Module description
Humans and intelligent technologies are increasingly entangled. AI makes this entanglement even tighter. This ‘posthuman condition’ creates new ways of empathising with the marginalised and disadvantaged, particularly those unknown to us. In this module, you will be taught:
- i) to collect large amounts of digitised text from online campaigns for an equitable and sustainable planet, and large amounts of social media data generated by their supporters;
- ii) easy-to-use text analysis software and Generative AI for identifying common concerns across these datasets.
You then deploy these digitally-generated concerns as ‘posthuman lenses’ to view prominent texts of the opposite viewpoint. For example, you might look at an oil company website through the lens of an environmental campaign group. In taking the perspective of a campaign of your choosing, you critically evaluate texts that communicate a harmful status quo, highlighting how they bypass key concerns and/or misrepresent the perspective of the disadvantaged.
In opening out to fresh campaign perspectives, you not only extend your horizons but enhance your cognitive flexibility. Having created a fresh vantage point for independent thought, you arrive at your own position on a previously unfamiliar campaign.
The module presupposes no previous engagement with digital text analysis tools nor Generative AI.
Assessment details
One 4,000 word assignment (100%)