Special Topics in Environmental Policy and Culture (390-0-3)

Topic

Ecology, Cybernetics, and the Information Revoluti

Instructors

Hannah Glasson

Meeting Info

University Hall 312: Mon, Wed 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Ecology, Cybernetics, and the Information Revolution

How did Silicon Valley become the hub of one of the most powerful technology industries on the planet? What were the values, beliefs, and aspirations that drove the early founders, entrepreneurs, and inventors of Silicon Valley before the industry reached its current zenith of power? What sort of legacy did they think they were leaving behind, and what systems of power did they believe they were assembling?

The answer, this course argues, is surprising. Contrary to the rhetoric of capitalist growth, productivity, and efficiency gains that dominates today's information technology industry, the early years of Silicon Valley were marked by an entirely different set of priorities: ecological wholeness, transformations in consciousness, the destruction of social hierarchies, and experiments in new ways of life. Drawing on both primary sources and an array of secondary scholarship, students will be immersed in the cultural movements that shaped the early years of Silicon Valley and the emergence of the personal computing industry. Through this examination, we will discuss how countercultural individualism, back-to-the-land environmentalism, spirituality, the new science of cybernetics, and an admiration for the personal use of tools helped shaped the rise of computing and the ethos of early tech founders and creators.

A major question that will be raised throughout the course is whether the emphasis on profits, competition, displacement, and dominance within today's tech industry has precursors in these earlier cultural movements, or whether the idealism of the earlier years can be seen as a distinct "road not travelled" that has lessons for us today. Is there anything that we can take from the striking conglomeration of ecological thought, cybernetics and feedback loops, self-reliance, and cultural experimentation in the tech industry's early years that can help us to rethink the direction that technology should go in today's world?

Class Materials (Required)

All readings will be posted on Canvas.