, “Infringing Software Property Rights: Ontological, Methodological, and Ethical Questions”, Philosophy {&} Technology, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13347-019-00358-7
HaPoC5: EXTENDED DEADLINE
The submission deadline for Abstract to the 5th International Conference on the History and Philosophy of computing has been extended. New dates:
Submission deadline: May 13, 2019 (extended)
Notification of acceptance/rejection: June 30, 2019
Conference dates: October 28-30, 2019
Post-doc in the project DEMaIn
Hello.
The project DEMaIn (funded by ANR) hires a Ph.D. for a one-year post-doctoral position in Didactics of Mathematics and interactions with Informatics, at the University of Montpellier (France). The researcher will contribute to ongoing didactical engineering work in the fields of the project, and in particular, participate in the experimental setting. The position is for one year, starting in summer or autumn 2019.
(Speaking French is recommended)
Contact: simon.modeste@umontpellier.fr
Regards,
Simon MODESTE
PROGRAMme spring workshop: Machines
It is my pleasure to announce that the next event on the history and philosophy of computer programs within the framework of the PROGRAMme project (https://programme.hypotheses.org/) will be held from June 5-7 2019 at the MESHS, 2 Rue des Canonniers, 59000 Lille, espace Baïetto and Salle 002.
On June 5 we will have the last session of the academic year of the Lille-Paris séminaire HEPIC (Histoire et Philosophie de l’informatique et du calcul) around the topic: /Computing – a human activity?/ Speakers are:
13h-14h15: David Aubin (Université de Paris 6), Astronomical tables as work, 16th-18th centuries
14h15-14h30: pause
14h30-15h45: Stephen Kell (University of Kent), Software against humanity? An Illichian perspective on the industrial era of software
15h45-16h15: pause
16h15-17h30: Christiane Floyd (Technical University of Vienna), The move to activity-centered views of software development
From June 6-7 the Spring workshop 2019 of the PROGRAMme project is organized. It is the second in a series of four workshops. Each focuses on one of the PROGRAMme project’s main clusters in connection to the other three. The second workshop will focus on the cluster Machines and so offers reflections on a set of historical, philosophical and epistemological question on Computing Machines, broadly interpreted, and this in relation to the other three clusters (Logic; Programming languages and notations; Systems).
In order to register, please send a mail with your affiliation to: liesbeth.demol@univ-lille3.fr *before May 20 2019*. Registration is free but required in order to attend.
For more details, including the program, see:
https://programme.hypotheses.org/spring-workshop-i-machines
Organizor of the workshop: Liesbeth De Mol (CNRS, UMR 8163 STL, Université de Lille 3)
Organizers of the séminaire are: Liesbeth De Mol (CNRS, UMR 8163 STL, Université de Lille), Alberto Naibo (IHPST, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, ENS), Maël Pegny (IHPST, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, ENS)
The workshop is supported by l’UMR 8163 Savoirs, Textes, Langage (https://stl.univ-lille.fr/); l’ANR PROGRAMme (https://programme.hypotheses.org/), le platforme DATA de la MESHS (projet HEPIC, https://www.meshs.fr/page/hepic).
The séminaire is supported by: l’UMR 8590 IHPST (http://www.ihpst.cnrs.fr/); l’UMR 8163 Savoirs, Textes, Langage (https://stl.univ-lille.fr/); l’ANR PROGRAMme (https://programme.hypotheses.org/), le platforme DATA de la MESHS (projet HEPIC, https://www.meshs.fr/page/hepic).
HaPoC 2019: 3rd Call for Abstracts
5th International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing
28-30 October 2019
Bergamo, Italy
Website: https://hapoc2019.sciencesconf.org
Email: hapoc2019@sciencesconf.org
Today more than ever computers have taken center stage in our lives: science, economy, politics, art, there is no single human endeavour that has been left unaffected by Information Technologies. Whether this impact is positive or negative, is still very much up for debate. People connected to the Internet can enjoy an unprecedented amount of information and computing power at their disposal, but more and more negative side effects of a widespread use of computers are brought to our attention: automation bias, echo chambers, shortened attention spans, job displacement, election hacking are just a few examples. The latest AI-hype fuelled by computationally feasible machine learning techniques have brought to reality philosophical topics previously relegated to mental experiments and theoretical discourses. The trolley problem has never been more popular thanks to self-driving cars. The need to conduct a systematic and well-informed discussion in a context ranging from theoretical and mathematical problems to labour and resource exploitation issues is evident. The broken dialogue between young and aggressively finance-oriented tech moguls and old-school politicians fumbling for regulation of little-known phenomena is not promising.
HaPoC’s appeal to historical and philosophical reflection aims at addressing this shortcoming. We aim to bring together researchers exploring the various aspects of computation: historians, philosophers, computer scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, designers, manufacturers, practitioners, artists, logicians, mathematicians, each with their own experience and expertise, all part of a society impacted by computation, and all necessary to the creation of a better discourse.
Main Topics
For HaPoC 2019, we welcome contributions from scholars who intend to participate in the debate on the impact of computers on culture, science, and society from the perspective of their area of expertise, and who are open to engage in interdisciplinary discussions across multiple fields. Topics include but are not limited to:
– History of computation, computers, algorithms, programs, paradigms, software and hardware companies and communities, …
– Philosophy of computation, philosophy of the mind in relation with computer science, ethics of computer science, epistemology of computer science…
– Foundational issues of computation, limits of computability, the Church-Turing thesis, formal systems, semantic of programs, …
– Computation in the Sciences, experiments and simulations with computers, big data analytics, epistemological issues, …
– Computation in Society, social networks, news and content distribution, automation, digital divide, privacy and security, …
– Computation in the Arts, digital art, interactivity, computer games, affective computing, human-computer interaction, …
How to submit
We cordially invite researchers working in a field relevant to the main topics of the conference to submit a short abstract of 180-200 words and an extended abstract of at most a 1000 words (references included) through EasyChair at:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapoc2019
Accepted papers will be presented in 30 minute slots including discussion. Abstracts must be written in English. Please note that the format of uploaded files must be in .pdf. Submissions without extended abstract will not be considered.
IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline: April 30, 2019
Notification of acceptance/rejection: June 30, 2019
Conference dates: October 28-30, 2019
Travel Grants
The HaPoC Council is happy to announce the availability of four HAPOC travel grants of $250 each to support participation at the conference. An accepted paper is required in order to be eligible for the grant. In order to apply, please send the following details to info@hapoc.org:
CV and a brief (up to 200 words) description of why you require financial support
The title of your HaPoC 2019 submission
Detailed budget indicating any other funding possibilities (if available)
Post-proceedings
A special issue of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (Taylor & Francis)
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/yisr20/current
will be dedicated to the works presented at HaPoC 2019. The tentative calendar is as follows:
HaPoC conference: 28-30 October 2019
Special Issue Call for Papers: December 2019
Deadline for submissions: 01 June 2020
Reviewing process: July to September 2020
Notifications: 30 September 2020
Deadline for revised papers: 31 December 2020
Special Issue publication: beginning of 2021
2 HaPoC Symposia at CLMPST2019
The 16th INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON LOGIC, METHODOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY will be held in Prague (Czech Republic) from 5th to 10th August 2019. The Commission for the History and Philosophy of Computing will contribute to the programme with 2 Symposia:
– BigData: Philosophy of Big Data (organised by Paula Quinon, International Center for Formal Ontology, Warsaw University of Technology / Department of Philosophy, Lund University)
Jens Ulrik Hansen, Philosophizing on Big Data, Data Science, and AI
Gregory Wheeler, Prolegomena to Machine Epistemology
Wolfgang Pietsch, On the epistemology of data science – the rise of a new inductivism
Domenico Napoletani, Marco Panza and Daniele C. Struppa, Finding a Way Back: Philosophy of Data Science on Its Practice
Sabina Leonelli, Semantic interoperability: The oldest challenge and newest frontier of Big Data
Helena Kossowska, Big Data in Life Science
Alejandro Espinosa‐Rada, Big data needed for network science or network science for social networks?
– IdCFAS: Identity in Computational Formal and Applied Systems (organised by Nicola Angius, Università degli Studi di Sassari and Giuseppe Primiero, Università degli Studi di Milano)
Ansten Klev, Definitional Identity in Arithmetics
Alberto Naibo and Luca Tranchini, Harmony, Stability, and the intensional account of proof-theoretic semantics
Massimiliano Carrara, Copies and Replicas of Computational Artefacts
Nicola Angius and Giuseppe Primiero, Second-Order Properties of Copied Computational Artefacts
Roberta Ferrario, Organisations and variable embodiments
HaPoC5: 2nd Call for Abstracts
HaPoC 2019: 2nd Call for Abstracts
5th International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing
28-30 October 2019
Bergamo, Italy
Website: https://hapoc2019.sciencesconf.org
Email: hapoc2019@sciencesconf.org
Today more than ever computers have taken center stage in our lives: science, economy, politics, art, there is no single human endeavour that has been left unaffected by Information Technologies. Whether this impact is positive or negative, is still very much up for debate.
People connected to the Internet can enjoy an unprecedented amount of information and computing power at their disposal, but more and more negative side effects of a widespread use of computers are brought to our attention: automation bias, echo chambers, shortened attention spans, job displacement, election hacking are just a few examples. The latest AI-hype fuelled by computationally feasible machine learning techniques have brought to reality philosophical topics previously relegated to mental experiments and theoretical discourses. The trolley problem has never been more popular thanks to self-driving cars.
The need to conduct a systematic and well-informed discussion in a context ranging from theoretical and mathematical problems to labour and resource exploitation issues is evident. The broken dialogue between young and aggressively finance-oriented tech moguls and old-school politicians fumbling for regulation of little-known phenomena is not promising.
HaPoC’s appeal to historical and philosophical reflection aims at addressing this shortcoming. We aim to bring together researchers exploring the various aspects of computation: historians, philosophers, computer scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, designers, manufacturers, practitioners, artists, logicians, mathematicians, each with their own experience and expertise, all part of a society impacted by computation, and all necessary to the creation of a better discourse.
Main Topics
For HaPoC 2019, we welcome contributions from scholars who intend to participate in the debate on the impact of computers on culture, science, and society from the perspective of their area of expertise, and who are open to engage in interdisciplinary discussions across multiple fields. Topics include but are not limited to:
History of computation, computers, algorithms, programs, paradigms, software and hardware companies and communities, …
Philosophy of computation, philosophy of the mind in relation with computer science, ethics of computer science, epistemology of computer science…
Foundational issues of computation, limits of computability, the Church-Turing thesis, formal systems, semantic of programs, …
Computation in the Sciences, experiments and simulations with computers, big data analytics, epistemological issues, …
Computation in Society, social networks, news and content distribution, automation, digital divide, privacy and security, …
Computation in the Arts, digital art, interactivity, computer games, affective computing, human-computer interaction, …
How to submit
We cordially invite researchers working in a field relevant to the main topics of the conference to submit a short abstract of 180-200 words and an extended abstract of at most a 1000 words (references included) through EasyChair at:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapoc2019
Accepted papers will be presented in 30 minute slots including discussion. Abstracts must be written in English. Please note that the format of uploaded files must be in .pdf. Submissions without extended abstract will not be considered.
IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline: April 30, 2019
Notification of acceptance/rejection: June 30, 2019
Conference dates: October 28-30, 2019
Travel Grants
The HaPoC Council is happy to announce the availability of four HAPOC travel grants of $250 each to support participation at the conference. An accepted paper is required in order to be eligible for the grant. In order to apply, please send the following details to info@hapoc.org:
CV and a brief (up to 200 words) description of why you require financial support
The title of your HaPoC 2019 submission
Detailed budget indicating any other funding possibilities (if available)
Post-proceedings
A special issue of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (Taylor & Francis)
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/yisr20/current
will be dedicated to the works presented at HaPoC 2019. The tentative calendar is as follows:
HaPoC conference: 28-30 October 2019
Special Issue Call for Papers: December 2019
Deadline for submissions: 01 June 2020
Reviewing process: July to September 2020
Notifications: 30 September 2020
Deadline for revised papers: 31 December 2020
Special Issue publication: beginning of 2021
Call for joint PhD scholarship on history and/or philosophy of computing (Université de Lille and University of Kent)
Joint PhD Scholarship on History and Philosophy of Computing (Université de Lille and University of Kent)
We rely on computers to manage our communication, access to information, finances and even health. Despite recurring reports of software failures, programming mistakes and unintended consequences, most of our understanding of how computers work is of a highly technical nature. Consider, for example, the rich conceptual arsenal that programmers have developed to help them control what computers do. Where do these programming concepts, methods and practices come from? What are their inherent limitations? And can they provide a reliable way of controlling computers, as the word “science” in “computer science” suggests?
We are inviting applications for a 3-year funded PhD position in History and/or Philosophy of Computing, jointly supervised by Liesbeth De Mol (CNRS – (UMR 8163, Université de Lille), Tomas Petricek (University of Kent) and Shahid Rahman (UMR 8163, Université de Lille).The position will be shared between Université de Lille and University of Kent in Canterbury in the framework of the call for proposals of co-supervised doctorates between I-site ULNE and the University of Kent (
uploads/2019/01/Call-for-co-supervised-doctorates-Kent-2019.pdCall for co-supervised doctorates 2019). You will be expected to spend two years in Lille and one year in Canterbury. The scope of the project is open-ended and we encourage interested applicants to informally contact us as soon as possible in order to develop a more detailed research proposal.
Possible research topics
We believe that understanding the full complexity of computing and programming requires a rich inter-disciplinary approach that is aware of the history and origins of computing concepts, understands their technical nature and reflects on them from a philosophical perspective. The following list is just a brief example to illustrate the kind of insights that we can gain from considering computing and programming in context:
- What is a computer program? A program exists as a physical entity stored in a machine, formal entity used for reasoning about it, but also as a rich socio-technological entity. Understanding programs cannot be limited to just one level, but requires pluralistic approach studying all three levels, but also their interactions.
- Programs are constructed using programming concepts such as types, processes or objects. What is the nature of these entities and how do they evolve? For types are imported from logic, but the way they are used in modern programming is very different from their logical predecessors. Do concepts like types share characteristics with mathematical entities like polyhedra, physical entities like electrons, or are they a wholly different thing?
- What is computation? How to account for the extension of the scope of what can be computed since the rise of electronic general-purpose computation in light of the Church-Turing thesis? How to relate what is theoretically computable (i.e.. Turing computable) to actual computing and programming practices which do not necessarily fit into the (older) framework of a deterministic one-tape Turing machine.
- What is the nature of the methodology of computer programming? Does it follow a form of scientific method that allows it to increase its problem solving ability? Is computer programming adopting ideas from science, engineering, art or a combination of these? Is there historical evidence that would support either of the views?
- What kind of limits do we need to take into account in computational practices? Is it just the theoretical limitation or should we also account for the physical, economical and social limitations? What are the consequences of those limitations for the development of the field?
- What is the significance of the human user of computer programs? How do we account for this “user” in developing notions of computation and computer programs? To what extent is the user shaped by a program and the practice underpinning it (industrial, scientific or other), and vice versa?
How to apply
Interested applicants should contact Liesbeth De Mol (liesbeth.demol@univ-lille3.fr) and Tomas Petricek (t.petricek@kent.ac.uk) well before March 20 2019. If you would like to be considered for the project, please send us a brief 1-2 paragraph summary of your research interests and a one-page CV. We also welcome informal inquiries before the official proposal submission.
Time and activity in Unix
, “Time and activity in Unix”, Réseaux, no. 206.
HaPoC5: First Call for Abstracts
HaPoC 2019: Call for Abstracts
5th International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing
28-30 October 2019
Bergamo, Italy
Website: https://hapoc2019.sciencesconf.org
Email: hapoc2019@sciencesconf.org
Today more than ever computers have taken center stage in our lives: science, economy, politics, art, there is no single human endeavour that has been left unaffected by Information Technologies. Whether this impact is positive or negative, is still very much up for debate.
People connected to the Internet can enjoy an unprecedented amount of information and computing power at their disposal, but more and more negative side effects of a widespread use of computers are brought to our attention: automation bias, echo chambers, shortened attention spans, job displacement, election hacking are just a few examples. The latest AI-hype fuelled by computationally feasible machine learning techniques have brought to reality philosophical topics previously relegated to mental experiments and theoretical discourses. The trolley problem has never been more popular thanks to self-driving cars.
The need to conduct a systematic and well-informed discussion in a context ranging from theoretical and mathematical problems to labour and resource exploitation issues is evident. The broken dialogue between young and aggressively finance-oriented tech moguls and old-school politicians fumbling for regulation of little-known phenomena is not promising.
HaPoC’s appeal to historical and philosophical reflection aims at addressing this shortcoming. We aim to bring together researchers exploring the various aspects of computation: historians, philosophers, computer scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, designers, manufacturers, practitioners, artists, logicians, mathematicians, each with their own experience and expertise, all part of a society impacted by computation, and all necessary to the creation of a better discourse.
MAIN TOPICS
For HaPoC 2019, we welcome contributions from scholars who intend to participate in the debate on the impact of computers on culture, science, and society from the perspective of their area of expertise, and who are open to engage in interdisciplinary discussions across multiple fields. Topics include but are not limited to:
– History of computation, computers, algorithms, programs, paradigms, software and hardware companies and communities, …
– Philosophy of computation, philosophy of the mind in relation with computer science, ethics of computer science, epistemology of computer science…
– Foundational issues of computation, limits of computability, the Church-Turing thesis, formal systems, semantic of programs, …
– Computation in the Sciences, experiments and simulations with computers, big data analytics, epistemological issues, …
– Computation in Society, social networks, news and content distribution, automation, digital divide, privacy and security, …
– Computation in the Arts, digital art, interactivity, computer games, affective computing, human-computer interaction, …
HOW TO SUBMIT
We cordially invite researchers working in a field relevant to the main topics of the conference to submit a short abstract of 180-200 words and an extended abstract of at most a 1000 words (references included) through EasyChair at:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapoc2019
Accepted papers will be presented in 30 minute slots including discussion. Abstracts must be written in English. Please note that the format of uploaded files must be in .pdf. Submissions without extended abstract will not be considered.
IMPORTANT DATES
Submission deadline: April 30, 2019
Notification of acceptance/rejection: June 30, 2019
Conference dates: October 28-30, 2019
TRAVEL GRANTS
The HaPoC Council is happy to announce the availability of four HAPOC travel grants of $250 each to support participation at the conference. An accepted paper is required in order to be eligible for the grant. In order to apply, please send the following details to info@hapoc.org:
– CV and a brief (up to 200 words) description of why you require financial support
– The title of your HaPoC 2019 submission
– Detailed budget indicating any other funding possibilities (if available)
POST-PROCEEDINGS
A special issue of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (Taylor & Francis)
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/yisr20/current
will be dedicated to the works presented at HaPoC 2019. The tentative calendar is as follows:
HaPoC conference: 28-30 October 2019
Special Issue Call for Papers: December 2019
Deadline for submissions: 01 June 2020
Reviewing process: July to September 2020
Notifications: 30 September 2020
Deadline for revised papers: 31 December 2020
Special Issue publication: beginning of 2021