Does software have politics? Are LLMs like power plants? Do ships need captains? In this final episode of our first season, we discuss these questions and take a look at Langdon Winner's paper "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" (1980). Spoiler alert: the answer to the question in this paper's title is a big, bold YES! According to Winner, there are two ways in which artifacts can have political properties. In our episode, we illustrate these with examples and apply Winner's observations to current technologies such as LLMs. We explore how the political properties of software can be accounted for in Computer Science education and establish links to prior episodes. As always, Felienne considers new tattoos, and Hanna finally does the homework she's been assigned.

Links:

• Our Discord channel for the pod:  ...