The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment limited to 15 freshmen.

“Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse,” wrote Sophocles. In 1945, at the dawn of modern computing, programming was a field dominated by women; computers were going to enable designing amazing products; computer automation was going to simplify finance and make our cities intelligent; and the emerging idea of computer networking promised unlimited access to information. 75 years later, women are a minority in computing careers; social networks and online advertisers have made _US_ the product; hostile nation-states sponsor and launch debilitating cyber attacks; and bad actors supply "unlimited" information that can ruin lives and swing elections. How did the democratization of humanity's most important technology go so profoundly awry, and what can you, as future thought leaders, policymakers, and agenda-setters, do about it? We'll discuss and write about the social and technical history of computing as told through a set of curated film documentaries and articles. This intimate interactive seminar assumes no prior computing experience and no particular interest in majoring in CS, and no programming will be done.

* In person class only - no remote option.

* This class requires instructor consent to enroll. Please email the instructor to ask for a permission code.

* Regular attendance (miss at most 2 meetings unexcused) and regular participation are required to pass this class.

Requisites

• Students with 1-2 Terms in Attendance

Repeat Rules