IACAP: The Computational Turn: Past, Presents, Futures? conference proceedings (2011)

In the West, philosophical attention to computation and computational devices is at least as old as Leibniz. But since the early 1940s, electronic computers have evolved from a few machines filling several rooms to widely diffused – indeed, ubiquitous – devices, ranging from networked desktops, laptops, smartphones and “the internet of things.” Along the way, initial philosophical attention – in particular, to the ethical and social implications of these devices (so Norbert Wiener, 1950) – became sufficiently broad and influential as to justify the phrase “the computational turn” by the 1980s. In part, the computational turn referred to the multiple ways in which the increasing availability and usability of computers allowed philosophers to explore a range of traditional philosophical interests – e.g., in logic, artificial intelligence, philosophical mathematics, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, ontology, to name a few – in new ways, often shedding significant new light on traditional issues and arguments. Simultaneously, computer scientists, mathematicians, and others whose work focused on computation and computational devices often found their work to evoke (if not force) reflection and debate precisely on the philosophical assumptions and potential implications of their research. These two large streams of development – especially as calling for necessary interdisciplinary dialogues that crossed what were otherwise often hard disciplinary boundaries – inspired what became the first of the Computing and Philosophy (CAP) conferences in 1986 (devoted to Computer-Assisted Instruction in philosophy).

Since 1986, CAP conferences have grown in scope and range, to include a bewildering array of intersections between computation and philosophy as explored across a global range of cultures and traditions. In keeping with what has now become a significant tradition, IACAP‟11 will accept presentations across this array and range. At the same time, in order to recognize and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the CAP conferences, we specifically encourage submissions that include attention to the past, present(s), and possible future(s) of their foci as expressions of this computational turn.

International Conference of Computing and Philosophy (IACAP)
Organizing Chair: Charles Ess
Program Chair: Ruth Hagengruber
Aarhus University, 4-6 July 2011
336 pages

conference

PDF

Cypherpunks mailing list archive (1992-1998)

Cypherpunks was an active list with technical discussion ranging over mathematics, cryptography, and computer science. It had extensive discussions of the public policy issues related to cryptography and on the politics and philosophy of concepts such as anonymity, pseudonyms, reputation, and privacy.

The list was started in 1992, and at its peak in 1997 had well over a thousand subscribers, including John Gilmore (EFF co-founder), Timothy May (author of Crypto Anarchist Manifesto), Eric Hughes (A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto), Phil Zimmermann (PGP), Hal Finney (RPOW), Bram Cohen (BitTorrent), Adam Back (Hashcash), Julian Assange (WikiLeaks), John Young (Cryptome), or Rop Gonggrijp (Xs4all).

wikipedia

ZIP (from Cryptome.org)

nØ1se exhibition catalogue (2000)

Catalogue for the multi-site multimedia exhibition in Cambridge and London (January-May 2000), devised by artist, Adam Lowe, and, historian of science, Simon Schaffer, and organised around three key themes in “digitality”:

Universal Language
Pattern Recognition
Data Synæsthetics

nØ1se is not limited to electronic media, but traces the digital imagination from such myths as Noah’s Ark, through the early modern experiments of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine and Morse’s Telegraph, up to today’s charge coupled devices (CCDs), robotics and beyond.. It highlights digitality in history, technology, art and science, drawing upon a wide range of objects and images from artists and scientists around the globe — everything from 3000BC artefacts to the latest state-of-the-art pictures of the surface of atoms.

Catalogue contributors: Tabatha Andrews, William Armstrong, Art and Language, Charles Babbage, Stephen Baker, Joe Banks, Richard Barbrook, William Bateson, Evgen Bavcar, Robin Boast, Patrick Blackett, Jerry Brotton, Soraya de Chadarevian, Adrian Cussins, Su Dalgleish, John Dee, Umberto Eco, Richard Feynman, Manuel Franquelo, Peter Galison, Joy Garnett, Merrill Garnett, Joseph Grigely, Roger Guillemin, Sebastian Guillié, Mercurius Van Helmont, Lynn Hershman, Jeff Hughes, Margaret Watts Hughes, Lisa Jardine, Bill Jones, Athanasius Kircher, Bruno Latour, Malcom Longair, Mike Lynch, Paul D Miller (aka DJ Spooky), Iwan Morus, Gracie Ngale Morton, Sven Nebel, Joseph Nechvatal, Ben Neill, Pictic Balls, Roy Porter, Marc Quinn, Jonathan Ree, Michael Rees, Giles Revell, Kathleen Rogers, Romandson, Brian Rotman, Stan Vanderbeek, Tom Van Sant, Ludwig Von Siegen, Julian Simmons, Nicola Schwartz, Lillian Schwartz, Robert Shannon, Bessie Nakamarra Sims, Paddy Japaljarri Sims, Brian Cantwell Smith, Luc Steels, Bruce Sterling, Jozue Tanaka, John Tchalenko, Dave Tovee, John Tresch, Burhan Tufail, John Tresch, Catherine Wagner, Piers Wardle, Peter Weibel, CTR Wilson, John Wilkins, John Woodward, Charles Wynn-Williams.

Edited by Alfred Birnbaum
Conceived of and designed by Adam Lowe
Published by Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge UK, 2000
ISBN: 0907074782, 978-0907074786
118 pages

exhibition website

View online (Section 1; HTML articles)
View online (Section 2; HTML articles)
View online (Section 3; HTML articles)