SlugAtlasUC Santa Cruz

PHIL 190Senior Seminar

5 creditsUndergraduateStudent Option

Special topics. Format varies each quarter.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite(s): PHIL 9; and two from PHIL 100A, PHIL 100B, PHIL 100C, and PHIL 100D. Enrollment restricted to senior philosophy majors. Junior philosophy majors may enroll by permission of the instructor.

  • Course Topic: Epistemology & Technology In this course we will look at a variety of epistemological questions being raised by recent, anticipated, and possible advances in technology. We will focus on uncertainty and risk, as concern such topics as machine consciousness, Artificial General Intelligence and superintelligence, “black box” processing, AI existential risk [x-risks] (both decisive and accumulative), and more.

Find a section and add it to your scheduleLive seat counts, time-conflict checks and the walk from your previous class.

When it runs

Winter 2027Open Winter 2027

SectionTypeWhenWhereInstructorSeats
01Seminar
Tue 11:40am–2:40pm
TBAJ. DinishakOpen 0/15

Fall 2026Open Fall 2026

SectionTypeWhenWhereInstructorSeats
01Seminar
Wed 1:20pm–4:20pm
Oakes Acad 101J. E. EllisOpen 5/15

Spring 2026Open Spring 2026

SectionTypeWhenWhereInstructorSeats
01Seminar
Wed 12:00pm–3:00pm
Humanities 1 400S. BernsteinOpen 14/18
02Seminar
Tue 9:00am–12:00pm
Humanities 1 400K. RobertsonOpen 11/18

Winter 2026Open Winter 2026

SectionTypeWhenWhereInstructorSeats
01Seminar
Tue Thu 5:20pm–6:55pm
Porter Acad 250A. D. StoneOpen 6/11
02Seminar
Tue 9:30am–12:30pm
Humanities 1 400K. RobertsonOpen 10/18

Fall 2025Open Fall 2025

SectionTypeWhenWhereInstructorSeats
01Seminar
Fri 11:00am–2:00pm
Humanities 1 400J. F. BowinClosed 6/0
02Seminar
Tue 12:00pm–3:00pm
Merrill Acad 002J. DinishakClosed 7/0

Who teaches it

InstructorRatingDifficultyWould take againReviews
Janette Dinishak4.5 / 52.8 / 592%43
Jon Ellis4.2 / 52.9 / 575%52
Rebecca Bernstein3.3 / 52.8 / 50%12
Kyle Robertson3.8 / 52.8 / 563%48
Abraham Stone3.2 / 53.0 / 545%24
John Bowin2.5 / 53.6 / 536%45

From RateMyProfessors, which is student-submitted and not a survey. Small review counts move a long way on one bad quarter.

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