Discovery Courses Spring 2010

L&S 160E Technology, New Media, and Contemporary Experience

Kenneth Goldberg (Home Department: Industrial Engineering and Operations Research) and Hubert Dreyfus (Home Department: Philosophy)

Wednesday 2:00-5:00, 100 Wheeler Hall (4 units), CCN: 52070

Most of us love new technologies, from robots to Google, Twitter, and Facebook, to nanotechnology, and stem cells. This Discovery Course explores the question What is the 'essence' of technology? What is a technological worldview? What is its impact on contemporary experience? The goals of this course are to provide students with skills to understand technology in a broad historical context, and to analyze and anticipate technological trends.

Our approach is inspired by Heidegger's 1954 essay, "The Question Concerning Technology." The course will also include Heidegger's "The Thing" and "The Origin of the Work of Art," and essays by Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Frederick Taylor, and others, and selected films and artworks.

The course has no prerequisites but is geared toward ambitious and mature undergraduates who are willing to read carefully and think deeply about technology and western values.
This course may be used to satisfy the Philosophy and Values breadth requirement in Letters and Science.

For program-related questions, please contact alix@berkeley.edu
For website-related questions, please contact dmurray@berkeley.edu

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