CMPT 320

Sociotechnological Issues of Computing Science

Fall, 2023

SPECIAL ANOUNCEMENTS:

Instructor: Steven Pearce (Burnaby Campus: TASC 1, room 9225)
Phone: 778-782-4444
E-mail: stevenp AT sfu.ca - Emergencies Only

Office Hours:

Instructor: Email will do, but special cases can be conducted via Zoom.

TA: - Halley Goldberg (See Admin PDF for office hours)

Text: Course pack REQUIRED and available in bookstore (NO TEXTBOOK for lectures). Electronic version also available (see Admin PPT).

Note: You can find everything that has been emailed to the class here: https://www2.cs.sfu.ca/CourseCentral/Hypermail/cmpt-320/

GRADING:

Research - 10%
Midterm - October 13, 2023 - 40%
Final Examination - TBA - 50%

NOTES:

All assignments must be completed and handed in for a passing grade in this course.

It is the student's responsibility to keep track of his/her performance using our new grade-tracking webpage located http://courses.cs.sfu.ca (to be dicussed).

Assignments and examinations will be open to review for one week only.

Students are expected to communicate in English at a level of proficiency that is becoming of an educated person - particularly, of a university student in upper division standing (please contact The Center for Research for Professional and Academic Writing in the English department for assistance). Remember, you are not working for a technical certificate. A university degree is a sign of "education," which entails both breadth of knowledge and acumen for communicating concepts.

Be aware of the fact that the midterm date is after the last day to drop classes.

Plagiarism will be dealt with according to official SFU policy.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF LECTURE TOPICS:

NOTES:

You are responsible for the readings listed in BOLD CAPITALS, and some online references (indicated). PowerPoints will be emailed to the class. Note that we may not cover all topics listed below.

WEEKS	TOPIC	READINGS
1	Introduction.	BERKELEY NONLINEAR SYSTEMS REVIEW VIDEO (1st eight (8) videos)
2	Epistemology. Theory and Observation of Culture, Society and Technology. Sociocultural Treands	HERGENHAHN, (Kuhn & Popper articles in the course pack are for reference only but you must know about their contribution from reading Hergenhahn) WINDSCHUTTLE (only the section, From Relativism to Absurdity), Harper, Class Notes (Non-Mandatory)
3	Continuted, Metrics on the Computing Revolution.	Mumford, Barbour, BARABASI MICHAELS (only Fig. 4)
4	Social Resistance, Parkinson's Law, Personal, Corporate and National Security.	Mander, Ellul, NOTES ON JACQUES ELLUL (MANDATORY) Slideshare Online Reference to Jacques Ellul (Not Mandatory)
5	Privacy continued; MIDTERM Feb.10)	WESTIN, Warren & Brandeis, NOTE: There will be no class after the midterm.
6 `	Reading Break .
7	Information Warfare	PARNAS RAND (the figure on 4 theatres only) Federation of American Scientists (Non-Mandatory), Wikipedia (Non-Mandatory)
8	Software Engineering and Reliability.	Forester and Morrison
9	Modeling and Social Policy.	Gotlieb & Borodin (ONLY SECTION 7.7 on Social Systems) BAASE My article to SFU News on Kyoto (Non-Mandatory)
10	Economics and the Productivity Paradox	Madrick
11	.Aesthetics.	Risset, Truax,
12	AI and Conscious Experience.	Evans, SEARLE.
13	Summary and Review

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF VIDEOS AND CLIPS (shown in class and available on-line)

NB: You are responsible for the content of these videos if discussed in lecture.

Nonlinear Systems (MANDATORY 12 part tutorial - same as listed in preceeding table - watch the first seven videos)
Koyaanisqatsi.
O.B.I.T (The Outer Limits, 1963).
Failsafe (1964).
2001: A Space Odyssey (HAL 9000 sequence).
Various videos on Information Warfare (Knowledge Network) and Privacy (CBC) from my personal collection TBA.
McLuhans Wake