Ethics, Control, Deception - Senior Seminar

For Spring semester 2018 I am teaching a senior seminar/capstone class that will read topics on Ethics, Control, and Deception at Westmont College. It’s the third time I’ve taught a senior seminar and I hope this year’s students are as engaged as previous classes. The class has three foci: a Senior Project, Professional Preparation and Critical Reflection on Technology. Each year the readings change a little as times and taste change. This year we are adding a book by Lawrence Lessig that is a classic on regulation including how it is done with code: We are also adding Geek Heresy by Kentaro Toyama to put a check on the technological utopianism that abounds in California. Finally we are adding Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil which addresses the down sides of unchecked Artificial Intelligence. Our full list of books we are reading is below, but we are also reading a number of papers as well. You should be able to see all the readings in addition to the ones below on the course page here.