Week 1: Introduction - Ethics of Science and Technology
Overview: This week, we discuss the ethics of science and technology, while introducing the ethical lenses.
Week 2: Effective Altruism
Overview: This week, we discuss a philosophical position which is very popular in the fields of science and technology, and debate its merits.
Week 3: Decision-Making with Stakeholders in Mind
Overview: This week, we practice applying a framework for integrating ethics and values into our work: the Ethics Protocol. The Ethics Protocol builds on the ethical lenses we encountered two weeks ago and the ethical thinking we did last week.
Week 4: Values in Science and Technology
Overview: Here, we start looking at the broader, societal implications of our work. We consider the questions of whether science can be objective and whether technology can be value-neutral.
- Op-Ed Assignment due
Week 5: Social Construction, Technology, and Justice
Overview: Here, we delve into the relationship between justice and technology, understood broadly. We think through issues here using real-world cases and the concept of discriminatory design.
- Deadline to meet with your TF to discuss project idea
Week 6: Social Structures and Structural Injustice
Overview: This week, we build on our understanding of social structures to discuss structural injustice. What is it, and what might it mean to say that we are responsible for it? We look at algorithmic injustice as a case study.
- Independent Project Proposal (guidelines) due
Week 7: Responsibility and Social Roles
Overview: We all have multiple distinct sets of responsibilities at a given time; e.g., those from among: employee, student, daughter/son, parent, scientist, teacher, manager, neighbor, doctor, etc. This week, we consider how occupying those roles can lead to ethical conflicts, and how we can navigate them responsibly.
Week 8: Project Workshop
Overview: This week, you workshop your independent project with your peers and TF. Your assigned TF will provide guidelines and expectations for workshopping.
- Workshop your project with your classmates and TF; submit shareable component draft for peer feedback (see Workshop Guidelines)
Week 9: Ethics at MIT
Overview: This week, we think through some of the complicated and difficult ethical issues arising at our shared academic home, MIT. We consider what responsibilities we might have in virtue of benefitting from, and contributing to, MIT, as well as how we might go about fulfilling those responsibilities.
Week 10: Enacting Social Change and Living in Light of Your Values
Overview: Ethics is the study of how to live one’s life. Living ethically requires navigating the world around you in responsible ways, as we’ve discussed throughout this course. This week, we wrap up the course and discuss how we might live in light of our values and enact social change.
- Sign up for a slot at the Fall Showcase
- Last week to submit the Optional Argument Assignment
- Deadline to submit your project to your TF and upload your shareable component for Fall Showcase
Fall Showcase
Overview: Fall Showcase is the culminating event for the Experiential Ethics course. It gives you all an opportunity to present the projects you’ve been working on all summer long to members of the broader MIT ethics of technology community. More details about the Showcase and how to prepare for it can be found in the Fall Showcase section.
