Homework will consist of weekly readings and a discussion. Students will meet in groups of three or four each week to discuss readings, and will turn in a brief report writing up the key takeaways from the meeting. What seemed most important to your group?
If you anticipate having to hand in your assignment late, please mail the staff in advance to request it and extensions are available.
The one lowest homework grade will be dropped during the semester, for computing the final grade.
The Techno-Optimst Manifesto - Marc Andreessen
Do Artifacts have Politics? - Langdon Winner
Silicon Valley Fairy Dust - Sherry Turkle
Digital Avatars and Our Refusal to Die - Rosalind Moran
What does "Image of God" mean? - Pete Enns
"Human Dignity in the Jewish Tradition" - Yair Lorberbaum. (PDF to be linked)
The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Human Dignity - Rosalind Picard
Your homework for week two will require your meeting outside of class with others in the class for ~1.5 hours to discuss these readings. We will email you group assignments for the discussion. You might find it useful to structure the conversation by asking the following conversations:
What did you like about the ideas presented in the readings?
How did the author support their points? Were the ideas useful? Interesting? How? Or if not, why not?
Did you come upon ideas that might inform your own work? Which and how?
How do the ideas move forward the notion of what it means to be human or the basis of human dignity?
What do you think it means to be human, and to have human dignity?
Your report (a paragraph or two of sentences, please keep it to about a half page total) will highlight any key "aha" take-aways from your discussion. If you have a question or two that you'd like to continue exploring related to the intersection of the readings and science/technology advances, then feel free to add that as well.
Email your half-page report by 5pm Monday Feb 12 to betterfuture-staff (at) media.mit.edu.
Remember to honor the class policy on Confidentiality.
For this week, we are returning to three of the readings that were discussed in our first class. They are important enough that we want you to go back, read them, and interact with them in your groups! We will send you a new set of semi-random groups for this week.
The Techno-Optimst Manifesto - Marc Andreessen
Do Artifacts have Politics? - Langdon Winner
Silicon Valley Fairy Dust - Sherry Turkle
See instructions from week two for your group discussion. We will email you a new group assignment. In addition to the general discussion questions suggested in week two, you might consider these:
Do you consider yourself a techno-optimist? In a way similar to Andreessen, or in some other way - or, not at all?
Can you think of more recent examples of "artifacts with politics," e.g. technologies with values embedded in them in ways that may outlive the cultural values of their makers?
Email your half-page report by 11am Tuesday, February 20 to betterfuture-staff (at) media.mit.edu. Please put "BetterFuture" in the subject of the email (no space between the words - it helps us with email filtering). Also put your name inside the file you attach, and also name the file with your name: Lastname-firstname.{pdf,docx}
Remember to honor the class policy on Confidentiality.
Why Computers Must Have Bodies in Order to be Intelligent - Hubert Dreyfus
The Dark Side of Techno-Utopianism - Andrew Marantz
NOTE: The Dreyfus article linked at JSTOR should be accessible via institutional access, with MIT certificates. If you have trouble accessing either reading, please email betterfuture-staff (at) media.mit.edu.
See instructions from week two for your group discussion. We will email you a new group assignment. In addition to the general discussion questions suggested in week two, you might consider these:
Did Dreyfus' article suggest ways that embodiment shapes intelligence, or makes it possible, that you hadn't previously considered?
Are the problems suggested by Marantz inherent to ANY attempt to make information and expression completely free, or are there ways that Facebook and forms of social media could be designed to mitigate their "dark side"?
Email your half-page report to betterfuture-staff (at) media.mit.edu. Please put "BetterFuture" in the subject of the email (no space between the words - it helps us with email filtering). Also put your name inside the file you attach, and also name the file with your name: Lastname-firstname.{pdf,docx}
Remember to honor the class policy on Confidentiality.
Please prepare two slides that present two ideas you have for your class project. Consider: What is the area of science or technology you are interested in addressing? Are there particular ethical-philosophical-religious frameworks that interest you most in digging deeper to explore how they apply to this area? What are one or two questions you are most interested in trying to answer through your project ideas?
Send your two slides by 5pm Monday Feb 26 to betterfuture-staff (at) media.mit.edu.
The Suitcase by Olivia Dasté. (Chapter from book Evocative Objects by Sherry Turkle)
The Silver Pin by Susan Rubin Suleiman (Chapter from book Evocative Objects by Sherry Turkle)
Mourning and Melancholia, Sigmund Freud
Using AI to talk to the Dead, New York Times, 12/11/2023
Clip from Eternal You, documentary film that premiered at 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Michael Sandel's podcast discussion - listen to this, especially to the part about whether you should ask a chatbot or your parents for advice on who to marry
In addition to the general discussion questions suggested in week two, you might consider these questions. Come to class prepared to discuss these live in class next week:
How does building avatars of dead people, a technology starting to be known as "grief tech," change the experience of mourning?
Can you see ways in which it might give mourning new and positive dimensions?
Can you see ways in which it might inhibit the constructive processing of loss?
We will email you a new group assignment. This week we want your groups to discuss your project ideas. In this discussion, imagine you have completed a paper on your final project. What 1 or 2 well-defined questions do you wish to have dug deeply into and answered? Which ethical-philosophical-religious framework would you like to explore applied to this area?
Email your half-page report on your group discussion to betterfuture-staff (at) media.mit.edu. Please put "BetterFuture" in the subject of the email (no space between the words - it helps us with email filtering). Also put your name inside the file you attach, and also name the file with your name: Lastname-firstname.{pdf,docx}
We will also be asking each of you to schedule a follow-up meeting with a member of our faculty to discuss your project in more depth. Watch for email on this.
Remember to honor the class policy on Confidentiality.
These are all quite short - please read before you meet with your groups.
Utilitarianism (excerpt), John Stuart Mill
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (excerpts), Jeremy Bentham
The Life You Can Save (excerpt), Peter Singer
Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand, Emma Rothschild
The Reluctant Prophet of Effective Altruism, Gideon Lewis-Kraus
Pausing AI’s Developments Isn’t Enough. We Need to Shut it All Down, Eliezer Yudkowsky
My Name is Greg, and I’m Addicted to Tech, Greg Epstein
Please discuss in your groups:
What are the pros and cons (attractions and detractions) of utilitarianism?
If Peter Singer’s argument is correct, what about your life would need to change?
Are fears of technological apocalypse, or debilitating addiction, well-founded, or misplaced? Can there be technological solutions for such problems?
Email your half-page report on your group discussion to betterfuture-staff (at) media.mit.edu. Please put "BetterFuture" in the subject of the email (no space between the words - it helps us with email filtering).
Also put your name inside the file you attach, and list the names of those in your group at the top.
Please name the file with your name: Lastname-firstname-03-11.{pdf,docx}
Remember this is a 9-hour/week class. If this assignment+classtime takes fewer than 9 hours this week, we encourage you to spend the extra hours exploring readings, videos, and conversations related to your class project interests.
Remember to honor the class policy on Confidentiality.
This week, two readings from Max Weber:
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - please read at least Part I, "The Problem"
Science as a Vocation, published in Daedalus in Winter 1958, originally a speech given at the University of Munich in 1918
Weber refers to Plato's famous allegory of the Cave, found in the Republic; that text may be found here.
Please discuss in your groups:
First, a question about your projects - in whatever technology you are considering, how must economics and economic institutions be taken into account? Don't worry about giving a comprehensive answer so much as taking the opportunity to think hard about the questions you need to ask.
How are economic institutions and other values in society intertwined? How do your own values impact the way you think about capitalism (or, if you have lived in a non-capitalist society, you might answer this question for other economic systems you have experienced)?
Do you agree with Weber (Science as a Vocation) that the world is "disenchanted"?
How do Weber's thoughts on specialization in science intersect with technological research, particularly as it moves from work in the lab to work done for widespread application?
Email your half-page report on your group discussion to betterfuture-staff (at) media.mit.edu. Please put "BetterFuture" in the subject of the email (no space between the words - it helps us with email filtering).
Also put your name inside the file you attach, and list the names of those in your group at the top.
Please name the file with your name: Lastname-firstname-03-18.{pdf,docx}
Remember this is a 9-hour/week class. If this assignment+classtime takes fewer than 9 hours this week, we encourage you to spend the extra hours exploring readings, videos, and conversations related to your class project interests.
Remember to honor the class policy on Confidentiality.
John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, Excerpts
John-Jacque Rousseau, The Social Contract, Excerpts
Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Excerpts
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Excerpts
Julia Annas, "What is Virtue Ethics For?" on the Philosophy Bites Podcast (note: if you are interested in Virtue Ethics, Annas' relatively short book Intelligent Virtue is a good introduction and modern account)
L.M. Sacasas, The 41 Questions Concerning Technology, which grew partly out of Sacasas' reflections on the Langdon Winner article that we read, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" (optional: if you'd like to listen to more, you can listen to Sacasas and Ezra Klein in conversation on the Ezra Klein Show)
Discussion Questions:
1) The readings above represent some of the foundational ethical theories in the west, covering the Enlightenment project and (in Aristotle) a branch of ethical thought called virtue ethics. What are some of the common threads connecting them?
2) What distinctions exist between Locke and Rousseau on the one hand, over against Kant, and separately over against Aristotle?
3) Which of these models (if any) do you find personally compelling, and why (or, if none - why not)?
4) Where does Lincoln's address seem to fit among the other readings? What sets it apart on its own, if anything?
5) Which, if any, of Sacasas' 41 questions help you think about the technology you're exploring in your project? What preliminary answers might you give, or what additional questions are raised?
Nick Bostrum, Letter from Utopia
Kevin Esvelt, When Are We Obligated to Edit Wild Creatures?
Scott Alexander, The Tails Coming Apart as Metaphor for Life
Discussion Questions:
1) What about Nick Bostrum's utopia appeals to you? What does not?
2) A theme that arises in these readings is the idea that choosing a given technological path might not merely be "better," but morally obligatory. Do you find this compelling? Can such an obligation be sustained within a pluralistic society?
3) Another theme that is raised in this week's readings is the idea that new technological capabilities force new moral questions (they "push us past West Oakland," in the Alexander piece). Can you think of examples within your own field of work? How can our capacity to respond to new moral questions keep pace with technological development? In other words, what alternatives exist or should be created to what Esvelt calls "the traditional closeted model of science...[that] actively denies people a voice in decisons intended to affect them"?
In lieu of a separate midterm writing assignment, we’re going to assign the following: please write the first three paragraphs of your final project, plus an outline of the rest. We will ask you to hand this in by 5pm on April 8, the night before our April 9 class. This will give us some time to provide comments on your written work with time left in the term to make changes.
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (Summary)
Clynes and Kline, Cyborgs and Space
Ashley Dunn, The Cyborg as Warp-Speed Evolution
Albert Einstein, The World as I see It: The Meaning of Life
We are suggesting our original high-level questions for your discussions:
What did you like about the ideas presented in the readings?
How did the author support their points? Were the ideas useful? Interesting? How? Or if not, why not?
Did you come upon ideas that might inform your own work? Which and how?
How do the ideas move forward the notion of what it means to be human or the basis of human dignity?
This week, in preparation for a discussion on generative AI, please write a short paragraph of reflection about each of these:
(1) Chat with your favorite chatbot. Two you might consider are Pi (enable the audio app on your phone) or demo.hume.ai. We'd like for you to talk to it as if you are a student undergoing a lot of end of term stress and struggles. Ask it for support. Reflect on what was helpful about this experience.
(2) Chat with a human being about end of term stress and struggles. Seek either to show support for a fellow student or to receive support, or both. Reflect on what was most helpful about this experience.
(3) Reflect on how the real-world human and chatbot interactions (above) compare. How do you feel about the two different experiences? Was there anything surprising to you about how these compared?
YOU will be presenting your projects in class for the last two weeks. This should be a 20-min presentation if you're a solo project and a 40-min presentation if you're a duet (each person presenting for 20). We'll email you your date and some more instructions.