Law and the Machine Culture

LSLW599_31

Summer 2008

Professor	Time/Location	Office Hours	Contact Information
Jack Baldwin LeClair	Monday Through Thursday, 6:30-9:50 PM	by appointment and as posted	Tel: 973.655.7953
MA, Ed.S, J.D	University Hall 3007	Office in Dickson 314	Law Office: 201.213.9600
			Fax: 973.655.7951
			email:leclairj@mail.montclair.edu

Materials and Resources

Required Reading

G: Gray, Chris Hables. Cyborg Citizen. (New York: Routledge, Latest Edition)="G" on reading list below.

C: Crichton, Michael, Next. New York: Harper Collins, 2006)

Blackboard

Referred to as Bb - See readings at http://montclair.blackboard.com

Grading

Midterm Examination	30%
Final Examination	40%
Classroom Participation	10%
Paper, Homework, and Lab Assignments	20%

PURPOSE OF THIS COURSE

This course is taught at several levels: graduate, undergraduate, and paralegal. Students must read the assignments prior to class, come prepared to discuss the issues intelligently, participate in class discussions, and be prepared to apply their knowledge creatively to problems assigned in class. The purpose of the course and its rules are as follows - being a Trekker helps:

To boldly go where no Legal Studies course has gone before.
To explore the various threads of technology, philosophy, and law in the rise of American machine culture and human/machine convergence.
To develop an understanding of the evolution of law in the conflict of machine culture and humanism.
To view the various refractions of future legal theory through the prism of speculative and future fiction
To expand conceptions of social justice, global legal consciousness, and and legal resolution using various tools of legal reasoning.

NOTES

Reading assignments must be prepared in advance of the class meeting date.
Not all course material is covered in the text. Examinations may include material covered by lecture, class discussion, handouts, demonstrations or lab sessions in addition to assigned readings.
There will be no makeup examinations.(1)
Class attendance is mandatory and class participation will be rewarded.
Recommended reference books and supplemental reading materials will be assigned.
Students are encouraged to work cooperatively.
DO NOT FAX ASSIGNMENTS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.

TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS

All assigned chapters refer to the text. Specific assignments within the pages assigned may be announced in class. All topics will be covered on a flexible schedule depending on the needs of the class, and other factors. Preliminary dates are provided.

DATE/ TOPIC / SYNOPSIS/ ASSIGNMENT

PART I - The Machine Culture, Humanity, Consciousness, Rights, and Reason
05.19.08	The Machine Culture on the Cyborg Planet vs. Gaia, Mother Earth. (Terminator v. Predator) What is the function of law: protecting humanity, efficiency, or enabling ruling elites? Are machines us, extensions of us, or evolution of another? Natural Law vs. Positive Law vs. Machine Law	The history of technology and humnity. The great discontinuities. What is humanism? The American legal system and its threads of development, a multi-threaded fabric with multiple designs worn by all.	Video: Carpe Diem: Interview with Jack Baldwin LeClair. Video: Rage Against the Machines (Not the rock group)
05.20.08	Government by technology-- "...government is best that governs least" - Maybe not...See Thoureau's "On Civil Disobedience" The increasing legal bandwidth - The Eplubnista and other source documents.	If law reflects culture and machine rules replace culture then law will reflect machine rules. Oswald Spengler in Decline of the West written in the early 20th century attempted to determine how pre-industrial societies were born, matured, and died.	G: Intro and Ch 1, 2 Film: Gattaca Assignment: Essay # 1 - See Readings in Bb: Assigned Readings #1 and #2. under Law Reviews and Case Law
05.21.08	Utopia vs. dystopia considered - What it means to be human - Do androids dream of electric sheep?	The legal issues engendered by cloning. Does DNA define a human being? Are human rights derivative of humanity?	G: Ch 3, 4 Film: Bladerunner
05.22.08	MIDTERM EXAMINATION POSTED ON WEBSITE. CLICK HERE Dystopia - Rule by machine	To what human characteristics do we attribute human rights or personhood? Can we lose our rights: Abu Graib, The Patriot Act, Roe v. Wade? Are rights universal or jurisdictional?	G: Ch 5, 6 Film: Film: Robocop Assignment: Essay # 2 - Answer the question: "Are The Patriot Act, Roe v. Wade, and Abu Graib symptomatic of the machine culture?" Using the readings, movies, and discussion explore the machine culture and its ramifications in global socio-economic terms. Incorporate recent legal issues as reported in the popular press to buttress your conclusion.
05.26.08 - Memorial Day	NO CLASS .
05.27.08	The cyborg as social actor. The history and the development of law - many frequencies, some noise, varying power.	The machine culture as the enemy of humanity.	G: Ch 7 Video: Stream of Consciousness Video: The Measure of Man. Assignment # 1 Due.
05.28.08	MIDTERM DUE What it means to be sentient - Could I have some emotion chips with that beer?	The machine culture and modified man as measure of social progress.	C: All G: Ch 9 Video: Replica Video: I, Robot BlackBoard - Assigned Readings . under Law Reviews and Case Law
05.29.08	Consciousness from machine: Cyberperson	Tabula rasa - If individual consciousness is built from bits of culture as filtered by experience, can machine rules be internalized and override human norms and vice versa?	G: Ch 10 Fin de siecle of man - Film: Bicentennial Man
PART II - The Decline of Humanity, Government by Technology, and the New Cyborg Reality
06.02.08	What are the checks and balances in machine government?	What is the origin of bureacracy? Is bureaucracy machine culture? Is man part of nature or has s/he evolved beyond?	Film: Brazil Reading: Assignments - Thoureau, Henry David On the Duty of Civil Disobedience:See the American Transcendentalist Movement. D: Read all.
06.03.08	What is an artificial person? Rights, liberties, and justice for all...higher level mammals?	From whence do rights come?	G: Ch 8 Film: Colossus: The Forbin Project - 100 min. Fideo: A Taster of Armageddon
06.04.08	The global mind and a final look at the here and now. The ultimate domination of man by machine culture and the denial of sentience in machine by man..		G: Ch 13, 14 Film:: The Matrix Fin de siecle:symbiosis of man and machine
06.05.08	FINAL EXAMINATION Cyborg evolution through technology and the ascendency of the machine culture.	IN CLASS

(1) Make up exams will only be considered in the event of kidnapping, terrorist acts, national emergency, or death (yours)