How does auto-complete work? How do digital voice assistants understand what I’m saying? Was this paragraph written by a person or generated by an algorithm? These are the kinds of questions addressed by Natural Language Processing (NLP), the subfield of computer science that develops text- and voice-based methods for computational machinery to more closely mimic human communication. In this class students will learn the history and technical operations by which computation advanced from numerical calculation to symbolic processing, how computers came to be machines capable of reading and writing human languages. Coursework will include hands-on, technical exercises with computer programming techniques and resources in a programming language such as Python or Javascript. Readings will be drawn from literature in media studies, philosophy, and computer science. Students will complete self-designed final projects such as a text-based game, an algorithmically-generated poem or story, or an analysis of a large text by computational methods. No prior computer programming experience is necessary. This course fulfills the Integrative Course requirement of the Culture and Media major.