). It's up to you to make sure you keep up to date on such things by attending class (though most of the overhead notes are in the course reader, there won't be any additional web notes to cover changes or additions). Please keep the background chatter down during lectures and group presentations out of respect for both me and for those of your classmates who wish to listen to the lecture or participate in class discussions. At the end of the class I will add 1 or 2 points to the seminar marks of the 5 or 6 students who most regularly attended and participated in the class. |
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E-Mails: I would like to conduct as much of class business as possible in person to avoid misunderstandings and the ever-worsening problem of e-mail congestion. Please don't email me complex questions about the content of the course or how to structure and write an essay - it's far more effective for both of us if you come to speak to me in person about this sort of thing. Also, I reserve the right to not reply to e-mail questions or complaints concerning grades or requests for extensions on assignments - once again, present these in person! The same standards of civility apply to electronic communication as apply to personal conversations or letters. If I receive a rude or impolite e-mail I will ignore it and delete all future e-mails from the offender unread. In short, don't rely on e-mail for any communication you think is important - e-mails are often a poor replacement for direct verbal communication and can lead to serious misunderstandings and bad feelings. |
This outline is available on line at: http://publish.uwo.ca/~dmann/readings.htm