Final v2

History of Science
HSS 100 / STP minor
Spring 2024, Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:30 am -11:45 am
(N4 1125)

<“Artificial Intelligence” from Cybernetics of Cybernetics (1974)>

Instructor
Buhm Soon Park (박범순), parkb@kaist.edu
Professor, Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy
Director, Center for Anthropocene Studies

Teaching Assistants
- Seulgi Lee (이슬기), sophia@kaist.ac.kr
- Kyungbin Koh (고경빈), kyungbinkoh@kaist.ac.kr

Course description
Modernity is an outcome of the Scientific Revolution. What, then, are the characteristics of
“modern science”? This introductory course deals with major developments of science and
technology from the age of reason (18th century) to the current age of AI, critically
examining how new ideas have been conceived, practiced, and valued in society. It pays
attention to the intersections between intellectual history and social history, ideas and
artifacts, human prejudices and machine biases, living and non-living entities, science and
politics, in order to discuss the moral and material power of science in this rapidly changing
world.

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Course evaluation
• Attendance, presentation, and participation (20%)
o Upload presentation slides to KLMS by 9:00 am before the class
• Worksheet (50%)
o Upload your worksheet to KLMS by 9:00 am before the class
o 8 times x 6 points = 48 points (unsatisfactory 2, satisfactory 3, very good 4,
outstanding 5, exceptional 6) + special bonus 2 points (for super exceptional)
o 1-2 page, single-spaced, 11 or 12 font (in English) or 한글 (줄간격 160%)
• Final Exam (30%) – 6/5 (Wed)
o In-class, open-book, on-your computer, uploading the essay to KLMS
o Starting at 10:30 am in class (downloading from KLMS); ending at 1:00 pm
(uploading your essay to KLMS)
o Two essay questions (each 15 points)
- Each 1-2 pages, single-spaced, 11 or 12 font (in English) or (한글, 줄간격
160%)

Course readings
[All required readings are provided in link or PDF files (KLMS)]

Textbook (reserved in KAIST library)

• William Bynum, A Little History of Science (Yale U. Press, 2012)
윌리엄 바이넘, 『창의적인 삶을 위한 과학의 역사』(에코리브르, 2016) 차승은
역

Course schedule

Week 1: Introduction
2/26: Why care about history?
• Reading: Bynum, ch. 1, 2
2/28: “Making history, talking about history” lecture series (1) – Technology
• Guest lecturer: Professor Victor Seow (Harvard University), “Does technology
drive history? If so, how?”
• Commentator: Kyungbin Koh

Week 2: The Scientific Revolution

3/4: How did the experimental program start?
• Reading: Bynum, ch. 14, 15
3/6: Debate (1) – Does God have a place in science?
• Reading: Ibn Sina(Avicenna)’s autobiography
• Worksheet 1: Read Ibn Sina’s autobiography, pick up two or three quotes that are
most striking to you, raise a question for your essay, and discuss how your quotes
and question can reveal “something” about the relationship between science and
religion. You may want to draw on Professor Seow’s lecture for framing ideas, too.
• Presentation and discussion 1: Science-religion relationship, including Galileo’s
trial and Newton’s view

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Week 3: The Age of Reason
3/11: Can science inspire social changes? Or vice versa?
• Reading: Bynum, ch. 16, 18
• Documentary [optional]: Adorno and Horkheimer: Dialectic of Enlightenment
3/13: Debate (2) – Why didn’t China have a Scientific Revolution? (choose one)
• [Reading 1] Yung Sik Kim, “The “Why not” Question of Chinese Science: The
Scientific Revolution and Traditional Chinese Science,” EASTM (2004), 22: 96-112
[KLMS].
• [Reading 2] Nathan Sivin, “Why the Scientific Revolution Did Not Take Place in
China –or Didn’t It?” Chinese Science, 1982, 5: 45-66 (revised, 2005) [KLMS].
• Worksheet 2: What is a most interesting point in Kim’s or Sivin’s analysis of the
Needham question? Raise a question about the place of science in society, and
discuss in what social conditions science might flourish.
• Presentation and discussion 2: Should science be universal? (drawing on both
articles and beyond)

Week 4: Energy and Empire

3/18: How did science become a partner in imperialism?
• Reading: Bynum, ch. 22, 28
3/20: Debate (3) – What public imaginations did machines create in the 19th century? What
about today?
• [Documentary] “Mechanical Monsters” BBC (2018) (1 hour)
https://youtu.be/PFx8R-EkqNE
• Worksheet 3: Watch a BBC documentary, “Mechanical Monsters,” narrated by a
historian of science Simon Schaffer. Raise your own question to discuss how the
cases of 19th century machines can help to cope with challenges and opportunities
opened for us in the 21st century.
• Presentation and discussion 3: Social imaginations of technology, or technological
imaginations of society

Week 5: Human Sciences

3/25: Who are we? An animal, a machine or something else?
• Reading: Bynum, ch. 19, 25, 27
3/37: Debate (4) – Was Darwin a racist?
• [Reading 1] Darwin (1871), The Descent of Man, vol 1 (excerpt, KLMS)
• [Reading 2] Darwin to Kinglsey (Feb. 6, 1962) (KLMS)
• [Reading 3] Darwin to Graham (July 3, 1881) (KLMS)
• Worksheet 3: Read part of Darwin’s book and two letters, describe his concept of
“savages” and his view on slavery, and raise a question to discuss whether Darwin
was a racist or not.
• Presentation and discussion 4: Scientific roots of racism and gender bias (beyond
Darwin)

Week 6: Quantum Revolution

4/1: Can chemistry be reduced to physics?
• Reading: Bynum, ch. 30, 31, 32

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 • [optional reading]: Buhm Soon Park, “Chemical Translators,” British Journal for
the History of Science, 1999, 32: 21-46
4/3: “Making history, talking about history” lecture series (2) – Quantum
• Guest lecturer: Professor Hyoungsoon Choi (KAIST),
• Commentator: TBA

Week 7: Science and War

4/8: Was atomic bombs necessary to bring about the end of World War II? How do Stimson’s
report and the documentary on Oppenheimer differ? [discussion-oriented class]
• Reading: Henry L. Stimson, “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” Harper’s
Magazine 194:1167 (February 1947): 97-107 [click the underline or KLMS].
• Documentary: Oppenheimer: The Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965)
4/10: No class (general election)

Week 8: Mid-Term Period [No Class]

Week 9: Materials Science

4/22: How did material science emerge as a discipline?
• Reading: Cyrus C. Mody and Joseph D. Martin, “Materials Science,” Encyclopedia
of the History of Science (KLMS)
4/24: “Making history, talking about history” lecture series (3) – New materials
• Guest lecturer: Professor Seungbum Hong (KAIST)
• Commentator: TBA

Week 9: Cybernetics, Information, Systems Thinking

4/29: Why did the cybernetics emerge, submerge, and resurface?
• Reading: Bynum, ch. 40
• Documentaries
- 대한뉴스 ‘한국형콤퓨터’
- BBC 'Are YOU Reday for the INTERNET?' (5:08)
5/1: Debate (5) – How did the Information Age arrive?
• Reading: Ronald R. Kline, The Cybernetics Moment: Or Why We Call Our Age the
Information Age (Johns Hopkins Univ., 2015), a chapter
• Documentary: Claude Shannon: Father of the Information Age (29:31)
• Documentary: 1980 The Information Society (58:25)
• Worksheet 5: TBA

Week 11: Artificial Intelligence – Artificial? Intelligent?

5/6: No class (alternative holiday for Children’s Day)
5/8: “Making history, talking about history” lecture series (4) – AI
• Guest lecturer: Professor Dongoh Park (KAIST, Google Policy Center)
• Commentator: TBA

Week 12: Artificial General Intelligence – New Existential Risk?

5/13: Does AGI pose a new existential risk? If so, how to cope with it?
• Reading: TBA
5/15: No class (national holiday) – Worksheet due today

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 • [Reading 1] Sebastian Sunday Grève, “AI’s first philosopher”
https://aeon.co/essays/why-we-should-remember-alan-turing-as-a-philosopher
[KLMS]
• [Reading 2] Luciano Floridi, “Should we be afraid of AI?”
https://aeon.co/essays/true-ai-is-both-logically-possible-and-utterly-implausible
[KLMS]
• Worksheet 7: Analyze carefully the main points of the two articles, show their
strengths and limitations, and raise your own question to deal with what appear
to be existential threats posed by AGI

Week 13: Cells as Factories

5/20: Can everything be biologically grown? If so, is this good or not?
• Reading: TBA
5/22: Field trip Korea Science Museum (국립중앙과학관)

Week 14: Anthropocene

5/27: Should we care about the planetary crisis? If so, how?
• [Reading] Julia Adeney Thomas (2019), “Why the “Anthropocene” is not “climate
change” and why it matters” https://www.asiaglobalonline.hku.hk/anthropocene-
climate-change
• [Reading] Gabrielle Hecht (2018), “The African Anthropocene”
https://aeon.co/essays/if-we-talk-about-hurting-our-planet-who-exactly-is-the-
we
5/29: Debate (8) – Can we avoid the sixth mass-extinction?
• [Reading] TBA
• Worksheet 8: TBA
• Presentation and discussion 8: TBA

Week 15: Conclusion

6/3: Why does KAIST matter in the history of science in Korea?
• [Reading] TBA
6/5: Final exam [In class, 10:30 am – 1:00 pm]