Our Course Themes:
In this course we will be reading essays and articles and
screening films that lead to a conversation and writing assignments about
identity. These are some of the
questions that will guide our discussion and writing. Who are we now? What shapes
us? What challenges us? How is technology related to our identities? What new possibilities does technology offer?
What are its most interesting promises? What should we be concerned about? We will consider and research ways our
identities are being shaped by technology focusing on such topics as cloning,
genetic selection, designer babies, social and self-aware robots. I hope you will find this an exciting
conversation and semester.
Required Texts and
our Blog:
The Case Against
Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, Michael J. Sandel
Coursepak of supplementary readings will be available for
purchase at NEKO in the basement of the B building.
We will be screening a number of films and parts of a
television series related to the course theme, Self, Society and
Technology. These include: Gattaca,
Transcendence, and Ex Machina.
Our blog will be at this url: http://selfsciencetechnology.blogspot.com
The blog is private for our class. It is a space you should check before each class. I will always list the upcoming reading and homework, including bi-weekly blogs on our readings. We will also use the blog to share research, some of which you will do in groups.
