04/07/2018 CS047N Readings

Readings for Computers and the Open
Society 
time­cover

CS 47N (Freshman seminar) Autumn 2009 
MW 3:15­4:30, Education 230  

Terry Winograd, Computer Science 

1. Introduction ­ Technologies and Values
Terry Winograd, Notes on Values in Technology Design
Further reading:
Simulations for Urban Planning: Designing for Human Values, Davis et. al., IEEE
Computer September 2006 (vol. 39 no. 9) pp. 66-72

2. Video Games and Violence
John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of
Digital Natives , Basic Books:2008, Chapter 9 Aggressors 209-221.
Video: Video game Violence & Effects on Youth San Jose State Journalism and Mass
Communications, 2007. (on YouTube in 6 parts)
Further reading:
Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition,
aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior, Craig A.
Anderson and Brad J. Bushman, Psychological Science, 12:5, September 2001,
353-359.

From Bing:

Columbine: Whose Fault Is It? : Rolling Stone Marilyn Manson

If You're Looking for a Scapegoat, Try NRA - Los Angeles Times Jon Wenner
Gaming and Violence - Politics and Society USC
It's Not The Media: The Truth About Pop Culture's Influence On Children by
Karen Sternheimer
What watching violent movies does to kids' brains, Dave Munger,Cognitive Daily
Feb 8 2006
Repeated exposure to media violence is associated with diminished response in an
inhibitory frontolimbic network Export, by: Christopher R. Kelly, Jack Grinband,
Joy Hirsch

3. Cyberspace

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E.M., Forster The Machine Stops Oxford and Cambridge Review, 1909
F. Gregory Lastowka and Dan Hunter, A virtual worlds primer, in J. Balkin and B.
Noveck (eds.), The State of Play, NYU Press:2006, Chapter 1, 13-28.
Subgroups read
Julian Dibbell, A Rape in Cyberspace, in Julian Dibbell, My Tiny Life, Holt:1999,
Chapter 1. (First published in somewhat different form in The Village Voice,
December 1993.)
Lindsy Van Gelder, The Strange Case of the Electronic Lover, in C. Dunlop and
R. Kling (eds), Computerization and Controversy, Academic Press:2001, 364-
375.
Tracy Spaight, Who Killed Miss Norway, in J. Balkin and B. Noveck (eds.), The
State of Play, NYU Press:2006, chapter 12, 189-197.
Lauren Collins, Friend Game : Behind the online hoax that led to a girl’s suicide.
New Yorker, January 21, 2008
Further Reading
Ariane Barnes, L:ife in the Metaverse Blog at
http://virtualunderworld.net/wordpress/
Sherry Turkle, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet,
Simon&Schuster, 1995.

4. Crowdsourcing
Jonathan Zittrain, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, Caravan:2008, Chapter
6 - Wikipedia, 127-148
Clay Shirky, Here comes Everybody, The Power of Organizing without Organizations,
Penguin:2008, Chapter 1, It takes a village to find a phone, 1-24.
Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs, Perseus:2003. Chapter 7 - Smart Mobs, 157-182.
Further reading
Howard Rheingold's Crowdsourcing Bookmarks
at http://delicious.com/hrheingold/crowdsourcing 

5. Open Government
Beth Noveck, Wiki Government: How Technology can Make Government Better,
Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful, Brookings: 2009
The Single Point of Failure, 25-44
Social life of information 107-27
History of Citizen Participation 128-145
Further Reading
browse around www.whitehouse.gov/open (the Innovations Gallery and the
Blog).

6. Privacy
Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Harry Lewis, Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and
Happiness after the Digital Explosion, Addison-Wesley:2008, Chapter 2, Naked in the

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Sunlight: privacy lost, privacy abandoned 19-72

Simson Garfinkel, Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century,
O'Reilly:2000 Introduction, 1-12
Further Reading - See online materials by
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Privacy International

7. The future of Journalism
Josh Cohen, Reflections on Informational Technology and Democracy, Boston Review
Online, March 4, 2009
Clay Shirky, Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable, online blog, March 13, 2009
John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of
Digital Natives , Basic Books:2008, Chapter 7 Quality 155-183
Further Reading
...to be filled in...

Wed Nov 4 ­ Midterm Exam

8. Books and Bits
Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young
Americans and Jeapordizes Our Future, Penguin:2008, 90-116, 133-139
Lee Drutman, Review of The Dumbest Generation, LA Times, July 5, 2008
Motoko Rich, Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? New York Times July 27,
2008.
Further Reading
Kit Eaton, Is Social Networking for the Olds? Two New Reports Think So
Fast Company, August 7, 2009 http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-
eaton/technomix/social-networking-oldies-two-new-reports-think-so

9. Robots and artificial intelligence
John Markoff, Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man, New York Times  July
25, 2009
Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human
Intelligence, Penguin 1999, Prologue 1-8.
On Ray Kurzweil's The Age Of Spiritual Machines:  a dialog between  Robert J.
Sawyer  and  A. K. Dewdney  First published in The Ottawa Citizen, Sunday, April 4,
1999.
Bill Joy, Why the future doesn't need us. Wired, Issue 8.04 - Apr 2000
Robert J. Sawyer, Response to Bill Joy: Is Technological Advancement Worth the
Risks?  First published in The Globe and Mail: Canada's National Newspaper, Thursday,
March 16, 2000.
Further Reading

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...to be filled in...

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