ECON 397LE Final Paper
1. Vincent Mosco, “Becoming Digital”: Chapter 1,2,3,4,6
2. Nick Srnicek “Platform Capitalism” – chapter 2 and 3
3. Frank Pasquale New Laws of Robotic – read chapter 2 “Healing Humans” and chapter 3 “Beyond Machine Learner”.
4. David Scheiner, Data vs. Goliath, chapter 2, 4, 5
5. Shoshana Zuboff, Surveillance Capitalism, Chapter 1 (page 10 -23, subsection 1.1-1.5) and Chapter 8 (page 222-241
6. Kate Crawford, Atlas of AI – Chapter 1 (pp 23-5) and Coda (pp 229-238)
Final Essay Prompt
“Cyberspace, not so long ago, was a specific elsewhere, one we visited periodically, peering into it from the familiar physical world. Now cyberspace has everted. Turned itself inside out. Colonized the physical.”
— William Gibson, science fiction author and the first person to coin the term cyberspace.
With everything you have learnt from this class, write an essay critically evaluate Gibson statement.
What do you think it mean for the cyber/virtual to colonize the physical? How has cyberspace (Big Data/ AI/ platforms/ Big Tech ) colonized our life and livelihood? You can consider these questions across a number of domains: knowledge (what we know) and epistemology (how we know things), the way we think, the way we live and consume, the way we work, our social relations, the economy, and the environment. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) engage with all of these suggested domains, but just pick three or four of your choice.
Against the colonization of the cyber, what is to be done? Or has it been too late now, that the ship has already sailed and we are destined for a tech-dystopia where the ultra-elites rocket off into spaces and the 99% laboring to service the technologies that once serve us? In your essay, make sure to include a reflection on the future and what can be done to hasten, delay, or reverse that future.
As usual, I’m looking for evidence that you have read and engaged deeply with the course materials, as well as your creative and critical thinking. Essays that does not incorporate course materials will not score highly.
Remember: your submission should be in essay form, about 4-6 pages
