[Bioundgrd] Special Subjects in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

[Janice Chang]

>From:
>Hal Abelson
>
>		    ******************************
>
>Special Subjects in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
>
>6.095: Bits
>MWF 11
>4-0-8
>
>Meetings will be at Harvard University, in conjunction with the
>Harvard subject of the same name.
>
>Intro:
>
>This course aims to characterize and explain the world's dramatic
>increase in information and communication capacity over the past
>decade or two, and to explore some of the resulting implications for
>public policy, regulation, and legislation, and the implied
>responsibilities of citizens, corporations, and government. Thus the
>substance of the course is part science, part technology, and part
>public policy and law. The important technologies are electrical
>engineering, especially electronic communications and data management,
>and computing. Important public issues include privacy, ownership of
>information and of ideas, and risks in the use and abuse of
>information technology.
>
>Topics:
>
>Information as quantity, resource, and property. Quantitative aspects
>of information technologies as they inform issues of public policy,
>regulation, and law. How are music, images, and telephone
>conversations represented digitally, and how are they moved reliably
>from place to place through wires, glass fibers, and the air? Who owns
>information, who owns software, what forms of regulation and law
>restrict the communication and use of information, and does it matter?
>How can personal privacy be protected at the same time as society
>benefits from communicated or shared information? Glitches, bugs,
>viruses, design flaws, and other failures, risks, and limitations of
>information systems
>
>No prerequisites
>Permission of instructor required.
>
>Hal Abelson