Technology's Impact on Contemporary U.S. Corporations

Instructor Dan Marin Rucks Department of Management

How has technology affected business practice in contemporary U.S. Corporations? We will apply critical thinking in both its rational and creative aspects to an investigation of this question with respect to three prominent corporations: Apple, Tesla, and Lamar Outdoor Advertising.

Our readings and conversation will range from Plato’s Phaedrus on the invention of writing to Vance’s Elon Musk: Tesla, Space X, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. We’ll discuss Postman’s discourse Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Ullman’s narrative Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology, Isaacson’s Stephen Jobs and Apple, and Merchant’s brand new The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone. We’ll conclude (TBA) with a visit to the Lamar Advertising plant in Baton Rouge.