Syllabus - Beyond Calculation (CS162)

Fall Semester 2001

Professor: Mike Erlinger
Office: Olin 1242
Phone: x-18912
E-mail: mike@cs.hmc.edu

Meeting Times: Wednesday 7:00 - 10:00 PM
Meeting Place: TG 203

Mail lists: cs-162-l@hmc.edu for admin issues
Mail lists: 162dis@cs.hmc.edu for discussion
Graders: Mike and Class
Secretary: Joyce Greene, Olin 1240, 621-8225,

Course Description

(Catalogue) Description: Students will review the history of computing, the current state of computing, and various predictions of the future of computing. The reviews will encompass social and economic aspects of computing along with the technical. Using these three views of computing and their breath in science and the humanities, the students will produce their own prediction of computing in ten, fifthteen, twenty, or twenty-five years. This prediction will include all aspects of the computing equation: scientific, economic, and social.

Course Format

This course is primarily a discussion course. Thus the success of the course depends on students expressing themselves in class - but requires that they inform themselves prior to class. There will be various critical essays (on papers or chapters not in the class texts), two major projects, (one a group project and one an individual project/paper), and students will each monitor multiple class discussions.

Course Discussion List

There will be a class email discuss list. The idea is for this liest to motivate discussion for the coming class. Full page treatises are not expected, but rather the list is a vehicle for topics/issues centered around the current reading. You are welcome to develop a major treatise, but I would like the discussion list to get people to think about the readings BEFORE coming to class. For each class, designated individuals will be responsible for leading the class discussion parts of the readings. Using the discussion email list, 162dis , is a good way to prepare the class members for the topics to be discussed.

Course Focus

There will be three general focus areas: History of Computing, Current State of Computing, and Future of Computing. We will investigate computing at each of these stages including technical, economic, and societal issues.

Discussion of History of Computing from various aspects including, but not limited to: Technical, Economic, and Social. The class discussions will evaluate the history of computing from all three aspects, showing how things other than technology have dictated or influenced the direction of computing.

Discussion of Current State of Computing from a current (no more than a 3 year historical perspective) i.e., what in the last 3 years has been most influential on the current state of computing. These discussions will be from various aspects including, but not limited to: Technical, Economic, and Social. The class discussions will spend equal amounts of time on all three aspects i.e., technology will be only a third of the discussion.

Students will do a final project paper on their view of the future state of some particular aspect of computing. The topic and time frame need to be discussed and approved by me. Hopefully, during the semester, the class will uncover some aspect of computing that perks your interest. These papers must combine all of the aspects covered in the Historical and Current State of Computing discussions, e.g., scientific, economic, and social. We will start with some views of the future of computing (Beyond Calculation).

There is also a group project/presentation which can focus on current or historical aspects of computing. The project contents and directions must be coordinate with me. The group projects will be chosen in the first 2 lectures with the 1st presentation, in week 4.

Grading

• 5% - Attendance
  It is difficult to have a discussion course with no students. To get this credit, you need to only miss 2 classes during the semester.
• 15% - Class Participation
  I realize many students are reluctant to speak up in class, but a discussion course requires discussion. Thus, plan on participating in class or not doing well on this aspect of the course.
• 15% - Online Participation
  Discussion Topics will be carried to a mail list. You are expected to participate in particular for the material that you will lead in the class discussion. One reasonable approach is to set up procmail to handle just this list. You can then not miss your chance to evaluate the current discussion and add your two-cents. In general I would encourage you to look at your email at least once a day.
• 15% - Commentaries
  At various times you will be asked to summarize and comment on a current topic. The commentaries will provide an evaluation of your having read the course material.
• 20% - Group Project/Presentation
  This project will involve a historical, current, and limited future look at some segment of society and its use of computing technology. For example, a team might study the use of computers in K-12 education, visiting a school, school district office, etc. The key being to determine just how quickly the technology has been/is being integrated.
• 30% - Individual Project/Presentation
  You WILL use the writing center for your individual project, which will focus purely on predicting some aspect of computing in 10-20 years. The topic and timeframe must be coordinate with as the semester progresses.

Course Books

• "Beyond Calculation, The Next Fifty Years of Computing", Peter Denning and Robert Metcalfe, editors, Springer-Verlag, 1997. ISBN 0-387-94932-1
• "Computer, A History of The Information Machine", Martin Campbell-Kelly and William Aspray. ISBN 0-465--2990-6
• "The Age of Access", Jeremy Rifkin Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam 2000, ISBN 1-58542-018-2
• "Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway", C. Stoll, Doubleday/Anchor, 1995. ISBN 0385419945

Course Outline

The following are topics to be covered in depth during the semester, and our discussions will be based on the books and other readings. It is impossible to delineate where material will come for each of the topics, but the four books and other readings should provide the background.

• Reliability of predictions of the Future.
  • We will discuss this issue using the chapter from Don Norman's book. There are other books, such as "Yesterday's Tomorrows" that look at how good we are with predictions.
• Current predictions of the future of computing, with emphasis on various related technologies.
  • This really comes from the 1st book to be read, "Beyond Calculation". We will also look at a couple of movies that discuss the history of computing from various aspects. Alan Kay's movie on UI's is one.
• History of Computing, with emphasis on integration of computing into society at large.
• History of Computing, with emphasis on integration of computing into narrow spheres of society.
  • The History material will come from Kelly and Aspray, but supplemented by journal and other articles.
• Current issues in Computing
  This material will come from our last 2 books: Rifkin and Stoll.
  • Ethics in Computing is one of the current issues
    We will use the web site below as the focus of this material.
  • Cyber Crime another issue
    
  • Computing and communication media
  • Computing and identity
  • Computing and class oriented society
  • Computing and education and cultural diversity

Discussion List

There has been created a discussion list: 162dis@cs.hmc.edu This is a local (turing) email alias, so you need to get on the cs-162-l mailing list and then I will add you to the discussion list.

Group Projects

Group Projects are major presentations to the class. They involve particular areas, looking at history and current trends. The goal of such presentations is to provide a basis for predicting the future for this particular area. BUT such presentations are NOT to predict the future.

Groups are 3 to 4 people who have gotten together for this particular project. Projects will be reviewed by me after an appropriate outline. The outline MUST contain the questions that are being answered by the presentation (see examples below for types of questions). They will be mixed with our normal review of books.

While some possible project areas are presented below, the field is open.

Partial List of Possible Group Projects

• Education and Information Technology
  This goes a little beyond 'computing' more into the multimedia and computing area. Historically what has been promised, what has actually been delivered, what are the critical components that affect, etc.
• Societal Agencies
  DMV, Social Security, Library, etc. Exactly what is there technology versus what is available as technology.
• Privacy and Individual Identity
  Historically what has happened. Who has had rights to this information. What rights does an individual have, etc. US laws, Internation Laws, etc.
• Creation of the CS Dept Computing Museum
  Come talk to me, if you are interested. We would like to create the Museum and we have the junk....
• Ethics in Computing
  Are there any? Case studies.
• Medicine
  Technology available to
• War
  How has computing technology changed the battle field. Is War the driving force for new computing technology or just another user.
• A particular aspect of computing
  • History and development of Programming Languages
  • History and development of Theory
  • Graphics

Web Pages

• Think Protocols -Technical Histories of the Internet and other Network Protocols
  http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/dragon/think
• Technologies and Their Societies: Historical Perspectives, Michal Mahoney
  http://www.princeton.edu/~mike/computing.html
• History of Computers, Paul Edwards
  http://www.si.umich.edu/~pne/si588.htm
• Starting Point for a lot of stuff
  http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/index.html
• IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
  http://www.computer.org/pubs/annals/annals.htm
• Computing Ethics
  http://www.computingcases.org
• Computing: history and culture, Jon Agar
  http://www.man.ac.uk/Science_Engineering/CHSTM/teaching/hs2282.htm

Other Books

• "Computer Ethics", Tom Forester and Perry Morrison, MIT Press, 1997, ISBN 0-262-06164-3.
• "John Von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing", William Aspray, MIT Press, 1990, ISBN 0-262-01121-2.
• "Things that make us Smart", Donald Norman, Perseus Books 1993, ISBN - 0-201-62695-0.
• "Let Them Eat Data", C.A. Bowers, University of Georgia Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8203-2230-X.
• "Ethics in an Age of Technology", Ian Barbour, Harper San Francisco, 1991, ISBN0-060934-6.
• "The transnational dimension of cyber crime and terrorism", Edited by Abraham Dofaer and Seymour Goodman, Hoover Institution Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8179-9982-5.
• "The Information Age, Economy, Society, and Culture, Vol II, The Power of Identity", Manuel Castells, Blackwell Publishers, Inc. 1997, ISBN 1-55786-873-5
• "The Future Does not Compute", Stephen Talbott, O'Reilly & Associates, 1995 ISBN 1-56592-085-6.
• "The Victorian Internet", Tom Standage, Berkley Book, 1998, ISBN 0-425-17169-8
• "Computer Media and Communication" Paul Mayer, Oxford University Press, 1999, ISBN - 0-19-874257-6
• "The First Computers, History and Architectures", edited by Raul Rojas and Ulf Hashagen, MIT Press, 2000, ISBN 0-262-18197-5.
• "The Fifth Generation" E.A. Feigenbaum and P. McCorduck Addison-Wesley, 1983.
• "What Computers Still Can't Do", H.L. Dreyfus, Harper & Row, 1972.
• "Computer-Related Risks", P.G. Neumann, Addison-Wesley, 1995.
• "A History of Computing" Michael Williams
• "The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force US to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom", David Brin, 1998
• "The Fourth Wave: Business in the 21st Century" Herman Bryant Maynard, Susan E. Mehrtens (Contributor), 1996
• Peter Schwartz, "Art of the Long View"
• "Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future", Joseph J. Corn and Brian Horrigan, John Hopkins, 1996, ISBN 0-8018-5399-0,