CS 585 Section 003, Spring 2015:
Science Fiction and Computer Ethics

Professor: Dr. J. Goldsmith
Office: 311 Marksbury Building, Phone: 257-4245
Office Hours: TBA and by appointment. Email questions strongly encouraged and answered.

Course Description:

The topics covered in this course will be:

• Privacy and surveillance;
• workplace and employment issues;
• ownership;
• warbots;
• carebots;
• professional ethics.

Prereqs: Ability to read and write English, and to think and write analytically.

Books:
Ethics in a Computing Culture by William John Brinkman, Alton F. Sanders
Cengage Publishers, 2012.
Extras by Scott Westerfeld
Simon Pulse; Reissue edition (May 3, 2011).
Halting State by Charles Stross
Ace; Reprint edition (June 24, 2008).

Grading:

There will be:

• Class discussion board: You are expected to write at least 20 times over the course of the semester (20 points);
• class participation (15 points);
• occasional short response essays (30 points);
• longer papers/presentations/creative writing (your choices!) for midterm and final (15 and 20 points, respectively).

The midterm project will be completed by March 5th. a project proposal is due on February 3th. The final project is due by DATE, although any in-class presentations must be scheduled during a class period. The final project proposal is due DATE.

Those taking CS 585 003 for graduate credit will not have the lowest essay grade dropped.

YOU MUST READ THIS:

Attendance in class and section is very strongly encouraged.

Copying of homework from other students or from other sources is strictly prohibited. Obtaining a solution from another source without citing the source is plagiarism, AND WILL BE PUNISHED. You are encouraged to visit Dr. Goldsmith in her office hours or to send her email if you are stuck on homework problems. You do not need an appointment for regularly scheduled hours.

Outcomes and assessments

Students will learn basic concepts in computer ethics. In particular, the student will be able to:

37. THIS WILL BE FILLED IN,
38. AND THIS.

Random links of possible interest. Feel free to suggest other links.

Week by Week Course Outline:
Stories marked by * will be available on Blackboard; numbers such as 1.3 refer to sections in the Brinkman and Sanders textbook.

Consider this syllabus a first approximation.

Date	Readings/Viewings	Topic	Assignment
	Introduction to ethics
Jan. 15	1.3-1.5	Intro to Course/Ethics
Jan. 20-22	movie: Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, Video	Mechanization of the work force	First writing assignment
Jan. 27--29	Extras; 9.1-9.3	Reputation economy; Privacy
Feb. 3	MIDTERM PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE
Feb. 3--5	Extras; ??	Amateurism; Error recovery
Feb. 10--12	Saxey; 3.1-3.3; The Dead Past by Asimov; 3.7	Plagiarism; Privacy	Second writing assignment
Feb. 17--19	Doctorow; 4.3, 4.7; Fiesler	Intellectual property; Remixes	Third writing assignment
Feb. 24	Wolvern; 5.1; Watch Dogs; 3.4	Pay to win; Privacy
Feb. 26	Rabbi Smolkin on games, violence, women
Mar. 3--5		Presentations? Catch up?
Mar. 5	MIDTERM PROJECT DUE
Mar. 10--12	Liu*; 9.6; Goldsmith*; 8.4-8.5; movie: Robot and Frank	War bots; Care bots
Mar. 17--19	SPRING BREAK
Mar. 24	FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE
Mar. 24--26	Halting State; 4.2, 5.6, 5.7	Cyberstalking; In-game economies	Fourth writing assignment
Mar. 30--April 2	Halting State; 7.?	Terrorism vs. privacy; Identity	Fifth writing assignment
April 7--9	Halting State; ??	Crowdsourcing activism; Politics and social media
April 14--16	Professional Ethics	Chap. 2		Sixth writing assignment
April 21--23	Addictions to technology
April 28--30	Semester Retrospective
DATE	FINAL PROJECT DUE: TIME

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This page last modified: Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014