Science Technology and Values explores the concepts and effects of science and technology on society, and analyzes the relationship between science and technology, asking questions such as: How each has come to play a major role today, and how have science and technology affected and been affected by human values, despite longstanding assumptions that science and technology are value-free? Environmental aspects of science and technology will also be examined from interdisciplinary perspectives. Key themes include the practical and theoretical relationships between science, technology, and power.

This course examines the ethics, conundrums, hopes, and fears associated with biomedicine within Western cultures and societies. For centuries human beings have been interested in the human body and its relationship with the world. With increasing technological intervention and diagnoses, we stand at a threshold of decision-making and procedure use and development. What are appropriate uses for biomedical technologies? Who decides? In a world of limited resources and unlimited imagination, what areas of medicine and biomedical investigations are best pursued, and at what expense to whom? Moving beyond “right and wrong” debates, we will explore the values inherent to the technologies themselves and those who build and utilize them, and examine a variety of views and arguments framing current scholarly debates surrounding these and other crucial questions of biomedicine.

This course explores the importance of gender within Western science and technology. It considers how masculine and feminine identities are socially and culturally shaped, how sex and gender are being significantly transformed, and how rethinking gendered practices may help make science and technology fairer and more responsive. Cross-listed with women's and gender studies.

We are not alone. With Artificial Intelligence, Smart Technologies, and advances in medical, workplace, and in-home robotics, humans have entered an era in which social relationships with robots is an everyday occurrence. Robots as pets, caregivers, and friends are marketed to old and young alike with the anticipation that some form of relationship will be built between person and robot. But what does it mean to have a robotic companion? Can they be programed to care for us, and even love us? Are our social connections with these robots “real” or “authentic” or are they misplaced hopes of connection? What can, and should, they do? Ethical questions emerge when exploring the uses of robot assistants with vulnerable populations in medical settings including care of elderly dementia patients and neurodivergent minors. Social considerations of trust and misuse of data are also hotly debated. What should the robot do and what should it not do? This is the world of social robotics. For robots to live among “us” and help define “us” how should they act and how should we react in return? This course examines Social Robotics by offering a survey of topics necessary to better understand the world of human-robot relations and ponders what futures we are building with robot companions. Topics to be discussed may include robot rights, Lovotics, authenticity, electronic personalities, and the Uncanny Valley. This course fulfills Ethical Perspectives and Social Perspectives.

The developing cybernetic organism or cyborg challenges traditional concepts of what it means to be human. Today medical science and science fiction appear to merge in ways unimagined a century ago. By exploring scientific and cultural theories, science fiction, and public experience, this class examines the history and potential of the cyborg in Western cultures.

This course explores the importance of gender within Western science and technology. It considers how masculine and feminine identities are socially and culturally shaped, how sex and gender are being significantly transformed, and how rethinking gendered practices may help make science and technology fairer and more responsive. Cross-listed with women's and gender studies.