The mathematical genius Alan Turing, well known for his crucial wartime role in breaking the ENIGMA code, was the first to conceive of the fundamental principle of the modern computer. This text contains first hand accounts by Turing and by the pioneers of computing who worked with him on his revolutionary design for an electronic computing machine - his Automatic Computing Engine ('ACE').

It has been argued that the Internet and social media increase the number of available viewpoints, perspectives, ideas and opinions available, leading to a very diverse pool of information. However, critics have argued that algorithms used by search engines, social networking platforms and other large online intermediaries actually decrease information diversity by forming so-called “filter bubbles”. This may form a serious threat to our democracies. In response to this threat others have developed algorithms and digital tools to combat filter bubbles. (...) This paper first provides examples of different software designs that try to break filter bubbles. Secondly, we show how norms required by two democracy models dominate the tools that are developed to fight the filter bubbles, while norms of other models are completely missing in the tools. The paper in conclusion argues that democracy itself is a contested concept and points to a variety of norms. Designers of diversity enhancing tools must thus be exposed to diverse conceptions of democracy. (shrink)

The modeling of the Ψ-organ requires tools that neither medicine nor psychoanalysis had at their disposal a hundred years ago. Namely, the laws and methods of contemporary information engineering, the extended Mealy theory, the layer and abstraction models. It goes without saying that the various experts have to overcome enormous challenges. It must be clear that only a team of experts in psychoanalysis, neurology, computer technology, and computer science can overcome them, as was the case in the SiMA project. (...) The authors consider solo developments to be hubris. (shrink)

This electronic document serves as a guide on how to get a LAMP stack running on a Google Compute Engine virtual machine instance running Debian.

Massive Open Online Course is a new online education model that provides new opportunities and challenges for the development and reform of teaching in colleges and universities. This paper first builds a MOOC-based model of influencing factors of blended learning adaptability. Through investigation and research, it is found that the six influencing factors all have different ways and different degrees of influence on learning adaptability. Among them, learning motivation has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability, and learning self-efficacy (...) not only has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability but also has an indirect impact on learning adaptability through learning motivation. Teacher teaching has indirect effects on learning adaptability through learning self-efficacy, learning motivation, and learning support. Learning support not only has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability but also has an indirect impact on learning adaptability through learning motivation. MOOC platform has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability. The quality of course content has a direct and significant impact on learning adaptability through the MOOC platform and learning motivation. The creative results of this research are mainly embodied in the combination of theory and practice, exploring and forming related results based on MOOC-based college students’ learning adaptability. According to the MOOC-based learning-adaptive intervention model, teaching practice is carried out to verify the effect of the intervention model from two aspects of student procedural performance and result performance. Finally, in view of the problems existing in traditional computer teaching in colleges and universities, combined with the design ideas and basic characteristics of MOOC, the teaching mode reform of computer courses is analyzed and discussed, and a MOOC-based computer engineering education teaching mode is proposed. (shrink)

Taking a Foucauldian framework as its point of departure, this paper discusses how transnational discourses of knowledge and learning operate in the profession of computer engineering and form a certain logic through which modes of being an engineer are regulated. Both the knowledge domain of computer engineering and its related labour market is heavily internationalised and characterised by a general focus on universalism and standardisation. Moreover, rapid shifts in technologies and institutional arrangements contribute to an embracement of more (...) wide-ranging discourses related to lifelong learning and the enterprising self. Thus, dominant discourses of knowledge and learning within this profession reflect processes of globalisation and take a transnational character. The paper discusses how the discourses in play constitute mechanisms of governmentality that present certain expectations to professionals and shape their energies, efforts and desires in certain directions. In order to be influential, however, the discourses depend on individuals who take up the subject positions offered and enact them in locally relevant and partially creative ways. Thus, careful analyses of the discourses in specific knowledge communities, as well as of their interrelated subject positions, may enhance our understanding of the more epistemic dimensions of globalisation and how these come to influence the imaginations of individuals as ‘citizens of the world.’. (shrink)

The Language of Thought program has a suicidal edge. Jerry Fodor, of all people, has argued that although LOT will likely succeed in explaining modular processes, it will fail to explain the central system, a subsystem in the brain in which information from the different sense modalities is integrated, conscious deliberation occurs, and behavior is planned. A fundamental characteristic of the central system is that it is “informationally unencapsulated” -- its operations can draw from information from any cognitive domain. The (...) domain general nature of the central system is key to human reasoning; our ability to connect apparently unrelated concepts enables the creativity and flexibility of human thought, as does our ability to integrate material across sensory divides. The central system is the holy grail of cognitive science: understanding higher cognitive function is crucial to grasping how humans reach their highest intellectual achievements. But according to Fodor, the founding father of the LOT program and the related Computational Theory of Mind (CTM), the holy grail is out of reach: the central system is likely to be non-computational (Fodor 1983, 2000, 2008). Cognitive scientists working on higher cognitive function should abandon their efforts. Research should be limited to the modules, which for Fodor rest at the sensory periphery (2000).1 Cognitive scientists who work in the symbol processing tradition outside of philosophy would reject this pessimism, but ironically, within philosophy itself, this pessimistic streak has been very influential, most likely because it comes from the most well-known proponent of LOT and CTM. Indeed, pessimism about centrality has become assimilated into the mainstream conception of LOT. (Herein, I refer to a LOT that appeals to pessimism about centrality as the “standard LOT”). I imagine this makes the standard LOT unattractive to those philosophers with a more optimistic approach to what cognitive science can achieve.. (shrink)

This book addresses key conceptual issues relating to the modern scientific and engineering use of computer simulations. It analyses a broad set of questions, from the nature of computer simulations to their epistemological power, including the many scientific, social and ethics implications of using computer simulations. The book is written in an easily accessible narrative, one that weaves together philosophical questions and scientific technicalities. It will thus appeal equally to all academic scientists, engineers, and researchers in industry interested in (...) questions related to the general practice of computer simulations. (shrink)

This paper addresses the methodological problem of analysing what it is to explain observed behaviours of engineered computing systems, focusing on the crucial role that abstraction and idealization play in explanations of both correct and incorrect BECS. First, it is argued that an understanding of explanatory requests about observed miscomputations crucially involves reference to the rich background afforded by hierarchies of functional specifications. Second, many explanations concerning incorrect BECS are found to abstract away from descriptions of physical components and (...) processes of computing systems that one finds below the logic circuit and gate layer of functional specification hierarchies. Third, model-based explanations of both correct and incorrect BECS that are provided in the framework of formal verification methods often involve idealizations. Moreover, a distinction between restrictive and permissive idealizations is introduced and their roles in BECS explanations are analysed. (shrink)

Brillouin sees order as generated by tapping negentropy sources existing upstream, while Prigogine sees it as generated by dumping entropy downstream. Joining both ideas yields a picture of the computer closely paralleling that of Carnot's heat engine. The difference is that the one delivers information and the other, work. In either case the irretrievable (that is, by definition) loss occurs at the last step. Bennett and Landauer very rightly emphasize this, but their fixation on the condenser blinds them to the (...) necessity of the furnace; thus they are led to believe in the possibility of “perpetual duplication of the second kind,” which Brillouin explicitly denies. (shrink)

Title Mediumless Computation: Why the Universe's PR–ER–LE Engine Defies Modern Computer Architecture -/- Authors Jia, Baolong (贾宝龙) -/- Description (English) This paper demonstrates that the "computation" performed by the universe via PR–ER–LE (Paradoxical Recursion, Entity–Relation, Lazy Evaluation) is fundamentally and irreducibly different from computation as implemented on modern hardware. We identify three precise points of architectural incompatibility and prove each as a theorem: -/- Anti-GPU (Anti-SIMD Theorem): PR generates genuinely distinct branching at every state — no two computational "threads" execute (...) the same instruction. GPU SIMD parallelism, which requires instruction homogeneity, provides zero speedup. The probability of branch convergence decays exponentially: Pr[convergence] ≤ 2^{−εt}. -/- Anti-Multi-Core (Anti-Partition Theorem): ER couples every state to every other through relational composition. Any partition of the state space produces cross-boundary relations that grow without bound, making independent partitioning into cores impossible. Adding cores yields diminishing and eventually negative returns. -/- Anti-Cache (Anti-Locality Theorem): LE guarantees that the next state is irreducibly unpredictable — no computable predictor beats random guessing. Both temporal and spatial locality assumptions underlying cache hierarchies are violated at every step. -/- We further prove a No Efficient Simulation Theorem: any deterministic machine simulating PR–ER–LE dynamics requires exponential time 2^{εt−c} for t-step simulation. This provides a mathematical argument against the simulation hypothesis. -/- The paper introduces the concept of "mediumless computation" — ontological generation that requires no substrate, clock, memory hierarchy, or instruction set — and discusses implications for AI (GPU-based systems cannot achieve PR–ER–LE consciousness), physics simulation (domain decomposition faces fundamental limits), and the "universe as computer" metaphor (the universe does not compute; it generates). -/- 简介(中文) 本文论证,宇宙通过PR–ER–LE(悖论递归、实体–关系、惰性求值)执行的"计算"与现代硬件上实现的计算具有根本性的、不可约的差异。我们精确识别三个架构不兼容点并逐一证明: -/- 反GPU(反SIMD定理): PR在每个状态产生真正不同的分支——没有两个线程执行相同指令。GPU的SIMD并行提供零加速。分支汇聚概率指数衰减。 -/- 反多核(反分割定理): ER通过关系复合将每个状态与所有其他状态耦合。任何分割都产生无界增长的跨边界关系,使独立分核不可能。增加核心带来递减乃至负收益。 -/- 反缓存(反局部性定理): LE保证下一状态不可消除地不可预测——没有可计算预测器优于随机猜测。时间和空间局部性假设在每步都被违反。 -/- 进一步证明无高效模拟定理:任何确定性机器模拟PR–ER–LE动力学需要指数时间。这为反对模拟假说提供了数学论据。 -/- 论文引入"无介质计算"概念——不需要基底、时钟、存储层次或指令集的本体论生成——并讨论对AI、物理模拟和"宇宙即计算机"隐喻的启示。 -/- Keywords mediumless computation, PR-ER-LE, anti-GPU, anti-SIMD, anti-multi-core, anti-cache, non-determinism, branching dynamics, Kolmogorov complexity, simulation hypothesis, ontological generation, computer architecture, GPU incompatibility, JiaBaolong Axiom -/- 中文关键词 无介质计算, PR-ER-LE, 反GPU, 反SIMD, 反多核, 反缓存, 非确定性, 分支动力学, 柯尔莫哥洛夫复杂度, 模拟假说, 本体论生成, 计算机体系结构, 贾宝龙公理. (shrink)

Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Test (AMCAT) is a computer adaptive test used widely in India to assess the employability skill level of engineering students. Prefinal and final year students belonging to different streams take up this online test. The present study investigates the perception of students regarding the conduct of AMCAT. Furthermore, the study explores the benefits that they obtain through the test. The comparison is made among the students belonging to the two different streams, engineering and computer (...) science. The conclusion drawn facilitates the readers to understand the utility of AMCAT. (shrink)

At a conference, two engineering professors and a philosophy professor discussed the teaching of ethics in engineering and computer science. The panelists considered the integration of material on ethics into technical courses, the role of ethical theory in teaching applied ethics, the relationship between cases and codes of ethics, the enlisting of support of engineering faculty, the background needed to teach ethics, and the assessment of student outcomes. Several audience members contributed comments, particularly on teaching ethical theory (...) and on student assessment. (shrink)

The widespread use of online search engines to answer the general public’s needs for information has raised concerns about possible biases and the emerging of a ‘filter bubble’ in which users are isolated from attitude-discordant messages. Research is split between approaches that largely focus on the intrinsic limitations of search engines and approaches that investigate user search behavior. This work evaluates the findings and limitations of both approaches and advances a theoretical framework for empirical investigations of cognitive biases in online (...) search activities about health-related topics. We aim to investigate the interaction between the user and the search engine as a whole. Online search activity about health-related topics is considered as a hypothesis-testing process. Two questions emerge: whether the retrieved information provided by the search engines are fit to fulfill their role as evidence, and whether the use of this information by users is cognitively and epistemologically valid and unbiased. (shrink)

The integration of computer science, biology, and engineering has resulted in the emergence of rapidly growing interdisciplinary fields such as bioinformatics, bioengineering, DNA computing, and systems and synthetic biology. Ideas derived from computer science and engineering can provide innovative solutions to biological problems and advance research in new directions. Although interdisciplinary research has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, the scientists contributing to these efforts largely remain specialists in their original disciplines and are not fully capable of (...) covering the many facets of multidisciplinary problems, which impedes the development of truly integrated solutions. It would be .. (shrink)

The existing computer technology is used to conduct an in-depth study and analysis of drilling waste treatment, and the results are analyzed by computer simulation optimization algorithms. Based on the system theory, we define the research system, combine the unique characteristics of the technological innovation mechanism of drilling waste treatment, and use the internal and external factors affecting the technological innovation dynamics of drilling waste treatment, such as drilling waste treatment capacity, from the current actual situation. On this basis, factor (...) analysis is used to analyze the factors affecting technological innovation dynamics from both internal and external aspects of the system, establish a system model of technological innovation dynamics of drilling waste disposal, and give the initial values of the simulation model. This will reduce the pollution of the environment and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises. Drilling waste treatment technology is getting increased attention, but at this stage, there is no suitable technology innovation mechanism for drilling waste treatment. Through the simulation trend chart obtained by sensitivity analysis, the key factors in the system are found, and the innovation power mechanism of drilling waste treatment technology is constructed, which provides a basis for the formulation of enterprise technological innovation strategies and the development of technological innovation activities. Research on the dynamic mechanism of drilling waste treatment technology innovation explores a waste treatment mechanism suitable for the drilling industry, so as to promote the steady development of the drilling industry and at the same time provide theoretical support for the treatment of drilling engineering waste. (shrink)

Safe Safety arguments are key components in a safety case. Too often, safety arguments are constructed without proper reasoning. To address this, we argue that informal logic argument schemes have important roles to play in safety argument construction and reviewing process. Ten commonly used reasoning schemes in computer system safety domain are proposed. The role of informal logic dialogue games in computer system safety arguments reviewing is also discussed and the intended work in this area is proposed. It is anticipated (...) that this work will contribute toward the development of computer system safety arguments, and help to move forward the interplay between research in informal logic and research in computer system safety engineering. (shrink)

The issue of proper functioning of operative computing and the utility of program verification, both in general and of specific methods, has been discussed a lot. In many of those discussions, attempts have been made to take mathematics as a model of knowledge and certitude achieving, and accordingly infer about the suitable ways to handle computing. I shortly review three approaches to the subject, and then take a stance by considering social factors which affect the epistemic status of (...) both mathematics and computing. I use the analogy between mathematics and computing in reverse—that is to say, I consider operative computing as a form of making mathematics, and so attempt to learn from computing to mathematics in general. I conclude that mathematics engineering is a field to be both developed for practical improvement of doing mathematics and taken into consideration while philosophizing about mathematics as well. (shrink)

Computer simulations are widely used for surrogative reasoning in scientific research. They also play a crucial role in engineering, more specifically in the design of new robotic systems, yet the nature of this role has been little discussed so far in the philosophy of technology literature. The main claim made in this article is that the notion of surrogative reasoning is central to understanding how computer simulations can serve the purpose of designing new robots. More specifically, it is argued (...) that computer simulations can support two forms of surrogative reasoning, which are called model-oriented and prediction-oriented, whose inferential structure is reconstructed to some extent. And it is argued that, when computer simulations are used to design new robots, they are distinctively used in the model-oriented way. By unravelling the structure of the computer simulation-supported methods adopted in robotic design, this article may contribute to a finer-grained understanding of the epistemic processes involved in technological research. (shrink)

What we have learnt in the last six or seven decades about virtual machinery, as a result of a great deal of science and technology, enables us to offer Darwin a new defence against critics who argued that only physical form, not mental capabilities and consciousness could be products of evolution by natural selection. The defence compares the mental phenomena mentioned by Darwin’s opponents with contents of virtual machinery in computing systems. Objects, states, events, and processes in virtual machinery (...) which we have only recently learnt how to design and build, and could not even have been thought about in Darwin’s time, can interact with the physical machinery in which they are implemented, without being identical with their physical implementation, nor mere aggregates of physical structures and processes. The existence of various kinds of virtual machinery (including both “platform” virtual machines that can host other virtual machines, e.g. operating systems, and “application” virtual machines, e.g. spelling checkers, and computer games) depends on complex webs of causal connections involving hardware and software structures, events and processes, where the specification of such causal webs requires concepts that cannot be defined in terms of concepts of the physical sciences. That indefinability, plus the possibility of various kinds of self-monitoring within virtual machinery, seems to explain some of the allegedly mysterious and irreducible features of consciousness that motivated Darwin’s critics and also more recent philosophers criticising AI. There are consequences for philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and robotics. (shrink)

The birth, growth, stabilization and subsequent understanding of a new field of practical and theoretical enquiry is always a conceptual process including several typologies of events, phenomena an...

BackgroundThe current paper follows up on the results of an exploratory quantitative analysis that compared the publication and citation records of men and women researchers affiliated with the Faculty of Computing and Engineering at Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland. Quantitative analysis of publications between 2013 and 2018 showed that women researchers had fewer publications, received fewer citations per person, and participated less often in international collaborations. Given the significance of publications for pursuing an academic career, we used (...) qualitative methods to understand these differences and explore factors that, according to women researchers, have contributed to this disparity.MethodsSixteen women researchers from DCU’s Faculty of Computing and Engineering were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Once interviews were transcribed and anonymised, they were coded by both authors in two rounds using an inductive approach.ResultsInterviewed women believed that their opportunities for research engagement and research funding, collaborations, publications and promotions are negatively impacted by gender roles, implicit gender biases, their own high professional standards, family responsibilities, nationality and negative perceptions of their expertise and accomplishments.ConclusionsOur study has found that women in DCU’s Faculty of Computing and Engineering face challenges that, according to those interviewed, negatively affect their engagement in various research activities, and, therefore, have contributed to their lower publication record. We suggest that while affirmative programmes aiming to correct disparities are necessary, they are more likely to improve organisational culture if they are implemented in parallel with bottom-up initiatives that engage all parties, including men researchers and non-academic partners, to inform and sensitise them about the significance of gender equity. (shrink)

Experimentation represents today a ‘hot’ topic in computing. If experiments made with the support of computers, such as computer simulations, have received increasing attention from philosophers of science and technology, questions such as “what does it mean to do experiments in computer science and engineering and what are their benefits?” emerged only recently as central in the debate over the disciplinary status of the discipline. In this work we aim at showing, also by means of paradigmatic examples, how (...) the traditional notion of controlled experiment should be revised to take into account a part of the experimental practice in computing along the lines of experimentation as exploration. Taking inspiration from the discussion on exploratory experimentation in the philosophy of science—experimentation that is not theory-driven—we advance the idea of explorative experiments that, although not new, can contribute to enlarge the debate about the nature and role of experimental methods in computing. In order to further refine this concept we recast explorative experiments as socio-technical experiments, that test new technologies in their socio-technical contexts. We suggest that, when experiments are explorative, control should be intended in a posteriori form, in opposition to the a priori form that usually takes place in traditional experimental contexts. (shrink)

The computer engineers who refer to the education of computers do not have a definite idea of education and do not bother to justify the fuzzy ones to which they allude. Hence, they logically cannot specify the features a computer must have in order to be educable. This paper puts forth a non-standard, but not arbitrary, concept of education that determines such traits. The proposed concept is derived from the idea of education embedded in modern standard-English discourse. Because the standard (...) concept entails that an educable entity must be capable of consciousness and voluntary action, it cannot apply to computers. If, therefore, one is to have an idea of educable computers, one must drop the feature of consciousness and omit or modify that of voluntariness. The advanced concept leaves out consciousness, alters the ordinary notion of voluntariness, but keeps in tact the other criteria of the standard idea. Thereby, it provides continuity between those who talk about education in modern ordinary English and those who talk about it in the world of artificial intelligence. (shrink)

Over the past 30 years, computer engineering has developed a lot. Currently, computer and software applications have a central role in business, medicine, security, communications, industry, education, and everyday life. Software developers, peoples who manage computer networks, data security analysts can do well, but they also have the potential to cause suffering and harm to the clients or ordinary peoples, willingly or not. For this reason, IT activities must be regulated by specific laws. From the beginning, we argue that (...) the law is not the same thing as ethics, even if both promote the good. Certain ethical principles can be strengthened by law. In the field of computer science and technology, can exists theft, privacy violations, violence and harassment. To combat and punish such actions and behaviors, law is needed. But is software engineering a profession? If so, are there codes of professional ethics whereby specialists in the field can regulate their professional activity, as is the case, for example, in areas such as justice or medicine? In relation with that, Gibbs and Ford have identified 8 components of a professional infrastructure. Some of that is: initial vocational training, professional accreditation, licensing, continuous vocational training, the existence of code of ethics.. With the fact that software engineering is a profession, in this article we present the main principles of behavior. The principles are not legally binding. This are grouped by interest categories depending on who or what is involved in the interaction with software engineering. (shrink)

In this paper, we address the question of what current computers are from the point of view of human-computer interaction. In the early days of computing, the Turing machine (TM) has been the cornerstone of the understanding of computers. The TM defines what can be computed and how computation can be carried out. However, in the last decades, computers have evolved and increasingly become interactive systems, reacting in real-time to external events in an ongoing loop. We argue that the (...) TM does not provide a mechanistic explanation for interactive computing. The reason is that the fundamental phenomena relevant to interactive computing are out of the scope of classical computability theory. Part of the explanatory power of the TM relies on what we propose to call an execution model. An execution model belongs to a level of abstraction where it is possible to describe both the functional architecture and the execution in mechanistic terms. An updated execution model is warranted to provide the minimal mechanistic description for interactive computation as a counterpart of what the TM could explain regarding Church-Turing computation. It would support an explanation of the ubiquitous computing devices we know - those interacting with humans, e.g., through digital interfaces. We show that such a model is not available within interactive models of computation and that relevant abstractions and concerns are available in computer engineering but need to be identified and gathered. To fill this void, we propose to reflect on the level of abstraction required to support the mechanistic description of an interactive execution and propose some preliminary requirements. (shrink)

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