Videos for discussion thread 1

(open from April 5 – 20)

• Diamond, J. M., Lambert, T., Harrison, C., & Coyote, P. (2005). Guns, germs, and steel [Film]. Part I: Out of Eden. National Geographic; Distributed by Warner Home Video (plant and animal domestication) 
• Burke, J. (Host). (1985). A matter of fact: Printing transforms knowledge [Episode 4]. In The day the universe changed. BBC; Internet Archive [Video] (technological change)
• Story of Stuff (consumption)
• Small is Beautiful (‘appropriate technology’) 
• The Promise of Biomimicry (Dr. Janine Benyus from the Biomimicry Institute)
  

Readings for discussion thread 2

(open from April 26 – May 11 . . . access via Canvas)

• Arnold Pacey. 1990. Technology in World Civilization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (chapter 1, ‘An age of Asian technology’). (A corrective for those who might have thought the West invented everything important).
• Keith Griffin. 1979. Underdevelopment in history. Pp 77-90 in C. Wilber (ed) The Political Economy of Development and Underdevelopment (2nd edition). New York: Random House (in Canvas–development and colonialism provide a partial answer to the question in ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’).
• Thomas Hughes. 1989. American Genesis: A Century of Technological Innovation and Enthusiasm, 1870-1970. NY: Viking (chapter 5, ‘The system must be first’). (Hughes has a thoughtful discussion of ‘sociotechnical systems.’ Don’t be intimidated by the chapter length–lots of full-page pictures)
• Kenneth Jackson. 1989. The baby boom and the age of the subdivision. Pp 146-61 in Technology and Society in Twentieth Century America. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (another historically significant era, post-petroleum–think here of the energy and resource consequences of low-density residential patterns)
• William Catton. 1986. Homo colossus and the technological turn-around. Sociological Spectrum 6:121-47 (Catton was employing the concept of ecological footprint before it was coined).
• M.J. Peterson. 2008. “Appropriate Technology.” International Dimensions of Ethics Education in Science and Engineering (August). (A useful summary of E.F. Schumacher’s ‘appropriate technology’ as a concept and how it can be applied. Schumacher coined the term and argued that high-technology was becoming a dehumanizing and nature-wrecking force)

Readings for Discussion thread 3 (and the final term project)

(open from April 26 – May 11)

• Mary Grace Decourourez. 2024. What excessive screen time does to the adult brain. May 30, Stanford Lifestyle Medicine. (Like ultra-processed food, it may taste good, but the lasting effect may be less palatable)
• Eli Pariser. 2011. The Filter Bubble. NY: Penguin Books (chapter 2, ‘The Race for relevance‘). (to Paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, ‘It’s the sort of thing that people who like this sort of thing are going to like’)
• University of Oxford. 2024. Studies show that the way the brain learns is different from the way artificial intelligence learns. January 3, University of Oxford (News & Events). (Are you exercising your own algorithmic learning?)
• Gideon Lewis-Kraus. 2022. The reluctant prophet of effective altruism. August 8, New Yorker Magazine. (there might be an audio option in the upper right-hand corner, look for the headphone icon). 
• The Royal Institution. 2025. ‘We have to stop it taking over’: The past, present and future of A.I. with Geoffrey Hinton. August 26, The Royal Institution (YouTube). (Geoffrey Hinton is the so-called ‘Godfather of A.I.,’ he was working on neural networks decades ago

FYI (Optional)

• Thomas Friedman. 2026. Anthropic’s restraint is a terrifying warning sign. April 7, New York Times. 
• Paul Mozur and Adam Satariano. 2o26. Anthropic’s new Mythos A.I. model sets off global alarms. April 22, New York Times