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Computers have influenced modern society in fundamental ways. The purpose of this course is to present and discuss the development of the role and practice of computers and computing and the way they have interacted with modern society.
Computers are part and parcel of modern society. Integral to a host of everyday routines at work and in the home, computers are shaped by, and increasingly shape, humans and their social order(s). Computers have been developed to serve military, scientific, political, grassroots and many more types of interests. Today, computers are almost always everywhere; their pervasiveness means that we sometimes ignore their hugely important implications to history, society and culture. The purpose of this course is to historically investigate, analyze and discuss aspects of computer history, including the role of computing in shaping modern society.
Themes of the course:
• Historiographies of computer history including ways of understanding innovation in hardware, software, systems, organization, social and cultural formations, computing and gender
• Developments in the organization and use of information and communication, the history and culture of networked computing including the Arpanet, Internet, WWW, e-commerce, and social computing today
• Implications of computer developments for science, including simulation and modeling in other sciences and engineering and the interactions between high-speed computing and knowledge production.
• Implications of computer developments for society, including the way computers have shaped administration and government and the economy, including globalization.
• Exploration of historical and interdisciplinary methodologies.
Participants must be enrolled in a master's degree or a PhD-program in a relevant field such as science, computer science, or mathematics, or in a program that has a strong component of history and/or philosophy of science and/or technology.
Thomas J. Misa - The Charles Babbage Institute for History of Information Technology
AU Summer University course. The course will consist of lectures, presentations, discussions, group work, and extensive reading of secondary works and interpretation of key primary sources.
English
To be announced
Course work and an essay assignment, 7-point grading scale, with internal co-examiner.
