Machines, Codes and Cultures

Catalog description

This course will follow the history of machines and coding systems from the use of physical implements in agrarian societies to electronic digital computation. This is not a history course, but an overview of concepts related to information technologies that substantially impact daily life today. Consequently, it will focus on cultural aspects of technologies and the myriad ways in which they are woven into the fabric of human activity. It will cover topics such as the onset of tool production, agriculture, numbering systems, cybernetics, robots, human rights, algorithms, interaction design, household appliances, and software systems. Students will be introduced to these topics through primary source materials (texts and videos) and guided through them in weekly discussions. This course is the same as