Computers as Abstract Objects

"[The] highly abstractive quality of computers makes it easy to introduce mathematics in the study of their theory--and has led some to the erroneous conclusion that, as a computer science emerges, it will necessarily be a mathematical rather than empirical science."

Herbert A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, Third Edition, MIT Press, p.18. (First edition published in 1969)

Comments

Unknown said…
Unrelated to the actual post, but I wanted to say I like the new layout (not sure when you changed).

Now you have two comments :)
1:31 PM
Alex said…
Thanks! I changed the layout when I updated to the new Google blog system.
7:05 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MuSA_RT 2.0

Image
The Music on the Spiral Array . Real Time (MuSA.RT) project started almost 20 years ago. My first collaboration with Elaine Chew , MuSA_RT applies music analysis algorithms rooted in her  Spiral Array model  of tonality, which also provides the 3D geometry for the interactive visualization space. The MuSA.RT project lasted many years, produced numerous publications, and various versions of the system featured in lectures and performances all around the world. The software produced for this project was a constantly evolving research prototype (not something to put in the hands of a general public user), and subject to contemporary technical limitations. A Mac App released in 2012, intended as companion software for the book  Mathematical and Computational Modeling of Tonality: Theory and Applications , Elaine Chew (2014) , made the system accessible to general users. MuSA_RT 2.0  is a universal iOS/iPadOS/macOS app that analyses the audio signal from a mic...
Read more

Priorities App 2.0

Image
Simply manage lists of prioritized items The second iteration of the Priorities App pushes further the minimalistic UX design and adds a new feature: lists of lists. I presented the motivation behind the app and the design of the first version in a previous post . Priorities App 2.0 is  available for download on the App Store . The home screen looks exactly the same as in the first iteration. The model is completely backward compatible, and users who do not need the lists of lists feature will not even be aware of it. This was a strong design requirement for 2.0. The new feature is the ability to define inclusion relationships between any one item and any number of other existing items. From a user perspective, this mechanism provides a way to organize items hierarchically. Technically, it only amounts to a display/navigation convenience, as the underlying model is still a single master list of items.  In practice an item can be a "subitem" of any existing item. Th...
Read more

Priorities App

Image
Simply manage a list of prioritized items With a little bit of free time on my hands, I decided to get up to date on how to make an iOS app from scratch in Swift and publish it in the App Store (as a paying App, which turned out to be an interesting experience in itself). This blog post is about the motivation behind the app and the design of the first version (well, technically version 1.2 - Download on the App Store! ). A list of prioritized items? I have been thinking for a long time about a simple app to facilitate my grocery/essentials shopping: I always buy the same basic items (milk, bread, cheese, tomatoes, chicken, yogurt, etc.), all I need to know when I am shopping is which items I will need again soon (or urgently). When I realize I will need something soon, I need a simple way to find the item (if already in the list) and put it back in the list of things to get. If it's a new item, I should be able to add it easily, and not have to add it again in the future...
Read more