Category: Other Announcements

It is our pleasure to invite you to the colloquium:

“Colloquium “Unix in Europe and the United States: Innovation, diffusion and appropriation”

held on October 19, 2017 at CNAM in Paris. More information including a detailed program can be found
colloque-international-unix-en-france-et-aux-etats-unis-innovation-diffusion-et-appropriation–945215.kjshere.

The colloquium is associated with the pre-launch event of the research project “What is a (computer) program? Historical and philosophical perspectives” organized on October 20 2017, also at CNAM. More information about this event can be found
here.

The last blog entry here, by L. DeMol and G. Primiero, mentions one of the regular posts that I am now publishing on topics in the philosophy of computer science, at the online site of the Communications of the ACM, an international professional newsletter for both academics and professionals.
Find them here: http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-acm.
You may see my posts by searching for my name in “Author.”

Note that some posts are contributions from relevant publications and organizations, explaining their work. These so far include HaPoC, IACAP, the American Philosophical Association newsletter on philosophy and computers, and others. I invite more such contributions from bodies that wish to present and promote their research.

Please let me know if your group would like to participate.

Robin K. Hill
University of Wyoming
http://www.uwyo.edu/hill
Adjunct, Philosophy
Adjunct, Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research
hill@uwyo.edu

The programme for the Summer School on Computer Simulation methods to be held at the High Performance Computing Center of Stuttgart (HLRS) and co-sponsored by the HaPoC Commission is now online at

https://regi.hlrs.de/2017/summer-school/programme/index

2nd International Summer School for Sciences | History and Philosophy of Sciences | Technology | Education | New HPS-Educational and Fundamental Insights
http://summerschoollille2017.historyofscience.it/en/

2017, October 11th | Ecole Doctorale SHS, Lille University, Villeneuve D’Ascq, France
2017, October 12nd | MESHS, Lille, France
both venues 9h-17h30

Hosted by
Inter-Divisional Teaching Commission (IDTC)
Maison Européenne des Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société (MESHS) Lille, France
École doctorale Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société (ED SHS) Lille University, France

INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Architecture, Art/Museum, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Education, Engineering, Instruments, History and Historical Epistemology of Sciences, Literature, Medicine, Nature of Science, Pedagogy, Philosophy of Sciences, Physics, Foundations of Science, Teaching-Learning, Reasoning and learning, Conceptual frameworks, Reasoning & Changes, Critical attitude, Theories & Situations, Didactic transposition, Schooling, Professionalization, Institutions, Techniques & Technologies, Science & Society.

Deadlines Fees [For Participants Summer School only]

Early Registration from 2017, September 1st to 25th: 125 Euro
Late Registration, from 2017, September 26th: 140 Euro
Closing Registrations & Payments: 2017, October 5th.
Poster Session (50×70 or 70×100 ONLY): 30 Euros [already printed. See also Language & Presentation].
Free fees: PhD and M2 Students from Lille University, Retired Scholars, UFR de Physique/CECILLE/CIREL/STL Members.

http://summerschoollille2017.historyofscience.it/en/

For info
Summer school Director, Prof. Raffaele Pisano
raffaele.pisano@univ-lille3.fr

Symposium Ethical, Legal and Political Issues of Computing, 7 August 2017

World Humanities Conference, Liège, Belgium
Organizers: Maarten Bullynck, Liesbeth De Mol and Julian Rohrhuber

“Computing has become part of our lives” – today, this statement seems both trivial and empty. It is trivial for most of those who use electronic devices all the time, and also empty because its relation to computing is hidden. This double character of everyday computational practices has created a wide space of highly problematic legal, ethical and political issues which urgently need to be resolved and understood. This, however, requires us to grasp the mutual relation between their openly visible aspects – most prominently those of privacy, property and pervasion – with the more hidden domain of protocols, data analysis and code.
As this symposium sets out to show, the humanities play an indispensable role in rendering this mutual relation more transparent,
1) by looking vertically at specific issues and show in how far they have both technical and social ramifications,
2) by horizontally connecting and unraveling the relations between those issues which are usually kept separate; and
3) by studying diachronically the pasts and genealogies of problems, where they potentially cross the domain boundaries.
A focus on the plurality of legal, ethical and political issues of computing is thereby required, in order to open a discussion that crosses the disciplinary divides involved. Therefore, this symposium wants to bring together a broad range of researchers, such as historians, sociologists, philosophers, and computer scientists, researchers which recognise the urgency of the task at hand.

Programme of the Symposium
Monday August 7th 2017

14h30 – 16h00

Liesbeth De Mol: How to talk with a computer? A continued conversation.
Selmer Bringsjord: The Patent Peril of Facing Future Machines Without the Humanities
Edgar Daylight: Self-Driving Cars are the Zeppelins of the 21st Century: Towards Writing the Next Chapter in the History of Failed Technologies

18h30 – 20h00

Sebastian Giessman: Understanding Net Neutrality
Pablo Abend: Statistic Bodies and Quantified Selves. The Objects, Discourses and Practices of the Software-Sorted Dividual
Maarten Bullynck: Information overflow then and now. For a long-term history of data and algorithms.
Tuesday August 8th 2017

Abstracts of the Talks

Pablo Abend (Universität Köln/ Universität Siegen, pabend@uni-koeln.de)
Statistic Bodies and Quantified Selves. The Objects, Discourses and Practices of the Software-Sorted Dividual

In my talk I want to focus on two interrelated socio-technological developments of recent years which I would like to term the egocentricity of media and the egocentricity of networks. It is thereby my working hypotheses that the datafication of bodies through sensors and apps are the preliminary endpoint of a focusing of technology on the subject. To elaborate on this development I will concentrate on the so called Quantified Self Movement as an emerging field of practice, discourse and market in order to give an idea of how it feels to be software-sorted.

Selmer Bringsjord (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Selmer.Bringsjord@gmail.com)
The Patent Peril of Facing Future Machines Without the Humanities

The great irony of the modern global economy, at least for technologized nations in it, is that good jobs in this economy can be had by those with some technical prowess wholly divorced from mastery of any disciplines in the humanities (e.g., prowess with “deep learning,” a shallow and conceptually simple approach to AI) — and yet only mastery of some of these very disciplines will allow the human race to control and truly thrive in this economy, in the future. Here’s why, briefly: Future machines will obviously pose extreme dangers to humanity. The dangers are obvious because of the following simple conditional formula, where a is either type of agent, human or machine: Powerful(a) & Autonomous(a) & Intelligent(a) => Dangerous(a). In words: If an agent is powerful, autonomous, and intelligent, it’s dangerous. (In addition, the degree of danger is a function of the degree of the attributes in the antecedent, as I shall explain.) Three contributions made in the face of this formula that can come only from the humanities are: (1) The humanities take on the task of getting clear about phenomena that utterly flummox humanities-absent science and engineering. The very concept of autonomy as used in humanities-less science and engineering is entirely vague and mysterious. (2) Deep understanding of the history of machines and their capabilities is essential for steering toward the future we want — but such understanding is afforded by the humanities only. (3) The bottom line is that autonomous-and-powerful-and-intelligent machines will need to be ethically correct machines, but of course ethics is in, and only in, the humanities.

Maarten Bullynck (Université de Paris 8, maarten.bullynck@univ-paris8)
Information overflow then and now. For a long-term history of data and algorithms.

Both “data” and “algorithm” have become buzzwords in this age of information overflow and so-called “Big Data”. However, information overflow is hardly a new phenomenon, people have been complaining about it at least since the invention of the printing press, and, similarly, the entanglement between algorithms and data also has a longer history that needs to be told. This talk will present some snapshots in such a long-term history and analyse some important turning-points, such as the birth of the modern state or the development of the stored-program computer.

Liesbeth De Mol (CNRS, UMR STL, liesbeth.demol@univ-lille3.fr)
How to talk with a computer? A continued conversation.

Conversations between human beings and robots or computers have been part of popular fiction for a long time, but mostly, they have been imagined in an anthropomorphic way. This talk wants to break away from this man-centered vision on man-computer conversation. Based upon the history of computing itself, it makes the case for taking the computer seriously as a complex technology which which human beings should interact without the computer becoming anthropomorphized nor the human side reduced to some prefabricated user profile.

Edgar G. Daylight (Independent scholar, egdaylight@yahoo.com)
Self-Driving Cars are the Zeppelins of the 21st Century: Towards Writing the Next Chapter in the History of Failed Technologies

Security experts contemplate the possibility that the Internet of Things (and especially: Moving Things) will become a failed technology, not unlike the Zeppelin 80 years ago. In my talk I will provide arguments why the next chapter in the History of Failed Technologies will be one about the Internet of Moving Things and, specifically, network-connected cars that are designed to roam arbitrary roads. On a positive note, I hope to convey that some less ambitious — i.e., more incremental — projects, such as the deployment of podcars on railroads, are far more realistic in actually solving the mobility problems that we face today.

Sebastian Giessman (Universität Siegen, sebastian.giessmann@uni-siegen.de)
Understanding Net Neutrality

My talk is going to pose a simple question: What was net neutrality supposed to be all about and how did it become an invented tradition of the Internet and part of legislation or administrative orders? While changing political agendas tend to turn and twist the controversy time and again, we should ask both about what is missing in the global debates and which kind of infrastructural changes are largely unnoticed in public discourse. Understanding net neutrality means questioning the political claims of all stakeholders, without being trapped by media regulatory governance talk. I therefore propose to tackle net neutrality as a media theoretical problem, in which the bureaucratic-coordinative conditions of networked communication are at stake.

We are happy to announce that the

Posted on 29 June 2017

2nd CLE Colloquium for Philosophy and History of Formal Sciences “Logic and Computing”

The project DEMaIn (funded by ANR) hires a doctoral student for a PhD in Didactics of Mathematics and interactions with Informatics, at University of Montpellier (France). The student will develop a work of didactical engineering in the fields of the project. The grant is for 3 years, starting in autumn 2017.
Details (in French) are in the attached file.
Applications will be examined as soon as they are received.

Feel free to distribute this announcement around you, to your networks and to students who could be interested in this topic.

Contact for informations and application : simon.modeste@umontpellier.fr

Call for contributions
International symposium
Unix in Europe: between innovation, diffusion and heritage
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France – October 19 2017
http://technique-societe.cnam.fr/international-symposium-unix-in-europe-between-innovation-diffusion-and-heritage-913009.kjsp?RH=cdhte

The Unix system was born in the 1970s at the crossroads between two interacting worlds: industry (the Bell Labs at AT&T) and academia (the University of Berkeley computer science network). Its fast adoption throughout computer research and engineering networks across the world signaled the future success of the new system, fostering software experiments within its open, multi-user and multi-tasking system running on mini-computers – and later compatible with a larger part of computer hardware. In the European context, how was this American innovation propagated, adopted and adapted? Why was Unix of so much interest in this context, then and now? A solid culture of Unix users might also explain this success, as well as subsequent processes of appropriation and inheritance, due to the long and complex history of Unix versioning. The memory of Unix users is vivid indeed, fed by early accounts within the computer world (Salus, 1994) as well as preservation initiatives (Toomey, 2010). Moreover, the Unix system is a crucial reference in the history of computing, in particular in the field of free and open source software (Kelty, 2008), computer networks (Paloque-Berges, 2017), as well as in programming language philosophy (Mélès, 2013).
In order to explore the variety of these interrogations, this symposium encourages contributions from historians as well as philosophers, social science researchers, and heritage professionals interested in the history of computer open systems and software with a focus on Unix or who have a wider perspective. It will also welcome protagonists and witnesses of Unix culture and carriers of its memory. We wish to discuss and shed light on several aspects of the development of Unix in Europe (including in comparison or relation with the rest of the world) along three main lines: historical and sociological, philosophical and epistemological, and heritage- and preservation-oriented.

1/ Historical and sociological perspectives
Historically, the Unix system is linked to the promotion and development in research on open systems and computer networks. How does this fit in the context of industrial, scientific and technological policies defined at the national and European level? The history of Unix thus reaches at least three levels of interrogations: 1/ the forms, places and practices of innovation around Unix in R&D labs and computing centers in companies, schools and universities; 2/ planning, promoting and negotiating open systems (norms and standards) from the perspective of science and/or politics; 3/ international geopolitical relations, whether economical or geopolitical and even geostrategic (for example between Unix users, with users of other computer equipment or other hardware and software companies, the role of embargos in the shipping of mini-computers, of code, and military uses of Unix).
In parallel, how has the world of computer research welcomed, encouraged, negotiated and propagated uses and innovations related to Unix systems? This begs the question of how Unix-related research and development was legitimized – or played a part in the legitimization of computer science experimentalism in the scientific field and beyond. We would also like to highlight practices of resistance, the failure to acknowledge, ignorance of or even the limits of the Unix system, its software tools and hardware environment (beginning with the famous PDP and Vax machines from Digital Equipment where the first Unix versions were implemented). With a focus on occupational computer uses, we call for analysis which aims to explore and clarify:
– the role of developers, users, and user associations – from the point of view of pioneers as well as helpers, maintainers and other witnesses of the implementation of Unix;
– the context, process, and people who determined its propagation, appropriation, and development over time;
– the meaning of concepts of Unix philosophy and ethics such as “openness” and “autonomy”, from a social, political or economic point of view.

2. Philosophical and epistemological perspectives
We will foster research and reflection at the crossroad of the theoretical foundations of computer systems and engineering pragmatism, between the philosophy of computer systems and Unixian practices.

Protagonists in the conception and diffusion of Unix often claim to have a ‘Unix philosophy’ . But beyond statement of principle, what was the real influence of this idea on the technical choices underlying the system’s developments? What are the ethical, moral, and philosophical motivations – alongside the social, political or economic dimensions discussed earlier – underpinning the adoption of Unix or pretending to extend it (for instance in relation to the notions of sharing, modularity or freedom)? How is the idea of ‘openness’ attached to Unix practices and heritage (free software, open source) conceived? What are the theoretical developments to be drawn from it (for instance with the idea of open software)?

The logical and mathematical foundations of Unix should be readdressed. Do the fundamental concepts of Unix have an ontological or metaphysical significance beyond the sole research aim of technical efficiency? What role do aesthetics play in the formulation of general principles and technical choices? How can we analyze programming languages such as C and its successors, scripts, software, and generally speaking, the proliferating source codes of Unix? How do we consider the system, the software environment, as well as the hardware in which Unix is implemented and executed?

Such philosophical questions also cover the modalities of the transmission of Unix, extending to the investigation of the respective roles of theory and practice in the teaching of the system, the teaching of knowledge and tools underlying the system or supporting the system.

3. Unix heritage and ‘heritagization’

France is now the home to multiple initiatives taking place to build and preserve a material and immaterial heritage of computer science and technology – such as ‘Software Heritage’ at INRIA, a global software archive in progress. The Museum of Arts et Métiers gave impetus to the MINF initiative (‘Pour un Musée de l’informatique et du numérique’) and coordinates the ‘Patstec Mission’ dealing with contemporary scientific and technological heritage preservation, including computer science. At an international scale and with a grassroots perspective carried by the community of Unix users, the TUHS (The Unix Heritage Society) demonstrates the current interest in the specific heritage linked to Unix. We encourage reflections on this heritage and its specific features:

– What is the place of Unix in the construction of computer science heritage? Is it possible to map Unix systems and their heritage, from the standpoint of machines, languages and software? What has already been collected? What corpus, data bases, and/or platforms with a patrimonial mission are concerned with Unix and to what purpose?
– How are the questions of training, constitution and diffusion of a Unix culture incorporated in the effort to collect heritage? How do we evaluate and put forward the importance of immaterial heritage attached to Unix, considering the effects of community and memory in its history and for the writing of its history?
– What are the practices and modalities advocated by the unixian heritage itself? What has been its influence on the field of computer engineering and research as well as diverse fields such as: popularization of science and technology, ‘hacker’ movements and many ‘maker’ practices today (Lallement, 2016)?
Communications and discussions will be held in French or English.

*Schedules*
Please send a one-page abstract (maximum 500 words) with a short biography by June 30, 2017 to: camille.paloque-berges@cnam.fr; loic.petitgirard@cnam.fr. Accepted contributions and speakers will be notified by July 15, 2017.

*Organizing committee*
Isabelle Astic (Musée des arts et métiers)
Raphaël Fournier-S’niehotta (Cédric, Cnam)
Pierre-Eric Mounier-Kuhn (CRM, Paris 1)
Camille Paloque-Berges (HT2S, Cnam)
Loïc Petitgirard (HT2S, Cnam)

*Scientific committee*
François Anceau (UMPC-LIP6)
Pierre Cubaud (Cédric, Cnam)
Liesbeth de Mol (STL, Lille 3)
Claudine Fontanon (CAK, EHESS)
Gérald Kembellec (DICEN, Cnam)
Baptiste Mélès (Archives Henri Poincaré, CNRS)
Giuseppe Primiero (Middlesex University)
Lionel Tabourier (LIP6, Paris 6)

*Partners*
– Project « Hist.Pat.info.Cnam », HT2S, Cnam – Research program supported by the Excellence laboratory History and Anthropology of Knoweldge, Technics and Beliefs (HASTEC), and in partnership with the laboratories CEDRIC (Cnam), DICEN (Cnam), and the Center Alexandre Koyré (EHESS).
– Musée des arts et métiers and « Histoire de l’informatique » (« History of computing » seminar) seminar.
– « Source code » seminar (CNRS, Cnam, Université Paris 6).
With support from the DHST/DLMPST for the History and Philosophy of Computing (HAPOC)

*Bibliography*
Kelty, Christopher M. 2008. Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Durham: Duke University Press Books.

Lallement, Michel. 2016. L’âge du faire, Seuil.

Mélès, Baptiste. 2003. « Unix selon l’ordre des raisons : la philosophie de la pratique informatique ». Philosophia Scientiæ 17 (3): 181‑98.

Salus, Peter H. 1994. A quarter century of UNIX. Addison-Wesley. Reading.

Toomey, Warren. 2010. « First Edition Unix: Its Creation and Restoration ». IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 32 (3): 74‑82.

Summer School: On Computer Simulation Methods
September 25-29, 2017, High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS)
Website: https://regi.hlrs.de/2017/summer-school/index.jsp

Organizers: Michael Resch, Viola Schiaffonati, Giuseppe Primiero, Andreas Kaminski

Second Call for Applications

Topic

The transformation of science through computer simulation is often considered to be a methodological one. A lot of literature has been dedicated to determining the relationship between computer simulation, experiments or theories as the classical sources of knowledge. This relation is both methodologically and technically complex. On the one hand, it is difficult for philosophers, social scientists, and historians to gain detailed insight into the methods used among practitioners. On the other hand, for computer scientists and practitioners in general, the methodological limitations and design constraints that simulation techniques impose on hypothesis formulation and testing may not be obvious. The summer school addresses these problems by offering lectures and tutorials on computer simulation methods for scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and computer science.

Schedule

The morning sessions will include lectures by faculty members, focusing on the philosophical, methodological, and technical aspects of different simulation techniques (including numerical methods, software techniques, visualization, agent-based modelling, and computational experiments). These will be followed by project presentations by participants. The afternoons will be dedicated to hands-on tutorials by practitioners. Finally, in the evenings, distinguished scholars will offer lectures on the most inspiring and exciting issues in this increasingly important research area.

Instructors (confirmed and requested)

Nicola Angius (Sassari), Petra Gehring (TU Darmstadt), Andreas Kaminski (Stuttgart), Johannes Lenhard (Bielefeld), Giuseppe Primiero (London), Michael Resch (Stuttgart), Viola Schiaffonati (Milan), Angelo Vermeulen (Delft)

Who is it for?

Researchers (especially but not exclusively postgraduates) from the humanities and social sciences who are interested in learning more about the methodological dimensions of computer simulation;

Computer scientists and practitioners in simulation who are interested in deepening their knowledge on the foundations, methods, and implications of their techniques.

Prerequisites for participation?

Technical skills (knowledge of programming languages, simulation experience) are helpful, but not required. Acquaintance with the literature in contemporary philosophy of science is useful, but will not be assumed.

How to apply?

The number of participants is limited to 20. To apply, email kaminski@hlrs.de.

All proposals must be submitted by May 30, 2017 and include:

short curriculum vitae;

description of your research (max. one page);

questions or topics you are interested in regarding the summer school (just a few lines).

Participants will be notified by June 30, 2017.

What are the costs?

There is no fee, but participants will have to cover their travel and hotel expenses. The organizers will happily help participants organize their journey and hotel stay.

The DHST/DLMPST Interdivision Commission on the History and Philosophy of Computing (www.hapoc.org) will offer two bursaries of $250 each to support travel and accommodation costs of young researchers. To apply for this funding, please forward your application to

Liesbeth de Mol liesbeth.demol@univ-lille3.fr

Giuseppe Primiero G.Primiero@mdx.ac.uk

by May 31, 2017. Applicants will be informed of decisions pertaining to both funding and proposal submission at the same time (June 30, 2017).