CS349  Contemporary Issues in Computer Science
Spring, 2012
Alan Cline and Elaine Rich

Schedule of Topics and Reading Assignments

January 17 Introduction

January 19 Introduction, continued

· Ethics for the Information Age, Chapter 1 NOTECARD

January 24 Introduction, continued

· Bynum, Terrell Ward, “A Very Short History of Computer Ethics”

· TURN IN your response to the China in the Internet Age assignment

January 26 Ethics

· Ethics for the Information Age, Chapter 2

January 31 Ethics, continued

· Bertrand Russell, “Prolog” to Autobiography

· TURN IN your solution to the “How I Lived My Life” assignment.

February 2 Ethics, continued

February 7 Ethics, continued

· Ethics for the Information Age, Chapter 8

· The Human Use of Human Beings

· TURN IN your responses to the set of questions about The Human Use of Human Beings.

February 9 Ethics, continued

· TURN IN a printout of your results on the “many voices” Quiz.

February 14 Meet with us about project topic

· TURN IN your solution to the What’s Right assignment (turn it in whichever day you don’t go to the lab.)

February 16 Bits, Free Speech and Censorship

February 21 Intellectual Property Law - Guest speaker: Stephen Stout (Ph.D, LLD, Vinson & Elkins)

· Ethics for the Information Age, Chapter 4 NOTECARD

February 23 Open Government – Guest speakers: Angela Newell and Cesar Martinez (LBJ School of Public Affairs)

· TURN IN your project outline

February 29 Privacy

· Ethics for the Information Age, Chapter 5 NOTECARD

March 1 Privacy

March 6 Privacy

· March 10 TURN IN in your responses to the set of questions about Tom Mitchell’s opinion piece on data and privacy.

March 8 Privacy

March 13 SPRING BREAK

March 20 Cybersecurity

· TURN IN First draft of term paper

· “War in the Fifth Domain”

· Ethics for the Information Age, Chapter 6 NOTECARD

· ARTICLE DAY

March 22 Accessibility – Guest Speaker – Dr. Loretta Guarino Reid (Google)

· TURN IN a written progress report on your video

March 27 Risk and Reliability

· Ethics for the Information Age, Chapter 7 NOTECARD

· TURN IN Your comments on the other person’s paper that you received last week

· ARTICLE DAY

March 29 Cybersecurity Simulation - Guest speakers: Angela Newell and Cesar Martinez (LBJ School of Public Affairs)

· TURN IN your response to the ACM’s TIA letter question

· “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, Alan Turing

April 3 Artificial Intelligence

· Ethics for the Information Age, Chapter 9 NOTECARD

April 5 Artificial Intelligence

· “The Ethical Frontiers of Robotics”, Noel Sharkey (Science, Vol. 322, pp. 1800-1801)

· TURN IN your response to the questions we’ve raised about Sharkey’s article

· “Sounds Like Bach”, Douglas Hofstadter

· “Robotic Nation”, Marshall Brain

April 10 Artificial Intelligence

· “What is the Singularity?”

· TURN IN your response to the singularity quiz

April 12 Artificial Intelligence

· “Manna”, Marshall Brain (Note: There are 8 chapters, each in a separate file. Read them all.)

· TURN IN your final video

April 17 Student videos

April 19 Student videos

· TURN IN your response to the Resource Allocation Problem

April 24 Student videos

April 26 Student videos

May 1 The future of technology

· “The Evolution of Mind in the Twenty-First Century”, Ray Kurzweil (handout)

· “Why the future doesn’t need us”, Bill Joy

· “The Future Needs Us!”, Freeman Dyson

· Turn in your response to the 米 (rice) problem

May 3 Prizes and wrap-up

· TURN IN Final draft of your term paper