This book is a critical introduction to code and software that develops an understanding of its social and philosophical implications in the digital age. Written specifically for people interested in the subject from a non-technical background, the book provides a lively and interesting analysis of these new media forms.
Computer software (operating systems, web browsers, word processors, etc.) structure our daily lives. Comprising both a user interface and the electronic circuits of the machine it is printed to, software represents a hybrid object at the crossroads of materiality and immateriality. But is it, strictly speaking, a technical object? By examining the status of software against the criteria of philosophy of classic techniques, in particular that of Gilbert Simondon, this book lays the groundwork of a philosophical reflection on this subject. Further, in order to help introduce readers to problematics, lines of code and explanatory schemas have been provided.
This volume constitutes the refereed post-conference proceedings of the Third International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing, held in Pisa, Italy in October 2015. The 18 full papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from the 30 papers presented at the conference. They cover topics ranging from the world history of computing to the role of computing in the humanities and the arts.
Educational research often discounts the uniqueness and ubiquity of software and the hidden political, economic and epistemological ways it impacts teaching and learning in K-12 settings. Drawing on theories and methodologies from English education, critical discourse analysis, multimodal semiotics and digital humanities, this volume exposes the problems of technology in schools and refocuses the conversation on software. This shifting of focus invites more nuanced questions concerning the role of software in school reform and classroom instruction, and takes a critical stance on software’s role in education. This volume explores the ontology of software and the ways it is construed within educational policy discussions. It is beneficial to schools, companies, policy makers and practitioners seeking a more theoretical framework for technology in education.
This Guide provides an ambitious state-of-the-art survey of the fundamental themes, problems, arguments and theories constituting the philosophy of computing. A complete guide to the philosophy of computing and information. Comprises 26 newly-written chapters by leading international experts. Provides a complete, critical introduction to the field. Each chapter combines careful scholarship with an engaging writing style. Includes an exhaustive glossary of technical terms. Ideal as a course text, but also of interest to researchers and general readers.
Service-oriented architectures are of vital importance to enterprises maintaining order and service reputation with stakeholders, and by utilizing the latest technologies, advantage can be gained and time and effort saved. Enhancing Enterprise and Service-Oriented Architectures with Advanced Web Portal Technologies offers the latest research and development within the field, filled with case studies, research, methodologies, and frameworks from contributors around the world. In order to stay abreast of the cutting-edge research in the field, it is vital for academics and practitioners to stay involved and studied with the latest publications. This volume contains a wide range of subject matters, levels of technical expertise and development, and new technological advances within the field, and will serve as an excellent resource both as a handbook and a research manual.
The traditional debate among philosophers of mathematics is whether there is an external mathematical reality, something out there to be discovered, or whether mathematics is the product of the human mind. This provocative book, now available in a revised and expanded paperback edition, goes beyond foundationalist questions to offer what has been called a "postmodern" assessment of the philosophy of mathematics--one that addresses issues of theoretical importance in terms of mathematical experience. By bringing together essays of leading philosophers, mathematicians, logicians, and computer scientists, Thomas Tymoczko reveals an evolving effort to account for the nature of mathematics in relation to other human activities. These accounts include such topics as the history of mathematics as a field of study, predictions about how computers will influence the future organization of mathematics, and what processes a proof undergoes before it reaches publishable form. This expanded edition now contains essays by Penelope Maddy, Michael D. Resnik, and William P. Thurston that address the nature of mathematical proofs. The editor has provided a new afterword and a supplemental bibliography of recent work.
"This book looks at the combination of art, creativity and expression through the use and combination of computer science, and how technology can be used creatively for self expression using different approaches"--Provided by publisher.
Software has become a key component of contemporary life and algorithmic techniques that rank, classify, or recommend anything that fits into digital form are everywhere. This book approaches the field of information ordering conceptually as well as historically. Building on the philosophy of Gilbert Simondon and the cultural techniques tradition, it first examines the constructive and cumulative character of software and shows how software-making constantly draws on large reservoirs of existing knowledge and techniques. It then reconstructs the historical trajectories of a series of algorithmic techniques that have indeed become the building blocks for contemporary practices of ordering. Developed in opposition to centuries of library tradition, coordinate indexing, text processing, machine learning, and network algorithms instantiate dynamic, perspectivist, and interested forms of arranging information, ideas, or people. Embedded in technical infrastructures and economic logics, these techniques have become engines of order that transform the spaces they act upon.
This book is designed to provide easy means of problem solving based on the science philosophical and logical rules that lead to effective and reliable software at the service of professional earth system scientists through numerical scientific computation techniques. Through careful examination of software illuminated by brief scientific explanations given in the book the reader may develop his/her skills of computer program writing. Science aspects that are concerned with earth systems need numerical computation procedures and algorithms of data collected from the field measurements or laboratory records. The same is also valid for data processing in social sciences and economics. Some of the data assessment and processing procedures are at the large scales and complex, and therefore, require effective and efficient computer programs. Data reduction and graphical display in addition to probabilistic and statistical calculations are among the general purposes of the book. Not only students’ works but also projects of researchers at universities and tasks of experts in different companies depend on reliable software. Especially, potential users of MATLAB in earth systems need a guidance book that covers a variety of practically applicable software solutions.
Luciano Floridi presents a book that will set the agenda for the philosophy of information. PI is the philosophical field concerned with (1) the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and (2) the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. This book lays down, for the first time, the conceptual foundations for this new area of research. It does so systematically, by pursuing three goals. Its metatheoretical goal is to describe what the philosophy of information is, its problems, approaches, and methods. Its introductory goal is to help the reader to gain a better grasp of the complex and multifarious nature of the various concepts and phenomena related to information. Its analytic goal is to answer several key theoretical questions of great philosophical interest, arising from the investigation of semantic information.
