This talk looks at how the history of computing, particularly in relationship to gender and labor, can help us understand our current high tech landscape and how the crises that we are currently confronting have deep roots. The long history of computing tools being used to try to shape society, and often backfiring, can give us insight into where we have been in the past and where we are going. This talk draws connections between past failures and how over-centralization has created computing products with enormous power and reach that take for granted the absence of robust democratic oversight.
Associate Professor of History and Technology, Illinois Institute and Technology
marhicks.com
The Humanity+Technology lecture series offers a public conversation about the world we make and what it means, and is made possible through the financial support of the Michigan Humanities Council.