Technology likes to look inevitable — as if phones, feeds, and algorithms simply happened, like weather. They did not. Every system you touch today is a pile of decisions somebody made: what to collect, whom to design for, which tasks to automate. Decisions have reasons, and reasons can be argued with — so in this course, we argue, on purpose and on the record.

DiscussionThe argument
Who Owns Your DataYour ordinary day leaves a trail. Whose is it?
Can a Machine Be BiasedNo opinions, no feelings — biased anyway?
Whose Innovations CountWhy the standard origin story is too small
Will AI Take the JobsWhat automation actually does to work
Debugging Is the JobWhy professionals spend their days on bugs

One rule governs all of them, straight from Our Classroom Norms: we argue with ideas, never at people. Come ready to change your mind — that is what the arguing is for.