What Is a Computer Program? Or, How I Liberate(d) Myself as a Computer User – Liesbeth De Mol (Lille)

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 together across disciplinary and other boundaries to turn around a number of fundamental problems we are facing in connection to “programs”. In that regard, the project is first of all a humanistic work: while programs have been interpreted before as an exemplification of cold, inhuman rationality, it is clear that more humanistic visions are possible. I present the project from a personal perspective and show how my version of PROGRAMme is deeply anchored in a more activist stance aimed at user liberations which, in my case, goes hand-in-hand with so-called academic nomadisms. I conclude with some concrete proposals for the future of the history and philosophy of computing.

This lecture is part of the 8th HaPoC Conference 2025 in Aachen.

If you would like to attend, please register with events@khk.rwth-aachen.de.