Technology and Power Curriculum
This course examines the interactions of technology and power, in particular, how technology enforces and extends both state and privatized forms of power.
We will explore how under the existing context of capitalism and colonialism, state and corporate interests are inextricably linked and perpetuated through technological developments, and investigate how such technologies systemically harm marginalised communities.
This 13-week curriculum will end by investigating the emancipatory potential of technology, how it can be used to subvert traditional power dynamics, and whether it can be truly extricated from capitalism. We recommend you go through the content in this curriculum alone or with a group and follow along every week for 13 weeks, having discussions with colleagues about what is coming up for you.
These modules present both arguments and counter-arguments within a topic. This is intended to provoke dialogue, both external and internal, to query how technology is embedded within capitalism, the material harms it produces, and how to effect change. The texts within a module are generally ordered by their content, or the positions they take.
If you are an educator, teacher, or professor and would like to include any or all of this content in your syllabus — we encourage you to do so! Let us know if you come up with discussion questions that are particularly interesting and we’d love to include them in this curriculum for future educators to use!
While reading through this curriculum, feel free to use the hashtag #RAIcurriculum on twitter to discuss your thoughts or ask questions to the community.
Special thanks to the mastermind behind this curriculum, one of our Spring 2021 interns, Lena Wang. Connect with Lena on Twitter @lenayiwang!
Part I: Technology and Capitalism
Week 1: Automation, The Digital Economy, and Labour
This week will examine what work is like within the technology industry. In particular, we will examine the stratification of different classes of tech workers, from the tech elite—CEOs, executives, board members—to those exploited by technology, including those experiencing precarious work in the gig economy. How does automation under capitalism oppress workers? What parallels are drawn between workers and machines under capitalism? Are the changes to technology in the 21st century unique challenges, or do they follow the arc of innovation for profit?
Readings & Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes:
Labor and Innovation: Exploring the Power of Design and Storytelling with Lilly Irani
Ghost Work and the Role of Compassion in Tech Ethics with Mary Gray
Is Uber Moral? The Ethical Crisis of the Gig Economy with Veena Dubal
Social Inequality in the Digital Economy with Zanele Munyikwa
Texts
Wendling, A. (2009). Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation. Springer.
Gray, M. L., & Suri, S. (2019). Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass. HMH Books.
Prassl, J. (2018). Humans as a Service: The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy. Oxford University Press.
Tarnoff, B., & Weigel, M. (2020). Voices from the Valley: Tech Workers Talk About What They Do--and How They Do It. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Markham, L. (2018, June 20). The Immigrants Fueling the Gig Economy. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/06/the-immigrants-fueling-the-gig-economy/561107/
Week 2: Democracy and Misinformation
Much has been said on the capacity of technology, in particular, social media, to spread misinformation and harm democratic processes. Prominent examples are that of Cambridge Analytica during the US elections, and the media bargaining code in Australia. This module will examine the meta-narrative that pervades through such discussions, asking: can democracy exist under capitalism? Should we delete our social media accounts? What kinds of solutions are presented for misinformation, and what are their pros and cons?
Readings & Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes:
Voter Fraud, Media Regulation, and Civic Design with Shannon McGregor and Whitney Quesenbery
Facebook Ads, Propaganda, and Global Politics with Nayantara Ranganathan and Manuel Beltrán
Improving Social Media: Content Moderation & Democracy with Sarah T. Roberts and Murtaza Shaikh
Texts
Digital Echo Chambers and Misinformation
Pariser, E. (2011). The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think. Penguin Publishing Group.
Nguyen, C. T. (2018). Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles. Episteme, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/epi.2018.32
York, J. C. (2021). Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism. Verso Books.
Marx, P. (2020). Don’t Blame Social Media. Blame Capitalism. Jacobin. Retrieved from https://jacobinmag.com/2020/09/social-media-platform-capitalism-the-social-dilemma
Democracy and Capitalism
Ochigame, R. (2019). How Big Tech Manipulates Academia to Avoid Regulation. The Intercept. Retrieved from https://theintercept.com/2019/12/20/mit-ethical-ai-artificial-intelligence/
Fuchs, C., & Mosco, V. (Eds.). (2015). Marx in the Age of Digital Capitalism. BRILL.
Week 3: Privacy and Surveillance
Extending last week’s discussions, this week will examine privacy concerns under the current technology apparatus. We will explore several case studies in surveillance, demonstrating how they promote state and/or private power, and their ramifications on marginalized groups. Such cases include (1) smart home technology, and its effects on domestic violence and police power, (2) the use of smartphone data and backdoor access in police investigations, (3) technologies used in the War on Terror. How does surveillance function as an apparatus for state/private control? Who does it affect, and what systems does it entrench?
Readings & Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
The State of the Union of Surveillance: Are Things Getting Better? with Liz O'Sullivan
Are We Being Watched? Unpacking AI Surveillance with Kandrea Wade
Texts
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Profile Books.
Doctorow, C. (2021, February 4). How to Destroy ‘Surveillance Capitalism’. Retrieved from https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59
Bowles, N. (2018, June 23). Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/23/technology/smart-home-devices-domestic-abuse.html
Perlroth, N., Larson, J., & Shane, S. (2013, September 5). N.S.A. Able to Foil Basic Safeguards of Privacy on Web. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/us/nsa-foils-much-internet-encryption.html
Amoore, L. (2006). Biometric borders: Governing mobilities in the war on terror. Political Geography, 25(3), 336–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2006.02.001
Part II: Technology and Colonialism
Week 4: The Military-Industrial Complex
The advent of new technologies have applications in military contexts—e.g. Drones, cyberweapons, and autonomous robots—that accelerate colonialist and capitalist interests in geopolitical conflicts. Indeed, technology is often developed for a military purpose. This week will examine the new kinds of war enabled by these new technologies, and study the relationship between military interests and privatised profit incentives. What new kinds of war are enabled by these technologies, and what are the geopolitical and human effects of their development? What is the relationship between military interests and the privatised profit incentives of weapons manufacturers?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
Texts
New Warfare
Taddeo, M. (2012). Information Warfare: A Philosophical Perspective. Philosophy & Technology, 25(1), 105–120. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-011-0040-9
Shaw, I. G. R. (2013). Predator Empire: The Geopolitics of US Drone Warfare. Geopolitics, 18(3), 536–559. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2012.749241
Birhane, A., & van Dijk, J. (2020). Robot Rights? Let’s Talk about Human Welfare Instead. Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 207–213. https://doi.org/10.1145/3375627.3375855
Big Tech and the Military
Black, E. (2001). IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation. Crown Publishers.
Tiku, N. (2018). The Line Between Big Tech and Defense Work. Wired. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/the-line-between-big-tech-and-defense-work/
Leslie, S. W. (1993). The Cold War and American Science: The Military-industrial-academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press.
Poulson, J. (2020). Reports of a Silicon Valley/Military Divide have been greatly exaggerated. Tech Inquiry. Retrieved from Tech Inquiry website: https://techinquiry.org/SiliconValley-Military/
Week 5: Digital Colonialism and Imperialism
This week will take a broader examination of how technologies are used to perpetuate colonialism. Big tech products, created by predominantly western countries, proliferate in the Global South, and such users are beholden to and generate profit for western industries. What are the parallels between western imperialistic expansion and technological innovation? How is technology used to perpetuate colonialism, imperialism, and orientalism?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
Robot Rights? Exploring Algorithmic Colonization with Abeba Birhane
Love, Challenge, and Hope: Building a Movement to Dismantle the New Jim Code with Ruha Benjamin
Texts
Digital Colonialism
Rodney, W. (1972). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. East African Publishers.
Harding, S. (2011). The Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies Reader. Duke University Press.
Birhane, A. (2020). Algorithmic Colonization of Africa. SCRIPTed, 17(2), 389–409. https://doi.org/10.2966/scrip.170220.389
Kwet, M. (2019). Digital colonialism is threatening the Global South. Aljazeera. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/3/13/digital-colonialism-is-threatening-the-global-south
Kwet, M. (2019). Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South. Race & Class, 60(4), 3–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396818823172
Technology and Imperialism
Kalluri, P. (2019, December). The Values of Machine Learning. Presented at the NIPS 2019. NIPS 2019. Retrieved from https://slideslive.com/38923453?ref=og-meta-tags
Roh, D. S., Huang, B., & Niu, G. A. (2015). Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media. Rutgers University Press.
Zhang, Y. (2021). ‘Barbarising’ China in American trade war discourse: The assault on Huawei. Third World Quarterly, 0(0), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1894120
Week 6: Indigenous Technology and Western Appropriation
Knowledge and science is often understood within western frameworks and ideologies. This week will explore examples of Indigenous technologies and deconstruct western systems of understanding. How does western technology appropriate Indigenous technologies? How does it prevent Indigenous sovereignty over data collection and use?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes:
Texts
Appropriation of Indigenous Technologies
Roht-Arriaza, N. (1996). Of Seeds and Shamans: The Appropriation of the Scientific and Technical Knowledge of Indigenous and Local Communities. Michigan Journal of International Law, 17(4), 919–965.
Pascoe, B. (2018). Dark Emu. Magabala Books.
Sutton, P., & Walshe, K. (2021). Farmers Or Hunter-Gatherers? Melbourne University Publishing.
Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Lewis, J. E., Abdilla, A., Arista, N., Baker, K., Benesiinaabandan, S., Brown, M., … Whaanga, H. (2020). Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Position Paper [Monograph]. Honolulu, HI: Indigenous Protocol and Artificial Intelligence Working Group and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Retrieved from https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/986506/
Smith, P. L. T. (2013). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books Ltd.
Taylor, J., & Kukutai, T. (Eds.). (2016). Indigenous Data Sovereignty. ANU Press. https://doi.org/10.22459/CAEPR38.11.2016
Walter, M., & Suina, M. (2019). Indigenous data, indigenous methodologies and indigenous data sovereignty. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 22(3), 233–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2018.1531228
Walter, M., & Andersen, C. (2013). Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Research Methodology. Left Coast Press.
Part III: Intersectional Readings on Technology
Week 7: Algorithmic Oppression and “Bias”
This week, we will explore the concept of Algorithmic Oppression—how algorithms replicate injustices in historic data. We will also investigate the assumption that inclusive algorithms are beneficial. What material conditions do these algorithms enact? Is an ethical algorithm one that is simply unbiased? What does bias mean within the systems of oppression that exist?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
Texts
Algorithmic Oppression
Buolamwini, J., & Gebru, T. (2018). Gender Shades: Intersectional Accuracy Disparities in Commercial Gender Classification. Conference on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency, 77–91. PMLR. Retrieved from http://proceedings.mlr.press/v81/buolamwini18a.html
West, M., Kraut, R., & Chew, H. E. (2019). I’d blush if I could: Closing gender divides in digital skills through education. UNESCO. Retrieved from UNESCO website: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416.page=1
Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.
Katz, Y. (2020). Artificial Whiteness: Politics and Ideology in Artificial Intelligence. Columbia University Press.
“Ethical” algorithms under capitalism
Hampton, L. M. (2021). Black Feminist Musings on Algorithmic Oppression. Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, 1–1. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445929
Keyes, O. (2019). Counting the Countless. Real Life. Retrieved from https://reallifemag.com/counting-the-countless/
Week 8: Carceral technology
This week will examine the uses of machine learning in predictive policing and surveillance, and its effects on marginalized Black and Indigenous communities in western countries. We will investigate particular instances of predictive policing, such as the Suspect Target Management Plan in Australia, and discuss the role of technology in police violence. How is technology used to perpetrate a carceral state? What effects does it currently have on Black and Indigneous communities?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
Resistance Against the Tech to Prison Pipeline with the Coalition for Critical Technology
The State of the Union of Surveillance: Are Things Getting Better? with Liz O'Sullivan
Texts
Vitale, A. S. (2017). The End of Policing. Verso Books.
Benjamin, R. (2019). Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code. Wiley.
Eubanks, V. (2018). Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. St. Martin’s Publishing Group.
Stop LAPD Spying Coalition. (2018). Before the Bullet Hits the Body – Dismantling Predictive Policing in Los Angeles (pp. 3–24). Retrieved from https://stoplapdspying.org/before-the-bullet-hits-the-body-dismantling-predictive-policing-in-los-angeles/
Browne, S. (2015). Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Duke University Press.
Sentas, V., & Pandolfini, C. (2017). A study of the Suspect Targeting Management Plan. Youth Justice Coalition. Retrieved from Youth Justice Coalition website: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2567986627
Week 9: Critiquing Neoliberal D&I
Technology companies, in a bid to address public concerns with Algorithmic Oppression, reinforce the rhetoric that a diverse group of engineers is enough to produce algorithms without bias. This week, we will investigate the shortcomings of industry diversity and inclusion initiatives that seek to increase representation of marginalised groups. Where do these initiatives place the burden of change? How are minorities treated to maintain company profit?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
Racism and Sexism in AI Technology? Navigating Systems of Power with Sarah Myers West
Confronting Our Reality: Racial Representation and Systemic Transformation with Dr. Timnit Gebru
Texts
Mull, A. (2020, June 25). The Girlboss Has Left the Building. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/girlbosses-what-comes-next/613519/
Foster, D. (2016). Lean Out. Watkins Media Limited.
Google Walkout For Real Change. (2020, December 15). Standing with Dr. Timnit Gebru—#ISupportTimnit #BelieveBlackWomen. Retrieved from Medium website: https://googlewalkout.medium.com/standing-with-dr-timnit-gebru-isupporttimnit-believeblackwomen-6dadc300d382
Slaton, A. E. (2015). Meritocracy, Technocracy, Democracy: Understandings of Racial and Gender Equity in American Engineering Education. In S. H. Christensen, C. Didier, A. Jamison, M. Meganck, C. Mitcham, & B. Newberry (Eds.), International Perspectives on Engineering Education: Engineering Education and Practice in Context, Volume 1 (pp. 171–189). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16169-3_8
Rottenberg, C. (2014). The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 418–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.857361
Week 10: Technology and Disability
This week will examine the social model of disability, and critique technologies that reinforce an individualized onus on disabled people to conform. We will investigate the role accessible technology plays within this context. What are the metanarratives around accessible technology in the industry? Do these narratives adhere with the social model of disability?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes:
Texts
The social model of disability
Eveleth, R. (2015, August 7). Exoskeletons for the Disabled Let Cities off the Hook. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/08/exoskeletons-disability-assistive-technology/400667/
Shakespeare, T. (2016). The Social Model of Disability. In L. J. Davis (Ed.), The Disability Studies Reader. Taylor & Francis.
Oliver, M. (2013). The social model of disability: Thirty years on. Disability & Society, 28(7), 1024–1026. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2013.818773
Accessible technology
Morris, M. R. (2020). AI and Accessibility: A Discussion of Ethical Considerations. Communications of the ACM, 63(6), 35–37. https://doi.org/10.1145/3356727
Lupton, D., & Seymour, W. (2000). Technology, selfhood and physical disability. Social Science & Medicine, 50(12), 1851–1862. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(99)00422-0
Moser, I. (2006). Disability and the promises of technology: Technology, subjectivity and embodiment within an order of the normal. Information, Communication & Society, 9(3), 373–395. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180600751348
Bennett, Cynthia L., Burren Peil, and Daniela K. Rosner. "Biographical prototypes: Reimagining recognition and disability in design." Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference. 2019.
Bennett, C. L., Gleason, C., Scheuerman, M. K., Bigham, J. P., Guo, A., & To, A. (2021). “It’s Complicated”: Negotiating Accessibility and (Mis)Representation in Image Descriptions of Race, Gender, and Disability. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–19. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445498
Part IV: Technology as Liberation
Week 11: “Decolonial” Technology
This week examines the way “decolonial” technology is portrayed, whether such kinds of technology really can exist and what liberatory effects they may have. We will juxtapose how deeply entrenched technology is in the western state with how technologies are used by Indigenous activists and artists to help their communities envision decolonial futures and form pockets of resistance. Can technology ever be truly liberatory and decolonial? How do we wrest technology away from its oppressive history?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
Texts
Ali, S. M. (2016). A brief introduction to decolonial computing. XRDS: Crossroads, The ACM Magazine for Students, 22(4), 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1145/2930886
Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1). Retrieved from https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/18630
Mohamed, S., Png, M.-T., & Isaac, W. (2020). Decolonial AI: Decolonial Theory as Sociotechnical Foresight in Artificial Intelligence. Philosophy & Technology, 33(4), 659–684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-020-00405-8
Harle, J., & Abdilla, A. (2019). Decolonising the Digital: Technology as Cultural Practice. Tactical Space Lab.
Mignolo, W. D. (2011). The Darker Side of Western Modernity. In The Darker Side of Western Modernity. Duke University Press. Retrieved from https://www-degruyter-com.ezproxy.library.sydney.edu.au/document/doi/10.1515/9780822394501/html
Ali, M. (2014). Towards a decolonial computing. Ambiguous Technologies: Philosophical Issues, Practical Solutions, Human Nature, 28–35. Lisbon, Portugal: International Society of Ethics and Information Technology. Retrieved from http://oro.open.ac.uk/41372/
Mcquillan, D. (2019, April). Towards an anti-fascist AI. Presented at the All Access AI, Goldsmiths, University of London. Retrieved from ./ai_and_antifascism.html
Week 12: Data Feminism
The internet is often thought of as a democratic space, but in the western imaginary, this “neutral” space is unquestionably a white, male one. Data feminism posits, in contrast, cyberspace as a domain in which to question and subvert dominant hierarchies of power, in which women, PoC, and LGBTQ+ people can thrive. Can the master’s tools be used to dismantle the master’s house? Is the internet a place of resistance for minorities?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
Texts
The “Neutral” Internet
Barlow, J. P. (1996). A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace. Retrieved 3 June 2020, from Electronic Frontier Foundation website: https://www.eff.org/cyberspace-independence
Nakamura, L. (2013). ‘Where Do You Want to Go Today?’ Cybernetic Tourism, the Internet, and Transnationality. In B. Kolko, L. Nakamura, & G. Rodman (Eds.), Race in Cyberspace. Routledge.
Cyberfeminism and the Internet as Liberation
Hester, H. (2018). Xenofeminism. Wiley. Retrieved from https://www.wiley.com/en-au/Xenofeminism-p-9781509520626
Jackson, S. J., & Foucault Welles, B. (2015). Hijacking #myNYPD: Social Media Dissent and Networked Counterpublics. Journal of Communication, 65(6), 932–952.
Russell, L. (2020). Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto. Verso.
D’Ignazio, C., & Klein, L. F. (2020). Data Feminism. MIT Press
Week 13: Technology Beyond Capitalism
In Capitalist Realism, Fisher argues that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. Technology operates under capitalism, and it is difficult to imagine its potential outside of it. What alternative futures can technology provide? What tools does it provide to dismantle capitalism? And are these alternatives viable, or do they ignore the reality of power relations?
Readings and Multimedia Content
Radical AI Podcast Episodes
Texts & Resources
Costanza-Chock, S. (2020). Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need. MIT Press.
Fisher, M. (2009). Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? John Hunt Publishing.
Bastani, A. (2019). Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto. Verso Books.
O’Shea, L. (2019). Future Histories: What Ada Lovelace, Tom Paine, and the Paris Commune Can Teach Us About Digital Technology. Verso Books.
Odell, J. (2019). How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Melville House.
Mostafa, J. (2019, July 23). The Revolution Will Not Be Automated. Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved from https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/zuboff-bastani/
Tsing, A. L. (2015). The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton University Press.
Congratulations on finishing Radical AI’s Technology and Power Curriculum! Let us know what you thought on Twitter by using the hashtag #RAIcurriculum to discuss your thoughts or ask questions to the community.
Did you think of great discussion questions during any of the modules? Any additional readings or multimedia content that would be relevant to a particular topic? Let us know! We’d love to make this curriculum a community-based effort, and love hearing ideas from all of you! DM us on twitter @radicalaipod or email us at podcast@radicalai.org with the subject line “Technology and Power Curriculum”.
Special thanks to the mastermind behind this curriculum, one of our Spring 2021 interns, Lena Wang. Connect with Lena on Twitter @lenayiwang!