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Life, Liberty, and Happiness after the Digital Explosion
CSCI E-2a
Life, Liberty, and Happiness after the Digital Explosion (13064)
(Website)
Harry R. Lewis, PhD, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University.
Course tuition: noncredit, undergraduate, and graduate credit $1,725.
Fall term:
Mondays beginning Sept. 15, 5:30-7:30 pm, 1 Story Street, Room 306. Optional sections to be arranged.
Online and on-campus options. See Distance Education.
Lecture 1 video.
This course explores the social, legal, and cultural fallout from the exponential explosion in data production, storage, and communication. We emphasize the opposing potentials of information technologies to make knowledge widely available and to distort and restrict our perceptions. Specific topics include data leakage; the view through the window of search engines; eavesdropping and secret communications; privacy; Internet censorship; the social contract of copyright; and broadcast and telecommunications regulation in a world of rapid technological change. Prerequisite: general familiarity with use of personal computers and the World Wide Web. (4 credits)