Convergences and divergences in the notion of computing
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52712/issn.1850-0013-732Keywords:
effective procedure, pancomputationalism, interpreters, universal machineAbstract
Tracking the genealogy of the idea of computing and elucidating its scope and limits is a much needed task that exceeds the mere exegesis. Despite the fact -or perhaps because of it- that this notion has become central in many disciplines, it is not clearly determined, it has no definite ontological status and it is constantly under suspicion and attacked from different fronts. In this article, we consider the confluence of ideas that in the 30s of the 20th Century rose to the notion of effective calculability and, on the following decade, to the construction of actual computers. Furthermore, we consider certain conceptual divergences that surfaced with the emergence of electronic computers and computationalism in the philosophy of mind, having important repercussions on the understanding of these artifacts and on the new discipline of computer science. Finally, we aim at understanding computing systems in order to introduce a new perspective on current debates, stressing the notion of program which although undoubtedly present in many of the original ideas, it has been unfairly forgotten.
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