Essay 1

The first essay will ask you to interpret some observed behavior in light of Wiener's concept of cybernetics. The behavior you observe may be biological, social, mechanical, or even digital. But you must offer an interpretation of the system as a feedback/control system.

The essay should be approximately 5 pages, doublespaced, with standard margins and fonts. Research is not required, but sources must be cited if used.

Some questions to consider (you may, of course, consider other questions):

• What are the components of the system?
• How do the components communicate?
• What kinds of feedback are utilized in the system?
• What adjustments or decisions does this communication make possible?
• How does this system temporarily reverse the increase of entropy to create a localized pocket of order?
  (that is, why doesn't it fall apart?)
• If the system is not biological, how does it differ from a biological system?
• If the system is biological, what separates it from non-biological systems?

 

Essay 2

The two central concerns of Norbert Wiener were communication and control. The Internet makes these concerns manifest: the global network facilitates communication and complicates control in ways unforeseen by Wiener, Vannevar Bush, or any other computer pioneer.

Lessig suggests that the "uncontrollable" Internet is rapidly being superceded by a network built for control (after all, he points out, the "cyber" in "cyberspace" comes from "cybernetics," a theory of control). Lessig points to different "codes" which can control cyberspace, such as legal codes (laws), software code, market forces, and social norms. The problems he addresses are not easily solved: privacy, security, pornography, copyright—these and other issues cannot be addressed by current Constitutional interpretations, he argues, because there are no real precedents for the kinds of behaviors the Internet allows. We simply have no idea what the Founding Fathers would have thought about these issues. Such "latent ambiguities" require that we make new choices.

Using some of Lessig's examples as starting points, essay 2 asks you to identify and address other potential "latent ambiguities" in cyberspace. Some possibilities include

• privacy
• security (particularly in a time of heightened alert)
• copyright and fair use
• ownership and licensing
• free speech and its limits
• sovereignty
  

Your examples should be specific and detailed. You should suggest solutions or possible alternatives, again giving specific examples. The essay should be 3-5 pages.

 

Final Project

The final project has two parts:

• A 10 minute class presentation
• An annotated bibliography showing the research done for the presentation

The topic for the final presentation should address one of the issues we have discussed in the course. The following list of suggestions is not exhaustive; you may use these topics, or you may use them to suggest other topics:

• contemporary cybernetic systems (including social systems)
• social responsibilities of scientists and other researchers
• secrecy and security
• information and noise
• the development of cyberspace
• constitutional issues in cyberspace
• regulation and "transparency"
• privacy
• intellectual property (and the intellectual commons)
• free speech
• sovereignty

These topics are, by themselves, far too broad for ten-minutes presentations. You need to find specific instances of these issues. I am particularly interested in topics which relate Wiener's and Lessig's concerns, although many of these may be beyond the reach of a ten-minute presentation.

The presentation will require research, and the second part of the final project provides evidence of that research.

The bibliography will present 8-10 sources, each with a 1-2 paragraph evaluation (not a summary) using several of the following criteria:

• Currency: Is the source recent and current? Has it been superceded by more recent information? In some fields (Computer Science, for example) sources can be out-of-date in a matter of months.
• Authority: What are the author's credentials? If there is no author, what is the authority of the publisher?
• Reliability: Do other sources confirm the information? Are there factual errors?
• Bias: Assume all sources have some degree of bias. Possible sources of bias include observational, theoretical, political, and financial. Bias does not necessarily invalidate a source (although it can if it leads the researcher to invalid conclusions).
• Usefulness: This is a catch-all category. How might the source be used in your research? For example, an out-of-date source might be used to give historical context.

You may use any appropriate citation style. The sources should be presented in alphabetical order by author's last name. The evaluations should follow each citation individually.