Digital Humanities

Humanity vs. Technology (in 5 minutes)

July 31, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

Dr. Leigh M. Johnson summarizes the challenges technology poses to humanity (and the humanities) in 5-minute PowerPoint.

Paying It Forward

July 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

Are you a recent grad student who just got hired or a junior faculty member stressing out about your Fall syllabi? I’m here to help.

Five Reasons Why I Am A Techno-Optimist

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 1 Comment

Since I posted my list of tech book recommendations a few weeks ago, several people have asked me to explain why I describe myself as a “techno-optimist.” I get this question a lot, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to give a quick account (and defense) of my position. But, first, a few preliminary remarks about…

Why We Need YOUR Help to #SaveTheInternet

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

Did the image above give you a little bit of a dystopic shiver? It should. This Thursday, December 14, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai plans to roll back the Obama-era Title II regulations governing net neutrality. We can’t let that happen. You’ve no doubt heard the words “net neutrality” a lot in recent months (including on…

Not Every Idea Needs a Tool, But Every Tool Needs an Idea

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

Last semester, I conducted a test-run on a new assignment I had devised for my courses– the “Technology and Human Values” project— and I was, quite frankly, floored by the work that students did for it. The basic assignment is for students to work in groups of four or fewer to devise a merely-possible technological solution…

Forgetting

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

I dedicate a significant amount of time in my courses to thinking with students about our “digital selves” and our “digital lives.” Most students– most people, for that matter– tend to think of the aggregate data that constitute their digital selves (social media profiles, Google searches, Netflix or Amazon preferences, banking transactions, medical records, online…

Anonymity

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

What difference does a signature make? I’ll assume that the phenomenon of trolling is one familiar to most of us on the interwebs, a phenomenon that is, in turns, infuriating, exasperating, unpleasant, and often genuinely hostile and threatening. There’s much to abhor about trolls– their pettiness and vitriol, their disregard for basic conversational decorum, their…

Risk

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

In the January edition of the New Yorker, there was a story (“The Hit List”) about the so-called “Islamist war” on secular bloggers in Bagladesh. It begins with the murder of blogger Avijit Roy: atheist, rationalist and advocate of scientific understanding. (Roy: “The vaccine against religion is to build up a scientific approach.”) It is a…

Technology and Human Values

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

If this were a post on Buzzfeed or Upworthy or some other such listicle-driven site, the thumbnail caption would read: “You won’t BELIEVE the AMAZING things these COLLEGE STUDENTS did in their PHILOSOPHY class! Check it out!” That would be a 100% true description, but I will attempt to be more measured in what follows….

Men, Women, Gods and Machines: A Super-Generous Reading of Ex Machina

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson 0 Comments

Over the last several years, I’ve steadily increased the amount of time I spend in my moral and political philosophy courses on the theme of “digital identity.” I’ve done so in part because one important cornerstone of my pedagogical practice is to use my courses to combat digital illiteracy– the single greatest vulnerability that will…

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