Untitled - Synchron Wissenschaftsverlag der Autoren

Peter Bøgh Andersen, Frieder Nake
Computers and Signs
Prolegomena to a Semiotic Foundation
of Computing Science
Reihen|Digital Horizons
Computing science and information technology have matured to a point
that makes them indispensable for all strata of society. However, while
information technology is in great demand, its scientific base is still lacking
an encompassing fundament. Doubt has been voiced whether its subject
matter, concepts, methods, and results elevate computing science to
the rank of an independent scientific discipline. The first paradigm of
computer science is computability, just because the computer is the machine
for it. But with the mutation of the machine to a medium, interactivity
emerged as a second paradigm. Both are in need of a common
theoretical foundation. Such a foundation must cater for computability
as the instrumental principle, and for interactivity as the medial principle
of computers. Semiotics, as the general doctrine of signs, accommodates
algorithmic as well as interactive processes. To semiotics, computers appear
as tools and as media. Andersen and Nake extend Charles S.
Peirce’s concept of sign to an algorithmic sign. Their book introduces this
innovation as a unifying perspective of the core and some applications of
computing science in the context of culture. Andersen has published the
first wide-ranging book on computer semiotics in 1990. Nake is one of the
pioneers of computer art.
From the contents
Sign and semiosis • The algorithmic sign •
Computing systems as signs • A brief history
of semiotic approaches to computing • What
computers do: computing as semiosis •
What programmers do: programming as
semiosis • The pragmatic triangle: change,
context, and effect • Nine fundamental semiotic
processes • What users do: interacting
as semiosis • Using a software system • Analyzing
the immediate object • Interactive
styles of software systems • Topics in computing
science • Computer architecture: history
and semiosis • Bootstrapping • Types of
signs in programming • Language types •
Modeling • Reification • Towards a semiotic
algebra
DIGITAL HORIZONS 3
2007, ca. 300 Seiten
Brosch., ca. € 34,80
ISBN 978-3-935025-19-5
Synchron Programm 27