This event is part of our winter term 2025/26 Lecture Series Digital Complexity: Beyond Human Understanding. If you would like to attend, please register with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Abstract: The lecture presents various historical and contemporary concepts of digitality that highlight the three characteristics of digital systems: discreteness, arbitrariness, and systematicity. In short, digitality is often understood as a triad that applies not only to modern electronic computers but also to analog sign and writing systems. The lecture examines this form of digital …

Abstract: In my presentation, I examine the digital culture of public administration in Switzerland from 1960 to 1990. The perspective on Switzerland is significant for the history of computing because the country lacks its own computer industry, but has an internationally well-connected computer science department at ETH Zurich. As I will demonstrate, numerous formal and …

Abstract: Digital complexity eludes human understanding not only because it is based on the synchronization of incommensurable systems, but also because each of these systems operates stochastically. We owe this insight to the “synthetic intelligence” (Brian Cantwell Smith) of machine learning models. An initially random variation of model assumptions enables the discovery and description of …

Abstract: Why are computational chemists so peculiar ? The history of their relationship with software brings an interesting case study to understand how software may shape scientific activity. We present four key moments in this history — from 1962 to 2024 — to illustrate how visions of openness and user agency have evolved. These include …

Abstract: The aim of this talk is to present the PROGRAMme project, a collective work amongst researchers from diverse disciplinary and ideological backgrounds who met for several years to work on the question "What is a computer program?". In that project we develop a research programme which assumes it is possible /and/ necessary to work …

Abstract: While the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Philosophy and Computers started its mission with community tech help and suggestions, the path proceeded through technique, practice, and application to philosophy. To explore interesting stages along the way, this talk identifies and follows features of office software through their effects and implications to emerging philosophical questions. …

This event is part of our winter term 2025/26 Lecture Series Digital Complexity: Beyond Human Understanding. If you would like to attend, please register with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.

Abstract: The assumption that economic, technological and scientific development is driven by technological determinism is widespread in politics, business, and society, as well as among scientists and engineers. A notable example of this belief is the current notion that advances in scientific knowledge are inextricably linked to the development of AI technology. Since the AI …