INFO 4260

Computing On Earth: Planetary Dimensions and Consequence of Computing

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This experimental, collaborative and seminar-based class will explore the material ethics of computing - the ways in which computing rests upon, emerges from, and ultimately returns to the earth, with deep and sometimes negative implications for sustainability, equity and justice in a rapidly changing world. Drawing on journalistic sources and academic fields ranging from anthropology, philosophy, public policy and environmental ethics to law, science and technology studies and human-computer interaction, the course will examine problems of computing-related sourcing and extraction, energy and consumption, and waste and repair, and how these are distributed and experienced in vastly different ways by different social groups and actors. Cases and examples will be drawn from near-to-hand and around the world.

Prerequisites INFO 1200 or INFO 1260 or CS 1340 or permission of instructor.

Distribution Requirements (SCH-AG)

Last 1 Terms Offered 2026SP

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