7th Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Programming
What is critical about programming?
13.11.2026 – Holbeinstrasse 12, 4051 Basel, Blue Box (ground floor)
In-person only, register by writing to basel-2026@hapoc.org.
Summary
We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the 7th symposium on the history and philosophy of programming (HaPoP) on November 13th, 2026. We invite contributions on the history and philosophy of programming broadly understood, whether conceptual concerns or practical matters, field-specific examinations or cross-disciplinary comparisons, as well as, but not limited to, epistemic, aesthetic and ethical reflections.
In the spirit of interdisciplinary inquiry into programming, this symposium will focus on “criticality in programming”, and asking broadly “what is critical about programming?”. Recalling the shared etymological root of “critical” with “crisis”, we start from appreciating a critical moment, a crisis, as that which requires a decision, and thus sharp, unambiguous judgment, to dismiss any doubt. A crisis requires a critical assessment of a situation, and subsequent action, considering programming as both a reflexive and decisive action.
We invited abstracts on the history and philosophy of programming, including, but not restricted to, the following topics:
- Histories and definitions of criticality in software
- Histories of critiques of programming
- Methods of programming critical systems
- Relationships between safety, error, logic and harm
- Critical movements within programming
- Contested programming practices, structures and concepts
- Epistemology of modeling and simulation
- Successes and failures of critical arguments conducted as computer programs
- Artistic projects and approaches to programming
- Hacking as a critical activity
- Programming as socio-political interventions
Schedule
09:00 Welcome & Coffee
09:20 Introduction
09:30 Panel 1: Historical construction of criticality
Chair: Magnus Rust
Caspar Clemens Mierau (Basel Universität) – Programming the Programmers: Educational Television as an Answer to the Software Crisis
Helena Durnová (Masaryk University) – Critical issues in programming discovered through programmers’ entertainment
Ricky Wichum (RWTH Aachen) – Historical Scientific Software as Cultural Heritage: Collecting, Preserving, and Scholarly Editing Scientific Software in Germany, 1950-2010
10:45 Coffee break
11:15 Panel 2: The word of the law and the word of the program
Chair: Pierre Depaz
Mélanie Laforestrie (École Normale Supérieure – PSL) – A Critique of Computational Action: A Crisis of Intention
Luc Pellissier, Pierre Valarcher and Noé Wagener (Université Paris Est Créteil) – Executable regulatory acts: a format to critique critical programs
Lachlan Kermode (Brown University) – The Source and its Bugs. The Cosmos of Illiterate Programming
12:30 Lunch break
14:00 Panel 3: To program or not to program?
Chair: Yannick Nepomuk Fritz
Henri Stéphanou (Université Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne) – The patterns of interaction
Alice Chung (UC San Diego) – Directions of Abstraction and the Limits of Relevance
Inez Barrer (ETH Zürich) – Values and Futures of a World without Programs
15:15 Coffee break
15:45 Panel 4: Another world is possible
Chair: Mace Ojala
Cristina Cochior (FHNW) – Rhythms of coordination: grassroots infrastructures and the temporal politics of scale
Tomas Petricek (Prague University) – Deconstructing programming through critical software
Anna-Marie Rönsch (Leuphana University) – Programming Accessibility? Accessibility Overlays and critical programming practices
17:00 Concluding remarks