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Internet

An Experiment in the (Re)Distribution of Grades: UPDATE (2026)

September 5, 2026 Leigh M. Johnson Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Blog, Capitalism, citizenship, Codifying Civility and Collegiality, critical thinking, Democracy, ERG, Ethics, Internet, Marx, Media, Open Source Pedagogy, Pedagogy, Philosophy, Social Media, Teaching Comments Off on An Experiment in the (Re)Distribution of Grades: UPDATE (2026)

Do “grades” even matter anymore?

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Humanity vs. Technology (in 5 minutes)

July 31, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Biotech, Blog2024+, critical thinking, Democracy, Digital Humanities, Emergent Tech, Ethics, Internet, Justice, Labor Issues, Machine Learning, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Posthuman, Public Philosophy, Social Media, Surveillance, Teaching, Technology, Technology and Human Values, Uncanny Valley Comments Off on Humanity vs. Technology (in 5 minutes)

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

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Lying Artificial Intelligence

July 27, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Blog2024+, Emergent Tech, Ethics, Hotel Bar Sessions, Internet, Justice, Machine Learning, Media, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, podcast, Politics, Posthuman, Social Media, SPEP, Technology, Technology and Human Values Comments Off on Lying Artificial Intelligence

Should we worry about a robot capable of lying about being a robot?

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Hotel Bar Sessions, Episode 21: Conspiracy Theories

August 6, 2021 Leigh M. Johnson conspiracy theories, critical thinking, Democracy, Ethics, Hotel Bar Sessions, Internet, Philosophy, podcast, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive Comments Off on Hotel Bar Sessions, Episode 21: Conspiracy Theories

The HBS hosts discuss conspiracy theories and what motivates people to believe in them.  The word “conspiracy” derives from the Latin con- (“with” or “together”) and spirare (“to breathe”), and it seems like more and more people are breathing in the thin air of dubious explanations and bonding together over them. From Q-Anon to flat earthers to anti-vaxxers to…

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What If You Were Gerald McGrew?: A “Rebuild the Internet” Thought Experiment

January 28, 2020 Leigh M. Johnson Anonymity, Big Data, Ethics, Internet, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Privacy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Technology, Technology and Human Values Comments Off on What If You Were Gerald McGrew?: A “Rebuild the Internet” Thought Experiment

You may remember the story by Dr. Seuss (né, Theodore Seuss Geisel) from 1950 entitled If I Ran the Zoo, in which the pint-sized protagonist, Gerald McGrew, imagines the amazing creation he could bring about if he were allowed to run the zoo. If I Ran the Zoo is not only a great story about the never-before-seen exotic animals…

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