21A.350J / SP.484J / STS.086J / WGS.484J The Anthropology of Computing, Fall 2004
Name
21a-350j-fall-2004/contents/index.htm
Size
27.94 KB
Format
HTML
Checksum (MD5)
6b715459ec14af66655dd568cf970329
Author(s)
Helmreich, Stefan
Alternative Title
The Anthropology of Computing
Date Issued
December 2004
Abstract
This course examines computers anthropologically, as meaningful tools revealing the social and cultural orders that produce them. We read classic texts in computer science along with works analyzing links between machines and culture. We explore early computation theory and capitalist manufacturing; cybernetics and WWII operations research; artificial intelligence and gendered subjectivity; the creation and commodification of the personal computer; the hacking aesthetic; non-Western histories of computing; the growth of the Internet as a military, academic, and commercial project; the politics of identity in cyberspace; and the emergence of "evolutionary" computation.
Subjects
Computing
machines and culture
computation theory
cybernetics
operations research
artifical intelligence
personal computer
commodification
hacking
hacker
Internet
cyberspace
indentity in cyberspace
cosmology
clockwork
Charles Babbage
Ada Lovelace
Industrial Revolution
calculating machine
coding
cold war
Alan Turing
African mathematical systems
counterculture
PC
gaming
open source
free software
software
21A.350J
21A.350
SP.484J
SP.484
STS.086J
STS.086
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. History Section
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society
MIT Program in Women's and Gender Studies
Terms of Use
Persistent DSpace Link
