Connection Topics - Guest Lecture

Overview

Two CS alums, Angel Cooper '22 and Dr. Johanna Okerlund '14, will be giving a guest lecture today. In the first part of the class, Cooper will be introducing and leading a discussion on the theme of surveillance capitalism. In the second part, Dr. Okerlund will introduce the theme of democratisation and resistance through the culture of maker spaces.

Reading

Renown sociologist, Shoshana Zuboff, coined the term surveillance capitalism in 2016 and then wrote an entire book on the topic, titled, "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power". She visited Wellesley College to talk about her book in February 2020, as the Wellesley website reported.

For today's class, you'll read two op-eds by Zuboff, which summarize and contextualize the ideas that are treated at length in the book.

  1. You are now remotely controlled. NY Times, Jan 24, 2020. Link to pdf file
  2. You are the object of a secret extraction operation. NY Times, Nov 12, 2021. Link to pdf file

Class Meeting

Cooper will give an overview of how the reading of articles in the first part of the semester ties to today's session. You will discuss in groups the two articles and share your thoughts on a Jamboard. Dr. Okerlund will introduce tools for resistance.