Technology in a Dangerous World
MIT's Science, Technology, and Society course examines current events for what they reveal about how technological systems create risk and insecurity. Starting from the connection between technology and terrorism, the course brings in guest speakers from science, engineering, social science, and the humanities to cover topics like sociotechnical systems, the imagination of disaster, technology and religion, technology and education, and technology and trust. Materials include readings, written and oral assignments, and a required final project, which can take the form of a research paper, a service-learning proposal, or a web-based presentation. The course pushes students to think across disciplines about how human-built systems foster both danger and the responses meant to contain it. Offered through MIT OpenCourseWare with syllabus and assignment materials freely available.