FRS 001M — Sec. 001 — (1 unit) — CRN 35573 — T 1:10 - 2:00 pm — 25 Wellman
Can the Internet be Tamed?

Instructor: Larry Lagerstrom, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering

Description: This seminar will explore how technologies like the Internet "push the envelope" of society, stretching it and shaping its development, and how society in turn pushes back and shapes the evolution of technology. In particular, we will consider whether and how the Internet can be "tamed" by examining issues such as online file sharing, privacy, and freedom of speech. Students should thereby become more fully aware of the technical, legal, ethical, and societal complexities of such issues and their intermingled nature.

Format: The seminar will meet for one hour each week for ten weeks. The primary textbook will be Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, by Lawrence Lessig. Each week we will read and discuss one to three chapters of the textbook, with different pairs of students assigned to lead the in-class discussion. Each student will also pick a specific topic and write a short paper on it. Grading: Half of the grade will be based on class participation and the other half on the short paper (7-8 pages).

About the instructor: Larry Lagerstrom is a historian of science and technology (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley) who taught at the Meakin Center for Interdisciplinary Studies at U.C. Berkeley for seven years before moving to his present position in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at U.C. Davis. Over his teaching career he has earned three distinguished teaching awards. He has taught courses on "Technology and Society" and "Technology and the American Experience" at U.C. Berkeley, "Science, Technology, and Ethics" at New College Berkeley, and "The Technology and Culture of the Internet" at U.C. Davis. During the Spring 2002 quarter he taught a well-received Freshman Seminar at UCD on "Moral Outrage in a Postmodern World," which used the events of September 11 to explore fundamental questions and conflicts of moral philosophy and postmodernism.