Mike Pepi leads a symposium-style group through four sessions bringing together canonical texts with the most recent discourse on the criticism of Silicon Valley ideology of past, present, and future.

While all are welcome, this is designed as an introductory program. We'll do close readings of four major works of technology criticism, along with associated articles, with the aim of asking: what does it mean to be critical of technology's use today? What makes for useful criticism of the ideology underlying Silicon Valley's power?

The format lies between a traditional seminar and a reading group: the goal is to provide space for guided discussions of critical texts to broaden our understanding of contemporary developments in Silicon Valley.

Students will be responsible for acquiring course materials (approx. 4 books + various online/PDF articles). The reading lift will be challenging, but manageable.

MONDAYS: 3/2, 3/9, 3/16, 3/23 @ 7:00 - 8:30pm EST

Session 1: Origins Introduction to Philosophy of Technology, Tools, and the Human Condition Session 2: The (Non)Neutrality of Artifacts? Session 3: Understanding Digital Utopianism and its roots Session 4: Platform Capitalism Today: Critique and Consequence

Testimonials

"The Technology Criticism class was a great introduction to historic and current attempts to govern/deploy technology. I finished the course with a better understanding of actually existing tech criticism pulled from a wide foundation of strong resources - dealing with the current moment does not mean creating frameworks from scratch. It is necessary to understand the relationship between how technology is arranged, the context of its deployment, and the consequences that emerge when these are misaligned."

• Hari, Fall '25

Mike Pepi is a technologist and author who has written widely about the intersection between culture and the Internet. A critic and theorist, he self-identifies as part of the “tech left” – digital natives who want to reshape technology as a force for progressive good. His writing has been published in Spike, Frieze, e-flux, and other venues. His book Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia was published by Melville House in 2025.