Politics of the Digital

Assignment 1

Write a paper of at least 1500 words on topics related to the course. Word count (available in all word processors), rather than page length, is the The topic can be analytical or reports on material related to but not covered in the course. You are encouraged to fulfill these requirements through alternate projects (video, audio, games, etc.) that are determined in advance by consulting the instructor.

Specific Prompts

• Choose one of the topics mentioned by Adam Curtis or Jamie Bartlett in one of the documentaries we've watched so far this term--for example, the concept of "being watched over by machines of loving grace," or the idea of the "heroic individual" epitomized in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, or the ways that a human social system resembles or does not resemble an ecosystem--and then discuss how that idea plays out in an episode of a TV show, or part of a movie or fiction book, such as one of the ones listed below these question prompts. Does the media you are talking about make that idea seem positive ("utopian") or negative ("dystopian") or both, or neither? Does it seem to support the analysis Curtis or Bartlett offers, or work against it? Why?
• Research some of the philosophical and political theories that have been associated with the word "freedom," especially the notions of "positive" and "negative" freedom associated with Isaiah Berlin. Think of some examples in the current use of digital technology that embody these concepts of freedom. Do you think positive or negative freedom is dominant in the digital world at this point?
• Curtis's video spends some time talking about R. Buckminster Fuller as a central figure in the early history of the philosophy that became the Silicon Valley worldview. Do some research into Fuller's background and discuss how some of his ideas are and are not reflected or used in current digital technologies and media.
• Curtis's documentary talks briefly about coltan, a mineral used in smartphones and other devices. We also talked briefly in class about "eco-waste," the toxic dumps formed, usually in developing countries, by the disposal of technology products and their manufacture. Research one or two examples of either a material that is required to produce digital devices, or to dispose of them, and discuss how they fit into some of the political issues raised by Curtis and Bartlett and in class discussion.
• Facebook claims it is not a publisher and not responsible for the content published by users on its site. Yet as we saw in class, Facebook uses a wide range of techniques for "content moderation" to remove damaging and illegal content. Research some of the practices of these content moderators and the law and principles (which vary from country to country) they follow. How does this work affect your view of the argument that Facebook is or is not a publisher, especially regarding the human right to a free press?
• Describe some ways in which the kinds of beliefs expressed in the "Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto" and/or the "Cypherpunk's Manifesto" (see Sep 26 on the syllabus) are manifested in either recent fictional narratives, or in recentreal-world events. In what ways have the political views of the crypto-anarchists and cypherpunks entered the mainstream imagination? What kinds of politics do these views represent, from a more ordinary (that is, not focused on digital technology) perspective?
• Research the original Magna Carta. How do the rights and politics are described in Esther Dyson, George Gilder, George Keyworth, and Alvin Toffler, "Cyberspace and the American Dream: A Magna Carta for the Knowledge Age" compare to the kinds of issues raised in the original? What do the authors of each thinks "politics" means?

TV

• Black Mirror
• Silicon Valley
• Halt and Catch Fire
• Person of Interest
• Max Headroom

Movies

• Lawnmower Man
• Hackers
• Her
• AI
• Enemy of the State
• Tron

Fiction Authors

• Daniel Suarez
• Philip K Dick
• Octavia Butler
• Stanislaw Lem
• Neal Stephenson
• William Gibson
• Bruce Sterling
• Greg Bear
• Ursula K. LeGuin
• MT Anderson

Submission of Assignments

Please submit your assignment in the "Paper 1" selection under Assignments in Blackboard.

General Paper Instructions

The essay should be 5 to 6 pages in length, but please use your word processor to count the number of words; word count and not page length is the official metric for the assignment. An English paper should include quotations from the work you are analyzing, and short quotations DO count toward the total word count for the essay. Long quotations (of 50 or more words) should not generally be counted toward the 1500 word total for the assignment.

This is not a research paper, and you are not expected to consult outside sources except for the primary book or piece of media you choose to interpret. Any sources, including that primary source, should be properly cited in your paper, using any acceptable bibliographic citation format. One very simple format is to use a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper, and indicate by author, work and page number in parentheses the exact quotations within the paper itself. Refer to assignment 1 for information on some correct ways to cite material for the paper.

This is not primarily a research paper, and you do not need to consult outside sources except for the primary book or piece of media you choose to interpret. However, you are also very welcome to include secondary and primary sources of any kind that relate to the assignment and the course material. Any sources, including that primary source, should be properly cited in your paper, using any acceptable bibliographic citation format. One very simple format is to use a list of Works Cited at the end of the paper, and indicate by author, work and page number in parentheses the exact quotations within the paper itself.

For convenience, here are some citations from readings for another course. For works other than movies, articles, or books, just do your best: the point is to indicate where you got material that is not written by you; I am less concerned with the exact form your citation takes than I am with the attempt to provide a citation. This includes Wikipedia entries, one of which is included below.

Within the paper, you would cite things this way:

One critic says that "surveillance is always at work, whether we know it or not" (Andrejevic, "The Work of Watching One Another," p. 34).

A Wikipedia entry might be cited like this:

Morrison "went to Howard University graduating in 1953 with a B.A. in English; she went on to earn a Master of Arts from Cornell University in 1955" ("Toni Morrison," Wikipedia).

Works Cited

Mark Andrejevic, "The Work of Watching One Another: Lateral Surveillance, Risk, and Governance." Surveillance & Society 2:4 (2004). 479-497.
Julia Angwin, "It's Complicated: Facebook's History of Tracking You." ProPublica (Jun 17, 2014). http://www.propublica.org/article/its-complicated-facebooks-history-of-tracking-you.
Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron, "The Californian Ideology." Mute 3 (Autumn 1995).
Adam Curtis, dir. All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. Three Parts. United Kingdom: BBC, 2011.
"Toni Morrison." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison. Accessed Feb 2, 2016.

Other standard forms of citation (such as footnotes) are also acceptable, but failing to properly indicate sources technically constitutes plagiarism.

Last updated September 23, 2017.