TOPIC:  LIVING AND THINKING TECHNOLOGY

Our lives are increasingly bound up with complex technologies that
simultaneously inspire wonder and concern.  For example, recent
advances in bio-technologies (such as cloning and genetic engineering)
and in computer technologies (such as the internet, virtual reality,
artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology) offer many hopes for the
future, but they also raise many challenging ethical and political
issues that need to be confronted and carefully considered.  The
readings and discussions of this course are designed to expand and
develop students' thoughts about the role of current technologies in
their own lives and culture and to better prepare students to make
informed decisions about the technologies that will shape our future.
This course will provide students with the concepts and skills
necessary to think carefully about the ways in which these new
technologies shape and will continue to shape our lives.  No special
knowledge of these or any other technologies is necessary.

The instructor's qualifications include having studied and written
about issues of technology and culture for several years, as well as
having taught previous W170 on technology.