Lecture 1
Class Content
Will learn
- Relationship between computing and gender, work, expertise, intelligence
- Ability to tell stories about computing
Won’t learn
- Are computers good or bad?
- What is the right policy for information distribution?
- What the future will look like?
Main Questions
- How did programming transform from a feminine to masculine occupation?
- How did computers go from a symbol of repression to a symbol of liberation?
- Why do so many Silicon Valley programmers go to burning man?
Lecture 2
Plan of the course
- Week 2-4 Computing before digital computers
- Week 5-10 How the cold war made computers the machines they are today
- Week 11-15 Contemporary internet platforms and algorithms