Reflections on Blown to Bits, Chapter 1

Preparation

Read Chapter 1: “Digital Explosion: Why Is It Happening, and What Is at Stake?” from Blown to Bits.

Prepare for our class discussion by making notes about what stood out to you, what you particularly agreed or disagreed with, things you had questions about, etc.

Optional: Consider also reading Langdon Winner’s influential article, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”

In Class

In class, we will discuss the reading. After the discussion, you will have time to start the written component of the assignment.

Submit

In at least 500 words, explain whether you agree or disagree with the author’s assertion that “Technology Is Neither Good nor Bad.” You should support your arguments by citing at least three sources (e.g., news articles, editorials, etc.). You can cite the reading and sources mentioned in the reading, but these won’t count towards your three sources. For ideas, consider these sources:

You can incorporate ideas from the discussion, but all the writing for this assignment should be your own. Submit your response on Gradescope. Also, share any thoughts on how this activity could be improved in the future.

Note: All Clark students can register for free access to the New York Times through the library.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with how to cite sources, refer to the example below. You can use any standard citation format (e.g., APA, MLA, IEEE), though you should be consistent. Notice that citations are used in the body of the text, and an alphabetized list of references is given at the end of the document. For a short essay, Scribbr’s citation generator is useful. For longer essays, I recommend a citation manager like Zotero.

Example

I agree with the author’s claim that “technology is neither good nor bad” because… For example, artificial intelligence can be applied to biology for both good and bad purposes. For example, researchers used artificial intelligence to accerate development of the COVID-19 vaccine (Ransbotham, 2021). In contrast, recent research suggets that AI could be used to develop chemical weapons (Calma, 2022).

References

Calma, J. (2022, March 17). AI suggested 40,000 new possible chemical weapons in just six hours. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/17/22983197/ai-new-possible-chemical-weapons-generative-models-vx

Ransbotham, S. (Host). (2021, July 13). AI and the COVID-19 Vaccine: Moderna’s Dave Johnson (No. 209) [Audio podcast episode]. In Me, Myself, and AI. MIT Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/audio/ai-and-the-covid-19-vaccine-modernas-dave-johnson/

Learning Goals

Students will: