Can technology save us? Since at least the start of the industrial revolution, 'progress' has largely been understood as a matter of innovation in devices for resource extraction and manufacturing, but all this innovation has brought us to a point of profound ecological and economic crisis. If our societies are to survive the 21st century, we need to take seriously the agenda of 'sustainable development' and reexamine the faith that recent generations have placed in purely technological solutions. This module investigates how human beings imagine, reason about and plan for the future, with a focus on contemporary technological fads – especially so-called 'Generative AI', but also in transport, green energy, human enhancement and space travel.
The module is taught by a combination of lectures and seminars. Assessment consists of a 2000-word essay on a relevant topic (40%) and a product-based task in which students produce a mock public-facing work (e.g. a short video, blog post or infographic) debunking the marketing hype around a new tech-industry product (60%)