Computer Science 1401:
Computing At The Movies
(Fall 2017)
http://www.cs.mun.ca/~harold/Courses/CS1401/
Lecture Outline (Tentative)
This course will be taught once a week in a 3-hour lecture slot. Several days before each
lecture, introductory notes on the area of computer science treated in the film
will be provided on the course website;
the expectation is that this content will be read before the lecture. In each lecture,
there will be a 15-25 minute introduction by the instructor before the
screening of that week's film. The screening will be followed by further notes from the
instructor and class discussion.
Over the course of the term, each student will submit
two four-page (double-spaced) papers on two different films presented in the course lectures
(one from the films in weeks 1-5, the other from the films in weeks 7-11 (see below))
in which a critical assessment is given of both the (in)accuracy of the portrayal of
computing in that film as well as how the film affects the public's perception of computing.
Each student will also submit an 8-10 page (double-spaced) term paper assessing, comparing,
and contrasting three of the films shown in the course plus one other
film selected in consultation with the instructor.
The films will follow a roughly chronological course from 1955 to the present,
with each film touching on one or more of the following three broad themes:
Computing in the Popular Imagination (CI), Computing and Society (CS), and
the Computing Profession (CP).
- Week 1: Introduction: Computing and Hollywood v1.0
- Presented Viewing: Westworld (1973) [CI1]
- Week 2: Inside the Dream Machine
- Presented Viewing: Tron (1982) [CI2]
- Week 3: Computing and the Workplace
- Presented Viewing: Desk Set (1957) [CS1]
- Week 4: Computing and the Military
- Presented Viewing: Colossus: The Forbin Project (1969) [CI3]
- Week 5: Computing and Medicine
- Presented Viewing: The Terminal Man (1974) [CS2]
- Week 6: The Personal Computer Revolution
- Presented Viewing: Pirates of Silicon Valley [TV] (1999) [CP1]
- Week 7: The Hacker Mystique
- Presented Viewing: Hackers (1995) [CP2]
- Week 8: Computing and Privacy
- Presented Viewing: The Net (1995) [CS3]
- Week 9: The Business of Computing I
- Presented Viewing: The Social Network (2010) [CP3]
- Week 10: The Wired World
- Presented Viewing: Men, Women, and Children (2014) [CS4]
- Week 11: Artificial Intelligence
- Presented Viewing: A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) [CI4]
- Week 12: The Business of Computing II
- Presented Viewing: Revolution OS (2001) [CP4]
The lectures delivered in this course by the instructor,
including any visual or audio recording thereof, are subject to copyright
owned by the instructor. It is prohibited to record or copy by any means, in any format,
openly or surreptitiously, in whole or in part, in the absence of express written permission from
the instructor any of the lectures or materials provided or published in any form during or from
the course.
Evaluation Scheme
| Course Participation |
10% |
|
| Critical Film Commentaries (2) |
30% |
Tuesday, October 17
Tuesday, November 28 |
| In-class Exams (2) |
30% |
Tuesday, October 17
Tuesday, November 28 |
| Term Paper |
30% |
Monday, December 4 |
- There will be no supplementary exams. Marks for missed in-class exams (with appropriate
documentation) will be averaged over the remaining coursework at the instructor's discretion.
Created: April 11, 2017
Last Modified: September 6, 2017