SOCI 355 Final Exam Questions
Three of these questions, selected randomly, will be the questions on the final. You should plan to spend equal time on each of the three that are on the exam. Refer to readings and other course documents (including video material we have seen) in making your argument, though you do not need to be concerned about citation formats (just mention an author or title in your response).
Here are some keys to writing good answers on an exam like this:
- Refer to course texts frequently. A big part of what I am looking for is your mastery of what we have examined over the semester.
- Write coherently. Leave yourself at least a few minutes to look over your essays after you’ve written them to check for and correct sentence fragments, confusing phrases or structure, etc.
- Do not waste time reiterating your argument in the way you’ve perhaps been instructed in the past to think about “the five paragraph essay.” It is enough to summarize once what the overall thrust of your essay is, at the outset, and then just get into the business of showing me how much you know about the question. This kind of exam is really more about demonstrating how much and how well you can put the course themes into your own words in making a case than it is about perfecting any structured essay format. Be organized and make your argument easy to follow. But don’t be repetitive. No time for that here.
THE QUESTIONS:
- What is technique? How does it differ, if at all, from technology? What are some of the basic aspects of relationship between human nature and technique/technology explored in the readings from Mumford, Gehlen, Lenski, and Ellul?
- Compare the views of Marx and Ellul on the effects of technology during the Industrial Revolution. What do they think are the most important aspects of technology’s role in this period? How compatible are their views?
- Discuss Ellul’s category of “human techniques” (chapter 5 of The Technological Society). How has the information technology revolution contributed to this aspect of technique/technology? Use the readings by Castells and Fourcade/Kealy in your exploration of Ellul’s thought on this topic.
- What is Nicholas Carr’s case as to how “technologies of connection tear us apart”? Why does he believe such technologies work in a direction antithetical to the predictions of their inventors and many communication scholars?
- Discuss the major threats presented both by existing generative AI and a hypothetical super-intelligent AI, using the Marcus, Bostrum, and Yudkowsky/Soares readings.