Computer Ethics

Required:

• Read "How to read a book" by Paul N. Edwards, 2000 (8 pages)

  Here, an adroit scholar walks through some tips and tricks for reading more effectively. He hits the major points and includes some bonus tips, like where to best organize your reading notes. This is an invaluable resource as our course’s weekly reading load begins to increase. Skim now, but revisit throughout the course.

• Read "Be Careful What You Code For" by danah boyd, 2016 (2 pages)

  danah boyd, a researcher at Micosoft and at Data and Society, highlights just how few guardrails there are for developers, from the consequences of algorithmic bias to the implications “crazy metaphors”. She offers a call to action, solutions, and ample evidence for considering the implications of code. We highly recommend chasing down some of the links provided.

• Read introduction through page 16 from "Race after technology: Abolitionist tools for the new jim code" by Ruha Benjamin, 2019

  Benjamin, in a recent book, offers a “race conscious orientation to emerging technology not only as a mode of critique but as a prerequisite for designing technology differently.” Affiliated with Princeton’s Center on Information Technology and Policy, she brings a fresh perspective to many of the foundations of computing.

Optional:

• Read "The Cloud Is Not the Territory" by Ingrid Burrington et al., 2014 (3 pages)

• Read "Discussion Leading Guidelines"

  This resource from the Stanford Teaching Commons offers an in-depth analysis of how to have better discussions. Their recommendations, from setting an agenda, asking questions, and increasing discussant engagement are all a part of how to create a better climate for discourse. For leading discussions in this class and beyond, it’s worth a read.

Before Class:

• Daily assignment, due at 8pm the night before class:
  • What do you want to get out of our class discussions?
  • Do you feel able to change outcomes of how tech affects society?
• Preview the course project, part one

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Required:

• Read "Chapter 1: Conceptualising Data" by Rob Kitchin, 2014 (25 pages)

  The introduction to the book describes ways of thinking about what data is (ontologies) and goes on to discuss ethical and political considerations of data. It postulates the framework of “data assemblages” and how thoughts about them influence their own conceptions.

• Read "On Being a Data Skeptic" by Cathy O'Neil, 2014 (26 pages)

  This rapid-fire, well-articulated article is about the advantages and perils of data science, with ample advice and examples to advocate for why those who use data ought to be this special kind of “skeptical”.

Before Class:

• Daily assignment, due at 8pm the night before class:

  Answer each of the following questions with no more than a sentence or two. These may seem like a lot of questions, but we recommend you use them as a resource to guide your reading.

  • What is the difference between data, information, and knowledge? How are they related?
  • How can wider or economic concerns “frame” data? That is, in what sense do data act and how? (Answers might include: as an economic resource, as a form of power/knowledge, etc.) Explain why.
  • How have politics or economics influenced how some data have been defined or created?
  • What are reasons or incentives for controlling:
    • The creation of data
    • The access to data
    • The standards of data, such as metrics or units
    • The means of data collection, such as sensors or know-how
  • In “On being a data skeptic” explain “measuring the distortion.”
  • What is the relationship between models and proxies? Why are proxies used? Give an example.
  • Why might the author have singled out “nerds” and “business people” separately? What do the differences in her comments indicate about how they view problems differently? Do you agree?
  • Think of a clarifying question you’d like to discuss in class.

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Required:

• Read introduction (pg. 1 - 16; 31 - 32; 17 pages total) from "Sorting things out: classification and its consequences" by Geoffrey C. Bowker et al., 1999 (377 pages)

  Sorting Things Out is a classic text on classification and standardization. The introduction writes about the importance of considering the ubiquity of classification and the processes that generate them, standardize them, and enforcement. It also looks at how classification has caused harm and how the processes which create standards can at times yield an inferior solution. The authors take an expansive view of classification, so be prepared to think about the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) or VHS vs. Betamax.

• Read "Do algorithms reveal sexual orientation or just expose our stereotypes?" by Blaise Aguera y Arcas et al., 2018 (5 pages)

  This essay sets out to debunk a scientific study which claimed to have built a “sexual orientation detector” using machine learning. “Do algorithms reveal sexual orientation or just expose our stereotypes?” presents a thorough analysis of the offending paper and shows that one move to debunk “junk science” is validate the study’s results against some other baseline. In this case, the authors use Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. As you’re reading this, think about what one can learn from a face?

Optional:

• Read "Deep neural networks are more accurate than humans at detecting sexual orientation from facial images." by Yilun Wang et al., 2017

  This is the article critiqued by “Do algorithms…”

Before Class:

• Daily assignment, due at 8pm the night before class:
  • “Do algorithms…” claims to focus on the underlying “science.” Why do you think the authors did so? Why was this distinction important?
  • What strategies did “Do algorithms…” use to make its argument?
  • “Do algorithms…” concludes that the paper it examines was misguided. Perhaps using what you learned from “Sorting Things Out,” think of another method based on misguided assumptions. What is it?

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Required:

• Read "Technically Female: Women, Machines, and Hyperemployment" by Helen Hester, 2016 (10 pages)

  This essay surveys a history of “electronic secretaries” to frame relevant questions of today’s tech, such as: Why are AI assistants so often feminized? We question what it means for technology to “do gender” and in service of which “imagined technology user”? Yet we can turn that question around and ask who “does technology”? and how does labor gets redistributed with the introduction of new software and AI assistants? Ultimately, Hester asks us to confront questions concerning lived experiences of gender and how its programmed, productive vs. reproductive labor, and the (dis)advantages of automation.

Optional:

• Read "Patriarchy, technology, and conceptions of skill" by Judy Wajcman, 1991 (16 pages)

  When considering the future of work, one question that’s often raised is how technology negatively impacts the amount of “skill” required to complete a task, aka “deskilling”. In “Patriarchy, Technology, and Conceptions of Skill”, Judy Wajcman questions the underlying assumption that skill is entirely technically derived. Instead, she considers how men’s historical control over technology in the workplace has extensively influenced the ideological and material conceptions of skill, thus concluding in part that “definitions of skill, then, can have more to do with ideological and social constructions than with technical competencies which are possessed by men and not by women”.

• Read "Gender Equality Paradox Monkey Business: Or, How to Tell Spurious Causal Stories about Nation-Level Achievement by Women in STEM" , 2020 (5 pages)

  A widely known study argued that countries with more gender equity in society have fewer women studying STEM, but this article accompanies a peer-reviewed publication casting doubt on the study’s analysis – a scholarly back-and-forth also playing out in the blogosphere.

Before Class:

• Daily assignment, due at 8pm the night before class:
  • On “Technically Female: Women, Machines, and Hyperemployment.”
    • What is “hyperemployement”?
    • How can we use the criticism of “hyperemployment” it to explain the “productive vs. reproductive” labor distinction in the essay?
    • How does “hyperemployment” and “productive vs. reproductive labor” distinction relate to conceptions of skill?

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Required:

• Read page 151 until chapter end from "Rise of the machines: A cybernetic history" by Thomas Rid, 2016 (8 pages)

  Rid, a scholar of conflict and information technology, aptly summarizes the act of reimagining as it took place around the idea of the “cyborg,” particularly as evoked by Donna Haraway (see optional readings). This kind of reimagining is important to consider in the historical development of technology. Note how this work references I.J. Good and other thinkers in the history of AI and ethical machines.

• Read "Dynamicland and the Whimsical Digital Object" by Olivia Kan-Sperling, 2019 (3 pages)

  A relatively short piece that comments on a programming lab–dynamicland–which, while situated near Silicon Valley, eschews the ethos of human transcendence. The article is sweet and attentive to the project, without withholding criticism, but concludes that the conceptual indulgences it is most weary of are also what make it amazing and notable.

• Read "The Internet Is Acid, and America Is Having a Bad Trip" by Douglas Rushkoff, 2018 (1 page)

  Douglas Rushkoff, a noted media theorist, draws connection between software and hallucination. Keenly attuned to the wild abstractions and metaphor used in computation: “Computers and networks were part of a much larger cultural phenomenon: a realization that reality is a collaboration…It seemed as if the world was about to become a whole lot more like a lucid dream, where the future was less a place we arrived at than a thing we created together.” Where are we today? Where do we go from here?

Optional:

• Read sections 1 and 5 (10 pages total) from "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late 20th Century" by Donna Haraway, 2006 (42 pages)

  Readers not familiar with critical theory will likely struggle with this reading, particularly the fluid language and arcane references. Haraway uses the extended metaphor of cyborg as a vehicle to explore the relationship between gender and identity, nature and technology—pushing back on traditional conceptions of radial feminism and affinity vs. identity politics, and fiercely critiquing the language of capitalism. Although much tech has changed since 1991 when it was written, the essay stays as influential as ever.

• Read "Mother of Invention" by Nnedi Okorafor, 2018 (11 pages)

  This story is giving voice to themes concerning motherhood and giving birth in a way that’s not often reflected in futurist narratives. Also talks about the notion of symbiosis between Anwuli and Obi 3 (the house), and how tech can be an extension of self. It shows a vision where the computer has agency to exhibit an ethic of “care”.

Before Class:

• Daily assignment, due at 8pm the night before class:

  Choose one of the media documents linked below. In a couple of sentences, summarize what it does and how it connects to the readings.

  • Zach Lieberman became known for co-creating openFrameworks, an open source c++ toolkit for creative coding. Have a look at some of his delightful daily sketches which he continues to update on his Instagram.
  • Morehshin Allahyari’s lecture titled On Digital Colonialism and Re-Figuring: here she talks about the use of digital technologies and activism, digital colonialism, and re-figuring as it relates to the process of making her project called Material Speculation; also check out She Who Sees the Unknown.
  • “The Glass Room” is an interactive installation produced by Firefox and curated by Tactical Tech that acts as “a place to explore how technology and data are shaping our perception, experiences, and understanding of the world.”
  • “Onyx Ashanti is designing a process for reprogramming himself utilizing his own musical comprehension and sound design, he calls it Sonocybernetics.” Learn more about Onyx’s work here and view a video of sono-cybernetics performed: “of gesture and laser cymatics.”
  • Adam Harvey is an American artist and researcher currently based in Berlin. His work engages with issues surrounding AI, surveillance, and computer vision.
  • “The Computer for the 21st Century” is an article about Xerox Parc’s prototypes into ubiquitous computing. It can be viewed as a harbinger for the current IoT revolution.

  Choose one of the following technological futures (such as Obi 3 in “Mother of Invention”). What do you see as the purpose of re-imagining it?

  • Computer use (such as in “Dynamicland” or the procedurally generated sketches of Zach Lieberman),
  • Our belief in the abstraction of software (such as in “Acid Trip”),
  • The exclusivity of classifications and labels (such as in “The Cyborg Manifesto”),
  • The role of technology in nature (such as in “The Cyborg Manifesto”),
  • Or any other media which we’ve covered.
• Finish the course project, part one by tonight.

Required:

• Read "Excavating AI: The Politics of Training Sets for Machine Learning" by Kate Crawford et al., 2019 (14 pages)

  Again we see Crawford examining the history and politics of a machine learning system, here: computer vision training data sets. She and Paglen examine datasets like ImageNet, UTKFace, etc. and apply many of the critiques we’ve seen up to this point.

• Read "Halt the use of facial-recognition technology until it is regulated" by Kate Crawford, 2019 (1 page)

  Facial recognition technologies have a uniquely powerful potential. Yet few legislative safeguards are in place. It is even less clear that the technologies can actually function in a safe or desirable manner. Kate Crawford argues “These tools are dangerous when they fail and harmful when they work”—ultimately calling for urgent and comprehensive regulation of facial recognition.

Before Class:

• Daily assignment, due at 8pm the night before class:

  In 150 - 300 words: In the 2020 legislative sesstion, the State of Washington considered banning all use of facial recognition technology. (The bill did not get enacted.) Do you agree with this proposed legislation? Write a letter to your district’s representative or to the House Speaker expressing your position. Cite each of the readings when making your argument. (As a starting point, consider identifying the stakeholders in your argument.)

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Required:

• Read chapter one (pg. 1 - 24) from "Custodians of the internet: platforms, content moderation, and the hidden decisions that shape social media" by Tarleton Gillespie, 2018 (288 pages)

  Tarleton Gillespie, a social media scholar, establishes the groundwork for understanding social media platforms. Beginning with an example of content moderation on Facebook, he makes the case that content moderation is an essential element of these social media companies and that the act of providing content to users comes with many value laden decisions–picking up myths of openness, free speech, neutrality, and more.

• Read from "Blue Feed, Red Feed" by Jon Keegan, 2016 (1 page)

  Skim. When thinking about content moderation and the role that platforms play in curation, it helps to see first hand how the data appear to and is shaped by the content moderation systems. Play with this app created by the Wall Street Journal to see how Facebook feeds differ between political leanings.

• Read introduction (9 pages) from "Kill All Normies" by Angela Nagle, 2017 (11 pages)

  This does a better job of describing some of the thorny “grey” areas and mechanisms for radicalization that we will otherwise discuss on the platform days, and is an illustrative antidote to the clearer cut “malicious” content mentioned in the other pieces.

Optional:

• Read "The Moderators" by Adrian Chen, et al.

  Watch this 20 minute documentary on content moderators, but beware of graphic content.

• Read "Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy" by Nancy Fraser, 1990 (56 pages)

Before Class:

• Daily assignment, due at 8pm the night before class:

  In 150 - 300 words, address the following: What are platforms? Why does this term matter so much? Who are the stakeholders?

• Finish the course project, part two by tonight.

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Required:

• Read "The Dark Side of Techno-Utopianism" by Andrew Marantz, 2019 (6 pages)

  A summary of technologists’ relationships with media and how looking at books and the printing press can help us understand how contemporary technologists idealize their own creations.

• Read "Communist Commentary on "The Triple Revolution"" by Richard Loring, 1964 (10 pages)

  This essay was published contemporaneously to the “Triple Revolution”, and is largely favorable of the reforms demanded. It also touches on the utility of utopianism in futurism, while considering labor issues in a distinctly Marxist, but still American, manner. In particular, the authors summarize, and take issue with, the Triple Revolution as saying “it is useless to fight the path progress is taking and they should therefore re-direct the aims of their fight to seek a better future in a world in which labor and its role will no longer be a basic factor.” The scan we have is a bit difficult to read, but we have been unable to find another.

Optional:

• Read "The Microsoft Provocateur" by Ken Auletta, 1997 (14 pages)

  This piece shows us the thinking of tech folks at a pivotal time when the nature of the internet was not yet decided. Skim the sections which are just about Mhyrvold’s life—we mean to focus on founders and their utopian visions.

• Read "Origin Stories of Tech Companies if Their Founders Had Been Women" by Ginny Hogan, 2019 (1 page)

Before Class:

• Daily assignment, due at 8pm the night before class:
  • What historical precedents do you find are useful for thinking about tech, technologists, and their power in society?
  • Do you find the analogy to books and publishers in “The Dark Side of Techno-Utopianism” compelling?
  • What are utopias you’ve heard described when talking about emerging technologies? Do you find those utopias compelling? Why or why not?

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Before Class:

• Slack day as needed in case of class cancellation, etc.