This course will examine the place and meaning of technology in culture, emphasizing the ways in which technologies shape and inflect social and political interactions. The primary focus will be on the wider reception and perception of technological and cultural shifts as represented in imaginative scientific and cultural works, endeavors and ambitions. This course will then question the conditions for the production and sustainability of these technologies and technological dreams.

This course will take major themes in human thought, technology and especially artificial intelligence through a close look at some exemplary films of the 20th and 21st century, We will read alongside of these films related essays or books that help conceptualize the major ideas. Films may include Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Scott’s Blade Runner (1984), Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979) and more recent films such as Garland’s Ex Machina (2014). Readings will be drawn from author’s that will include Alan Turing, André Leroi-Gourhan, Donna Haraway, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and others.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.