MWF 1:25-2:15pm, every other Tues 7-9pm
104 Rockefeller
e-mail: tlg28@cornell.edu
office hours: Wed. 2:30-4:30pm, 305 Rockefeller
Computers and computer networks are now nearly ubiquitous. Whether we're in our houses, our cars, our offices, or our classrooms, computing is part of the infrastructure of everyday life in the industrialized West. As we as a society contemplate their appropriate place in our lives, our government, our commerce, our culture, it is crucial that we think clearly about their history as artifacts: where they came from, why certain decisions were made, how particular contexts shaped their development and deployment, what underlying assumptions they depend on, how they came to mean what they do in our culture.
This course is a history, but it is not a traditional one. We will not only learn the history of computing but also interrogate it as history -- for the assumptions being made, for the manner in which history is told, for the reasons some histories are more compelling than others. We will learn about but not focus on the technical details; "computing" is much more than hardware and software. Instead we will assume that computing is a set of artifacts, practices, and institutions, and is both the product of and constitutive of the social contexts in which it developed and now serves. And we will examine not only the people and institutions surrounding the development of computers, but also the various meanings attached to this set of technologies in the cultural realm, especially through novels and film.
Course Requirements:
The most important assignment is to complete all of the reading assigned; comprehension of the arguments is crucial to your success in this course. Attendance at the films is also required. There will be three short papers (3-4 pp. each, 20% of grade each) during the semester that will ask you to consider specific questions dealt with in the course. The final paper (8-12 pp., 40% of grade) will require students to draw from the materials of the course to make an argument about some feature of the history of computing that has some relevance for American society.
Materials:
There are five required books for the course; they are available at the Cornell bookstore -- and, the three nonfiction books are also available as e-Books through the Cornell Library catalog:
Introduction
| JAN 26 |
- - -
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| JAN 28 |
+ CERUZZI, Introduction + EDWARDS, Preface
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| JAN 30 |
+ EDWARDS, Ch 1
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Before the computer: business machines and fairytale inventions
| FEB 2 |
* Allan Bromley, "Difference and Analytical Engines" in Aspray, ed., Computing Before Computers * Charles Babbage, "On the Division of Mental Labor" (1822)
if you want some more help on the underlying premise of the computer, you can read:
|
| FEB 4 |
- Joann Yates, "Business Use of Information and Technology during the Industrial Age" in Chandler and Cortada, eds., A Nation Transformed by Information [available through library course reserves] * Jennifer Light, "When Computers Were Women", Technology and Culture v40n3 [available through library journal access]
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The social character of innovation, the military-industrial complex
| FEB 9 |
+ CERUZZI, Ch 1 * Alan Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", Mind (1950)
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| FEB 11 |
+ CERUZZI, Ch 2 (47-53, 67-78), Ch 3
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| FEB 13 |
* Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think" Atlantic Monthly (1945)
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| FEB 16 |
+ EDWARDS Ch 2 * Vannevar Bush, "Science: The Endless Frontier" (1945)
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| FEB 18 |
+ EDWARDS Ch 3
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Computing, cognition, cybernetics
| FEB 23 |
+ EDWARDS Ch 6 paper due, Monday February 23
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| FEB 25 |
* J. C. R. Licklider, "Man-Computer Symbiosis" (1960)
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| FEB 27 |
* Gigerenzer, Gerd and Goldstein, Daniel, "Mind as Computer: Birth of a Metaphor" Creativity Research Journal
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Mainframes and microcomputers
| MAR 1 |
+ CERUZZI, Ch 4
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| MAR 3 |
+ CERUZZI, Ch 6
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The culture reacts [I]
| MAR 8, 10, 12 |
+ Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, Fail Safe (1962) paper due Friday March 12
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The rise of personal computing
| MAR 15 |
+ CERUZZI, Ch 7, Ch 8 (256-280)
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| MAR 17 |
+ EDWARDS Ch 9
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Designing the Internet and the Web
| MAR 29 |
+ ABBATE, Introduction * J. C. R. Licklider and Robert Taylor, "The Computer as a Communication Device", Science and Technology (1968) * Langdon Winner, "Mythinformation" in John Zerzan and Alice Carnes, eds. Questioning Technology
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| MAR 31 |
+ ABBATE Ch 1
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| APR 2 |
* Douglas Engelbart, "Augmenting Human Intellect" (1962)
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| APR 5 |
+ ABBATE Ch 2
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| APR 7 |
* Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" (1974) * Jerome Saltzer, David Reed, and David Clark, "End-to-End Arguments in Systems Design" (1984)
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| APR 12 |
* Gillett, Sharon and Mitchell Kapor, "The Self-Governing Internet: Coordination by Design" in Brian Kahin and James Keller, eds, Coordination of the Internet (1997)
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Counterculture and hacker culture vs. the power of the market
| APR 14 |
+ ABBATE Ch 3
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| APR 16 |
* Bruce Sterling, "The Digital Underground" from The Hacker Crackdown (1992)
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| APR 19 |
+ ABBATE Ch 6
* Tim Berners-Lee, "Information Retrieval: A Proposal" (March 1989) * Gary Wolf, "The Curse of Xanadu"
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| APR 21 |
* Dan Schiller, "Killer Applications" * Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, "Californian Ideology"
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The culture reacts [II]
| APR 26, 28, 30 |
+ William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
paper due, Monday April 26 |
Today and the future
| MAY 3 |
+ CERUZZI, Conclusion (307-313) * Jeffrey O'Brien, "Bill Gates, Entertainment God"
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| MAY 5 |
* read two of the following Wired articles:
Thomas Bass, "Dress Code" v6.04 (wearable computing)
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Final paper due Mon, May 17, 2pm