Software and Society

Catalog description

If “data is the new oil”—a phrase often championed by venture capitalists, Big Tech advocates, and engineers—then software might be likened to refineries that transform raw data into commodities, video games, and social media platforms. But what exactly is software, and how does it interact with social, political, and cultural forces? This course explores these questions by tracing software's history from the mid-20th century to today’s Artificial Intelligence systems. We will examine primary and secondary sources to understand software’s role in everything from surveillance and warfare to art and finance. Our central goal will be to develop our understanding of how, as one popular commentary puts it, “software is eating the world.”