Law, Technology & Inequality – 6646
Many argue that technological innovations increase inequality while others argue that they offer opportunities to level the playing field. Both effects depend on the political, economic, and legal infrastructure that underlies the technology. This seminar will start with an examination of the competing arguments, including readings from Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat, and Joseph Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future. It will then examine particular technological developments and their impact on inequality including automation and employment, the pill, egg freezing and women’s lives, smart phones, telecommunications and their impact on marginalized groups, pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine, social media, the internet and the dissemination of ideas, sports, doping and genetics, climate change and green technology, synthetic biology and genetic engineering, arcane financial transactions, big data across various fields, and changes in the use of technology in the legal profession.