Technology, Knowledge, and Wisdom from Antiquity to Today

Catalog description

While students these days are surrounded by technology and data, often from the time they wake up until the time they fall asleep, they would do well to think more deeply about why and how they are engaging with it. Luckily, questions about the wise and prudent ways in which humans should engage with technology are not new: they have in fact concerned generations of thinkers and spiritual masters going back thousands of years. And so this course invites students to confront the wisdom of contemporary technology not only by exploring contemporary data problems through hands-on computational exercises, but also by grounding their explorations in the lessons of ancient and medieval wisdom traditions. Students will read and discuss Platonic dialogues, Greco-Roman mythology, and Old Testament apocrypha, all while complete computational exercises in such fields as text analysis and machine learning using the Wolfram Language. We will also think about the wisdom of data and technology as presented in contemporary fiction, filmmaking, and oracles (Chat gpt). Satisfies Digital Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Data Science minor requirement. Satisfies Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.