Social and Technological Change
Course type
Lecture
Study programs
- Master Computer Science
- Master Data Science
- Master Fundamentals of Computer Sciences (HTIC)
- Master Media Informatics
- Master Software Systems Engineering
Content
The course is devoted to unpack basic questions like: How to make technology work for us? Has it worked for us in the past? Will it work for us in the future? Is there a monolithic “us”? What is actually what we want, collectively and individually? How do we act, collectively and individually? We cannot answer these questions without knowing some history, economics, politics, psychology, and evolutionary biology. In the course, we will make such a tour, and in parts, we will draw on bits of probability, causality, and game theory, to sharpen our critical thinking skills. There will be lectures by the professor and student presentations. Some of the topics to be covered in the lectures include:
- Understanding the current situation: risk and possibilities
- History, progress, technology
- Industrial revolution and capitalism
- Market and morals
- The ascent of reason, the Enlightenment
- The limits of reason: where (some) goals come from (evolution), dilemmas of collective action (game theory)
- The limits of reason 2 : culture, evolution, social emotions
- AI risks and opportunities
Objectives
Understand the social, economical, historical, political, and evolutionary context where technology is developed, deployed, and shaped, and how it affects such dimensions.
Recommended prior knowledge
No previous knowledge, but keen interest in the social impact of technology now and in the past.
Recommended reading
- System error: where big tech went wrong and how we can reboot: Reich, Sahami, Weinstein
- Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. Acemoglu, Johnson.
- Weapons of math destruction, Cathy O’Neil
- Sapiens: Harari
- Homo Deus: Harari
- Enlightment Now: S. Pinker
- The Mind and the market: Jerry Muller
- The tyranny of merit: What’s become of the common good? M. J. Sandel
- What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets M. J. Sandel
- The Technology Trap: Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation. C B Frey
- Alone together, Sherry Turkle
- Sustainable development goals (SDGs); UN
- Our world in data
- Black Mirror (TV Series)
Registration
You can register via RWTHonline. Please also send an email to change@ml.rwth-aachen.de, in which you outline in two to three sentences why you are interested in the course.
Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact change@ml.rwth-aachen.de.