Human Context of Science and Technology (HCST) is a UMBC certificate program that provides students with a deeper understanding of the human context of science, technology, engineering, and medicine. In Spring 2026, Eric Brown will teach a new undergraduate special topics class on how AI and robotics will affect our world.

HCST 499/INDS 430:  Robots, AI, & Transhumanists: Exploring the Uncanny Valley
Eric Brown, Spring 2026, TuTh 4:00-5:15pm

Over the next one to two decades, humanity faces the prospect of having to share the planet with completely new and invented beings - robots, artificial intelligences, and humans who have begun to transform themselves into something other. The science and technology seem to be catching up with the heady dreams of sci-fi authors like Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick. Through this course, students will form a community of thinkers and experimenters that will engage with the complexities of living in this space. We will explore through discussion and doing what it is like to develop relationships with artificial intelligences and investigate the incursion of robots (e.g., delivery bots, robotaxis, and eldercare bots) into spaces traditionally reserved for humans. We will ask ourselves at what point, if ever, does the integration of technology into the human body transform that body into something that is beyond human. We will wonder together just how prepared are we to live in a world where sci-fi is no longer fiction?